Day 23, 24, 25 - Portland

You will possibly have figured out that I am posting these updates about 36 hours behind when they are actually happening so I could keep up to speed at my end incase I was unable to load posts at the right time.

As I will be, in real time, on the plane home to Sydney just after I post this I am going to put the final three days into one post.

The three days of the actual Brewery Collectibles Club of America (BCCA) trade show sort of meld into one anyway with the trade floor being open each day and then different activities at night. So I will just place the days into segments and hopefully it will all make sense.

Starting with the trade floor itself. All collectors are offered a table space to display the items that they have to offer other collectors. Most take this up either individually, or as we Aussies do in a group share table. I think there were approx. 200 trade tables at this show. These are placed in rows with space in between for people to pass by the front of them and room behind for chairs for you to sit at behind.

If you are working with others you take turns to sit there whilst the others walk around looking for things to purchase or swap. If you are on your own you can leave a note with your cell phone number on it and if anyone wants to do a deal they can phone you and arrange the trade when you return.

At the front area of the trade floor is a BCCA shop with items to purchase. BCCA logo clothing and also clothing printed with the CANvention 46 show logo on them and also available for purchase are various items of accessories to help protect your beer cans and also can totes which store your cans and allow you can carry them securely from show to show. I have two of these that I carry items in to the USA and bring home items I have picked up in the USA.

Outside the main entry to the trade floor are tables for the Clubs chapters to sell their chapter clothing and accessories, collect chapter dues, run raffles and generally promote their chapter.

Also there is the BCCA registration area for the show and an information table for the attendees to find answers to their questions about the show and the club in general.

After the trade floor closes each afternoon there are many activities for attendees to enjoy.

Thursday afternoon is the BCCA Board of Directors meeting. I attend to find out what is going on within the organisation and to hear information about upcomming decisions the club is making.

After that there are Chapter meetings to attend. I attended the Aluminum Bottle Chapter meeting. We all receive a present on entry and refreshments are available. This year there was discussions on increasing membership and also a discussion on entering a display into the Display competition at next years show. There was also an election of officers for the chapter.

After that I attended the One Can One Country chapter meeting. This is a well attended meeting with a lot of international members present. There are lucky door prizes handed out at the end of the meeting. The discussion this year centred around membership renewal costs as it seems the postage rate for international members to receive their magazine has increased greatly and there are a lot of members who still want to receive a hard copy instead of getting it via email. There was also a good discussion on the displat theme for or entry into the Display competition for 2017.

Thursday night is Micro Night. There is a committee to run this night and their main focus is to approach craft breweries to gain sponsorship of the night. This sponsorship obviously involves getting the breweries to supply craft beer for everyone to sample. 

This year there were over ten breweries involved and as well as providing samples for us they also had for sale breweriania for us to purchase, t-shirts, tap handles, badges, and all sorts of giveaways like stickers, coasters and crown seals. As always it is a very successful night.

Friday after the trade floor closes I attended the Rusty Bunch Chapter meeting. The highlight of this meeting was the presentation to Uncle Roy of the Rusty Bunch - Hall Of Fame award. Roy is one of the greatest dumpers in the club. He has dug up half of California looking for old beer cans and has many storys to tell that would take months to listen too.

Friday night is a party night. The Jersey Shore chapter runs a themed party each year with this years theme being a bit different. They asked people to wear costumes they had worn at any previous years event. This caused a lot of laughs and the chapter placed photos all over the walls from the previous events for you to look at. It was a great night.

An added bonus that night was that the the hotel has a bar that provides live entertainment on Friday nights and tonight there was a KISS tribute band playing and they were all dressed in full KISS costumes. It was fun to listen to as well.

Saturday is the final day of the show and after the trade floor closes there is a bit of time for a refreshment or a nap before the final event of the show. Saturday night is Banquet Night.

This is a great night to attend. There is a pre banquet drink for one hour before the doors open and everyone is seated. Then everyone is fed, this year being a great smorgesboard with plenty of choices of food and plenty of deserts to eat. I sat with people from Canada, Argentina, Brazil and some other Australians.

Following on from the dinner is the formal part of the evening. The officials are introducted, then the past Pesidents of the BCCA and Hall of Fame recipients are introduced.

Awards are then presented for the Can of the Year, which there are several catagories, USA Can, International Can and Aluminum Bottle, then trophies are presented for the best articles in the club magazine, display competition winners and another chapter presentations.

Then come the awards for the newest Inductee for the BCCA Hall Of Fame which this year was won by a very deserving winner and good friend of mine John Fatura. Johns wife Paula also was awarded a special presentation for the Female member of the year.

President Allan Aprea then handed over the reigns of the club to incoming President Tom Legeret. Allen was also presented with some plaques to commemorate his term in  office.

The formal part of the evening then wound up with the last awards being handed out were for all the international members who attended receiving a attendance plaque.

This bought to an end another great show, which was my 9th CANvention.

In all I spent 7 nghts at the Red Lion hotel for the CANvention. It is a great hotel which suited our clubs needs excellently.

Next years event is slated to be held in Cleveland Ohio. I will have to start planning my travel plans to attend when I get back to Sydney from this adventure.

Day 22 - Portland

Up early and sorted out some of the things I picked up last night doing Room to Room.

Had arranged to go again to look at two more local collectors homes and view their collections. This will make seven collections in total we have seen since arriving. They are all very interesting and all different. Some brewery collectibles only, others including some other hobbies or interests and others again that both the husband and wife collect together or have different collecting interests.

After visiting these collections our driver who is a local members wife very generously took the five of us in the car to the Kennedy School. 

The Kennedy School.Is a former elementary school in North East Portland. The school ran from 1915 till the 1970’s till changing demographics forced it to close. Built with artistic The school was going to be demolished by local officials but neighborhood opposition saved it. In the early 1990s the McMenamin Breweries bought the property and started to renovate it. When finished the original façade remained but inside was transformed into a unique building including a 57 room hotel, a theater, restaurant, bars, indoor pool and gymnasium, cinema and all walls are covered in artworks, photographs and the schools history.

   

It is an amazing place and would takers to walk around and look at all the items on display. I am sure if I ever get back to Portland I will definitely come back to explore it more.

McMenamin Breweries have done this to many former public style buildings in the Oregon and Washington States.

Coming back to the hotel about 4pm we then went to do some more walking from room to room looking at peoples different items they had for trade and sale.

A little while later my great mate Neil Thomas and his wife Andrea arrived at the hotel. They had already been holidaying in Canada and Alaska for a couple of weeks and are now here for their first American beer collectibles show. 

Between 6pm and 8pm all the attendees can come to a central area and get their show package. This consists of their name badge and name badges for any of their guests, a ticket for them to collect a commemorative can especially designed for the event and (if they are going to attend) a ticket to the Banquet which is held on the Saturday night at the end of the show.

Myself and Bruce Tainton had dinner with them in the hotel restaurant before I showed them around the other collectors rooms looking at all the collectibles on display. They also were able to meet a lot of the American collectors as well as the other international collectors. We walked around for a few hours before they went off to rest up for tomorrow and I kept walking around the room for a while before heading off to bed. 

Day 21 - Portland

Today was similar to yesterday. Up early and went for a walk around the parimeter of the property. Took 15 minutes to walk around.

Came back showered and had breakfast before going down to the lobby and met more people arriving for the CANvention. 

I met up with people at 9am and we were taken on a tour of more local collectors home to visit there displayed collections. It is wonderful to see many different collections and the way people display them in their homes. Every one is different and people do not just collect breweriana. As you will see in the following photos.

We visited 3 homes. 

We arrived back at the hotel after 2 and spent the rest of the day meeting up with more new arrivals and going around from room to room talking with other attendees and looking at all the items they bought to sell or swap. Unfortunetly I was to busy chatting and looking that I did not take any more photos. 

Finally got exhausted from all the walking and partying and headed off to bed about 11pm.