I've always wanted to go to a CAM convention but they are never very convenient to get to. There are no major airports in the city they hold them so I would be stuck flying to Toronto, renting a car and then driving for a few hours.

I hope they move this convention around. Have it in different cities in Canada.

You know what Mike? I second that motion!!! It would be nice to have it in a more accessible location... Montreal maybe? ;-)

Have a nice day!

Louis Jutras

Kitchener is about 1.5 hours from Toronto. The drive isn't too bad.

I went to the convention last year for the first time, and it was fantastic.

Maybe having a forum like this would allow for people to post messages asking about sharing rides from Toronto, etc for things like this.

However - would I go to Montreal for CAM - you bet! It's a great city.

I have been to both CAM conventions and they are just wonderful. Kitchener offers a less expensive venue than Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton or Vancouver. The present hotel has many positives as does the theatre for the closing show. I would doubt that the cost could be duplicated elsewhere. As well, a big part of the convention is the dealers and frankly this may be a big problem if the convention was to be re-located to a different locale every 2 years.

As for a ride from the Toronto airport to Kitchener and return, I am certain that there are many in attendance who would be glad to assist.

Marc Linett aka Renaldi

Hmm, Montreal would be nice. Im glad the Café took my advise to put a CAM forum on here along with the other club forums.

Ok, apparently they didn't take MY advise, they took someone elses. Ben's to be exact. This forum will definatley be one of my "Most visited"
-Cory.

Kitchener does now have an "International" airport (barely international, but still). Domestic flights from Montreal do land here. Look for "Waterloo International (snicker) Airport.

Max

If CAM wants to grow as an orginzation, it will have to consider other cities for it's convention.

Repeating the same location every year will mean folks will simply stop going. Conferences change cities each year for that very reason.

Kitchener/Waterloo is a great town, but depending on what day and time you arrive at Pearson, that drive can easily turn into a 3 or 4 hour nightmare.
For delegates to feel confident and comfortable, the venue shouldn't be more than 45 minutes from a major airport.

In addition, in order to be taken seriously as a National organization, you MUST consider holding the conference in Vancouver/Calgary/Edmonton/Victoria at least once every three or four years.
Organizations like CAM which desire to be National in scope have to undertake actions that demonstrate that they are truly representing all magicians in Canada, not just magicians who live in central Canada.

Holding the conference only in Ontario won't do this.

Also, being a National organization requires that CAM be fully bilingual, something that's not yet a reality.

One more vote for moving it about. I remember having a really good time at an IBM convention in Montreal a number of years ago. (We also had fun at CAM in Kitchener too.)

Rob

I live in Calgary, and I've been to CAM twice.

Travel there is no biggie. Just fly into Toronto, then take a shuttle to Kitchener. Simple and easy. No worse than taking a shuttle from the airport to downtown Toronto during rush hour. Reasonably priced, even if you book a shuttle just for yourself.

Having said that, I've been to many professional (non-magic) conferences in my day, and CAM is a large enough group that they should be able to negotiate good rates in other cities just like these other small conference groups do.

Heck, a year ago my university students arranged a 2 day conference for 100 or so students that was hosted at the Palliser (a 5 star hotel) in Calgary. If they could get a decent rate that students could afford there, I would imagine that CAM could manage to do something similar.

I don't mean to criticise. The CAM meetings have been great. But I must admit that I am getting a lttle tired of the Kitchener venue myself.

Conferences by their very nature need to grow in order to survive.
With a finite pool of "Canadian magicians" the venue of Kitchener/Waterloo will grow old very soon, and folks will simply drop out of attending.

Considering conferences are the major source of funds for most not-for-profits, this is not a healthy attitude to maintain.

As a personal example, upon discovering that the conference is repeatedly held in Kitchener, I choose not to join CAM based on the fact that the scope of the orginzation currently seems far to small to make membership something I would seriously consider.

This may sound silly, but as a member of the IBM for more than 13 years and a member of the FCM for the past 3 years, I wasn't evern aware of the CAM. How do I find out where the conventions are and when?

Try http://canadianassociationofmagicians.com

:)

Howdy,

I loved visiting Kitchener and getting there was a bit of an issue but not as bad as say, Abbott's! The theatre was excellent and the hotel was just the right size. I am from BC and making the trip was wellworth the effort. I would do it again. In fact I will! I would however love to see it move once in awhile to another location on the West and East coast. A trip to Calgary or Halifax would be a blast too.

Cheers,

Shawn Farquhar
2nd Recipient of the Canadian Magician of the Year
all around nice guy

No offence whatsoever, but I don't see this conference growing old and dying soon. I attended last year and it was great. There were a number of fantastic lecturers/performers who attended (Martin Nash, Shoot Ogawa, Jay Sankey, Rocco, etc) to name but a few, as well as some pretty top notch guests, vendors, etc (David Ben, Romaine, Mike Powers, etc). Two years before they had guests and lecturers of a similar calibre.

You don't have to be in the big city to host a good weekend long convention. You can drastically cut your costs by staying out of the big city of Toronto, as others may have mentioned. CAM also arranged for many of the lecturers & performers to be picked up by folks already coming in from Toronto which was a good move.

Most folks who are into a hobby are often willing to go quite out of their way to feed their obsession.

I'm certainly not saying it shouldn't be moved ever, but I do think it could remain in Kitchener and still be successful. And I'd certainly travel to get to a conference like this.

But maybe I'm just saying all this because I live one town over from Kitchener...heh.

The convention has moved once. It was held in Waterloo once. I'd like to see it move to Cambridge or maybe even New Hamburg.

If I lived in Toronto, I'd go every year as well, and I'd be pleased that it was so close and inexpensive to get to.

Are you guys joking...... hmmmmm let's see here to hve a CAM convention..... oh I know how about..... Of course it should be in Toronto. Any other city would be out of the way.

Hello Everyone,

I think that instead of complaining about having a convention in a different area, we should be grateful for its existence in the first place. It's only an hour from Toronto, which is Canada's busiest airports. Maybe it's just me, but I always saw it as rude to look a gift horse in the mouth. But, if someone is willing to be the correspondant, that is fine. My only problem is people complaining without doing anything or proposing plans.

Ben

Ben:

If you read my post again, you will see that my comments were not intended as a complaint, rather as a joke (New Hamburg?!).

Joan does the work, Joan gets to decide where the convention sits. Make no mistake, it is a lot of work!

We could be like Colon, since CAM happens every two years, maybe a semi-Colon.

Max