Banffanalia 2008: Photo Report on TEC
booth at the
The Banffanaliates Front Row L-R: Barb Schweger, Prairie-NWT Region Chair Nat Rutter, Lynn Danaher (Compass Symposium hostess), Canadian Communications Director Jason Schoonover, Laurel Archer, Alastair Linn. Back Row: Marcel Robischon (Western European), Barry & Amanda Glickman, Andrew Gregg. MIA Simon Donato (yes, of the Fossett search), John Pollack & Murray Larson
For the seventh year regional members of
TEC operated a promotional booth.
I’m delighted to report that awareness of and interest in the Club is up notably. Traffic is also up and Saturday—the big day—action at the booth was virtually continuous.
Twelve members from four chapters chipped in—from the Canuck, Pacific Northwest (Lynn Danaher), Rocky Mountain (Jim) and Western European with Marcel Robischon flying in specifically from Germany for the event. It’s blossomed into an EC mini-summit! The number left generous time to explore displays, attend film showings, National Geographic grant seminars, etc. And what a venue:
Banff Avenue looking the other way, to the
Canada's premier National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site, was founded in 1886 when the Canadian Pacific
Railway punched through on its way to
The CPR immediately built the iconic Canadian Banff Springs
Hotel. Up on the slope behind are the
famous
It's the famous
The Club standup display to the right, although missing
half the panels and held together by duct tape and good luck, still does its
duty. It was decided between Jeff Stolzer and Jim and I last year that we may
as well keep it because of its decrepit condition. The hardbacked display panels are from the
excellent brochure Kathryn Kiplinger sponsored,
Adele Hammond so creatively designed and Avery Russell so ably served as
project director on. The flag is the Canuck EC flag designed and funded by
Books and Club literature form the table display. Each year I invite Canuck members to send me
their new books (and they’re recycled). We use the draw bin to reel ‘em
in. Six members (five attending) donated their books for draws: Climate Change and Landscape in the Canadian
Rockies, Nat Rutter; Patagonia
Through the Eyes of Darwin, Amanda and Barry Glickman; Northern Saskatchewan Canoe Trips, Laurel Archer; Dinosaur Sex, Michael Brookfield; As Told at. . . ., George Plimpton (a
The
updated brochure continues to be the most powerful weapon in our
arsenal and these are given out judiciously because of cost. Visitors are invariably impressed
by the number of authors on hand, and more impressed when shown photos of the
Clubhouse itself, and then the Who’s Who
making up our membership, past and present. Many thanks to Dan Bennett for his
generosity in shipping out, for handouts, ECAD 2008 ballcaps (also to
give us a group identity), luggage tags, Journals,
Logs and EC tote bags to put them in. To the tote bags we added
Outpost magazine (the bunch above
saved from leftovers last year), a free subscription
of which is given to each Canuck member. Outpost
is
The books
receiving the most attention this year were
Jeff Fuch’s The Ancient Tea Horse Road:
Travels with the Last of the Himalayan Muleteers,
and, I’m embarrassed to say, Opium Dream,
an adventure-thriller of mine. (I think
it attracted attention because of the yellow cover which makes it stick out like
a fire engine.) A New Horned Dinosaur
from an Upper Cretaceous Bone Bed in Alberta
Two large rooms hold most of the display booths, approximately 20 each.
Most promote outdoor themes from kayak tours to adventure travel to equipment. A lot goes on at the festival: “. . . .speakers, seminars, workshops, debates, readings, lectures, interviews, live music, yoga, photo exhibitions, an art and craft sale, book signings, a book fair, yoga classes. . . .” so proclaims the literature.
Booths also line the wide hallways in front of the theatres. I estimate there’s 60 in toto.
The bookseller on the right four down is one of my publishers, Rocky Mountain House’s Don Gorman, who did a class act on Adventurous Dreams, Adventurous Lives. Alas, it didn’t win the festival award—Sid Marty’s The Black Grizzly of Whiskey Creek in the right foreground did (and that’s Sid signing a copy on the left), but Don informed me that Readers Digest are going to excerpt from it. Coincidentally, across from Don is-soon-to-be new member Wayne Sawchuk.
Taking a break from the booth to play author. I had the good luck to sit next to Wayne (that’s Sid next to him), a major conservationist from British Columbia who spends each and all summer on horseback exploring the huge Muskwa-Kechika Management Area along the spine of the upper Rockies which he was instrumental in having protected. Expect his application, with sponsorship from Dwayne Harty. I’m confident at least two memberships will spring from this year’s event—but the value in raising our profile and just giving another excuse for explorers to cluster is reason enough. It’s a fun holiday, really, that I look forward to each year.
If you want to look like a midget, have your pictures taken
next to 6'7" doc maker Andrew Gregg here following the hallowed tradition
of presenting his sponsor with a bottle of Scotch (or reasonable facsimile thereof)
which, in traditional fashion, we
cracked, toasted and imbibed together.
With the Oban Laurel Archer also forced down my throat, I’m afraid my next sponsorship will be into AA. . . . I sure know how to pick ‘em though: there’s
263 entries from 38 countries in the film festival—and ANDREW NAILED THE GRAND PRIZE!
It was for The Last Nomads, the story of
Here's an example of the quality of explorers we're
recruiting at
Our booth serves as a gathering post. Another EC
filmmaker, Michael “Charlie” Brown, also dropped by, and informed me that
his Return to Everest IMAX feature
starring his Spanish butterfly, Araceli Segarra, will wrap after filling in
a few holes in March back in the Solo-Khumbu and should be in IMAXs in 2010.
Warren MacDonald was also rolling around, and although I didn’t see 7 summits
quest pioneer
Maria Coffey
had her own booth promoting Explorers of
the Infinite, and was MIA on Friday—but for
good reason: she was in
National Geographic is a major sponsor and holds grant seminars each morning at 8:00, at which a panel of NG brass and brassettes inform what they’re looking for, how to apply, and field a Q&A. Sixty turned out for this one and the free coffee, OJ and pastries. They also offer a bank of computers for complimentary use by media.
Prairie-NWT Chair Nat Rutter, left middle blue sweater, with
wife Marie opposite, hosting a fete Saturday evening at The Three Ravens bar on
campus. The ever ebullient
We shared two 1BR suites on campus, with many members rolling out mattresses and sleeping bags. We also shared dinners. Here Barry and Amanda hosted with jumbo shrimp slumgullion.
Sunday
night National Geographic hosted the
usual wrap bash for participants at the fabulous party venue on campus. Sorry, no pictures. Cameras are frowned upon.
What goes on in
It was at the bash that Andrew informed us of his big win, the announcement having been made just prior. He was one happy paddler, I’ll tell ya, and we were all delighted for him.
* * *
Banffanalia 2008 was a fabulous time, a great success, and I thank everyone who participated. And all this for less than a hundred bucks each for shared accomo and booth costs for a three-day world class event at a world class location with world class company....
Next year I hope to increase participation by the
I’ve prepped
a mini-report for the Log.
Finally, the rallying cry of
the Banffanalia: DON’T EAT THE POTATO SALAD! (If you don’t know why, ask
Cheers – Jason
ComCzar
The Canuck Chapter