Invertebrates In Captivity Conference Submitted by Zane Greathouse
Photos from the Event
IBBA Teamwork To Prepare For The Meeting by Dale McClung

Invertebrates In Captivity Conference
Submitted by Zane Greathouse

So why did the butterfly farmer cross the country to spend a week of his summer vacation in the desert? To represent the IBBA at the Invertebrates in Captivity Conference (IICC).

Why We Were There: The IICC represents an excellent opportunity for the IBBA to reach out to a diverse group of professionals who can be our allies when dealing with political issues. Some of these people and groups have at times stated their opposition to the IBBA and its goals. Our feeling is that we have much more in common with them than they realize. We need to share our message, our story with them. The IICC is a meeting place for butterfly exhibitors (customers for the butterflies that our members produce) and butterfly farmers. Our hope is that we will be able to find new markets for our members and broaden our membership base. We wanted to let farmers know how the IBBA can assist them and make sure that they learned of our upcoming conference in California.

The Set Up: Maggie and Zane Greathouse traveled to southeast Arizona to attend this year's IICC (27 July - 31 July 2005). Upon their arrival they found all of the materials that had been previously shipped to the conference site and set up the IBBA's exhibit in the exhibition hall. The display board was beautiful and professional. Jon Timko (with some input from Dale and others) did a wonderful job. The display board was informative, interesting, and well designed. The handouts that Heather and Linda put together did a great job of telling the story of the IBBA. The "Family Butterfly Book"s and fandex books from The Nature Store were great prizes (for the drawing held at the Sunday night banquet). Everyone who put these things together and shipped them to AZ made Maggie and Zane's job so much easier. You all did a great job!

The Exhibit: Maggie stayed with the exhibit explaining what the IBBA is and encouraging passerby's to put their name in for the prize drawings. It should be noted that since she was representing the IBBA she wasn't wearing anything with her own farm's name on it. She fashioned a name tag that had the IBBA logo and her first name only. Maggie truly represented everyone in the organization. She lured passerby's in with the prize drawing and then took the time to explain what the IBBA is. The IBBA exhibit table was adjacent to that of the IABE (International Association of Butterfly Exhibitions). That was good for both organizations and a bit of a windfall for us since one of our goals was to build a bridge between the two organizations.

Building Bridges: During the conference your representatives met representatives of the IABE, BFCI (Butterfly Conservation Initiative - a part of the AZA), SASI (Sonoran Arthropod Studies Institute), and numerous industry leaders in order to tell the story of the IBBA. We found many friends. Many of you may remember Mary Babcock (a former IBBA member) who now runs the day to day operations of the IABE. She was glad to see us there and gave the IBBA a warm welcome. Steve Prchal (director, SASI), came to us with questions about the IBBA. He had previously been opposed to our organization and now welcomes us as sponsors of the IICC. We discussed the IBBA with many of the leaders of the exhibition industry. When Maggie and I were preparing for this event we planned on having to deal with negativity and opposition. We found none. Everyone that we met with was open and friendly. Hopefully this will bear fruit in the future.

The Banquet: The IICC ended with a Sunday night banquet. Volunteers from the audience pulled names from the slips and business cards that Maggie had collected. The MC read each name. Zane handed out the gifts, and Maggie took pictures of each winner. We heard many positive comments about the IBBA and the "wonderful prizes!"

Our Conclusions: We think being a sponsor at the IICC was a smart move for the IBBA. We were able to reach a new audience with the IBBA story. Hopefully, it will result in stronger political alliances, new markets for our members, and increased membership. We were able to do this in a financially responsible manner because many volunteers in our organization worked together to make it happen. The IBBA should continue its support of the IICC. If we do so Maggie and I believe that it will be to the benefit of the IBBA, its members, and the butterflies.

Zane Greathouse, July 2005.

Photos from the Event (hover for title, or click for enlargement)

IBBA Teamwork To Prepare For The Meeting

by Dale McClung, Chair - IBBA Advertising Committee

IBBA Advertising Committee Credits:

This conference was, as you may imagine, a combined effort of several members on and off the advertising committee.

Although no longer a member of the IBBA, Mona Miller deserves the credit for bringing this to the committee's attention.

Heather Tokas worked on the hand outs to be distributed. She went to the immense effort of including all the IBBA Members contact information available at that moment.

Rick Mikula graciously donated five Butterfly Fandex and The Family Butterfly Book for special drawings and prizes at the meeting to captivate the attendee's attention and get business development contacts to bring home.

Doddie Drake took care of sponsorship details and shipping some items to the meeting.

Dale McClung prepared the advertisement to appear in the convention program.

Jon Timko prepared the presentation board and did a very professional job of it. The presentation board is posted to the IBBA website if you wish to see it.

Linda Rogers coordinated the effort and put in a great deal of time in overseeing individual aspects of the project, finalizing presentation materials and making sure deadlines were met and items were shipped to the meeting place.

And, of course, all the other members of the advertising committee for their input as we progressed to completion of this project.

And last, but certainly not least, Zane and Maggie Greathouse for being our ambassadors. They worked the conference wonderfully for all of us.