The first Inland Northwest Koi Show and Workshop was August 27, 2011. This was a joint venture with the Inland Empire Water Garden and Koi Society and the North Idaho Koi Keepers.

The show was held in the backyard of John and Linda Seifert’s home. Because of limited space, we did not advertise. However, club members were encouraged to invite anyone who has an interest in koi. The participants in the show also had to be a member of an AKCA or PNKCA club.

Show setup began on Thursday. All entrants, except those from more than 75 miles away, had to setup their own tanks and all helped with the air and water system. Thursday evening we began filling the tanks using our automated flow-thru water system with final filling completed Friday morning. Koi check-in was Saturday morning. The participants were suppose to bench their own koi, take pictures and submit the results to the show secretary before the show. Only about half did this. We did not plan on benching koi or taking pictures Saturday morning so the actual judging and workshop was off to a late start. All the awards were announced at the barbeque, leading to suspense during the day. After the barbeque, the participants took their koi home, although they had the option to leave them until Sunday morning. On Sunday, most of the participants returned to tear down, clean, dry and pack their own tanks and to help with the tear down of the water and air system.

The show and workshop were successful beyond the cochairs wildest dreams. Besides being a lot less work than any shows we know of, the "fun" meter was off the charts. Our judges, Michael Hernandez and Dick Benbow, spent all of Saturday afternoon judging and discussing the koi, not only the great attributes but also the future potential and sometimes what makes a particular koi no-so-good. All the attendees had opportunities to ask about any of the koi in the show. Comments heard included: "Best show ever", "Love the workshop concept", "Fantastic educational experience", and "Even I learned something new". . Although we had only 11 "koi kichi" entering a total of 48 koi, the quality of the koi was superb with emphasis on Go-Sanke. We really appreciate the extra effort our judges spent to provide us with an outstanding show and workshop.

Following the show, we all enjoyed the awards announcements and the barbeque, prepared by John and Linda Seifert (smoked turkey, pulled pork and all the trimmings). There was also live music during the barbeque (there really are some people who will actually work for food).

We pulled this show off with our only revenues coming from entry fees, a total of $550. No sponsors, no auctions, no other fund raisers. We cut out all the frills from the expenses. Judges stayed at members homes, and for the honor of being a host, the host took care of the incidental costs. We had no advertising, no posters and no brochures. Sorry, but show pins were omitted. All other expenses were tightly controlled with most being for water treatment chemicals , consumables and a few incidental expenses. We did have some very much appreciated members who donated some expenses. Even with our limited finances, we were able to present $148 to each club as their share of the excess revenues.

Our Flow-Thru Water System

For a one-day show our system is a wee bit excessive. But we want to insure that all koi entered have the best water quality possible. Our water from our community water supply system is of very high quality. All of the tanks were initially treated with a chlorine/ammonia binder as well as all the fresh water added continuously throughout the show. Our system is set up to add about 10% fresh, treated water per hour to each show tank. An added advantage to the flow-thru water is that it helps moderate temperature swings. Even with out very high day-time temperatures, our show tanks did not vary more than 3 degrees F during the show. For more information on our water parameters and flow-thru water system, please contact John Seifert.