Last year’s classes went zero for zero for me and my friends, to the point where it was the subject of laughing discussion every nite in the lounge, with a class on Chinese Facial Diagnosis in which the speaker (who was invited back this year) spent the hour talking about his experiences as a practitioner of Chinese Medicine, and when asked, for the second time, where in the presentation he would get around to telling us about Chinese Facial Diagnosis, replied that the subject was much too complicated to ever entertain discussing in an hour’s time. Another class where this same speaker was to talk about Chinese Medicine Treatments for Diabetes, and again never touched on the subject. A class on Ayurvedic Beauty Practices where a woman got up before us, and announced that the planned speaker was detained in India on a family emergency and would not be here to teach the class. Fair enough, until she went on to say that although she herself admittedly knew nothing of the topic at hand, she was going to teach the class anyway, and proceeded to read to us in a monotone from pages she had copied out of books. A class this year on Accupressure Facial Massage in which the speaker spent a good deal of time telling us how her experiences as a speech pathologist for the elderly helped her to learn the accupressure points in the face, went on to identify less than half of these points as drawn on her chart, and never touched on actual massage techniques for the face, other than to say how one could tap these areas, and that you should never drink water with your meals as this would wash any nutrition right out of your body. My lesson has been: just as when entering a room containing an armed psychopath, make sure when walking into these classrooms that you have an easy exit available to you. Don’t give them anything sharp, and don’t let them get between you and the door! In one that Graham and I walked out on this year, we found that our exit near the rear door actually led through a kitchen, a pantry, and then the offices for the hotel, but darn it, we managed to escape.

After the first year I wrote to the founder and told him that I thought many of the speakers were very sketchy if not downright dangerous in their knowledge or lack thereof of Essential oil safety, and that the conference would greatly benefit from such a presentation, which was politely ignored, although I was refunded the ten dollars for the class taught by the brain cancer woman.

The feedback I have gotten this year and in past years from fellow-attendees seems to confirm my conclusions rather than make my experiences seem a horrible deviation from the norm.

I was asked what I thought about the schedule of classes being offered this time around, and I have to say that I noted that less than half of the classes even pretended to address Aromatherapy and/or Herbs, with the roster including such topics as ‘How to Legally Terminate an Employee,’ ‘Why People Cannot Heal,’ ‘Disturbed Sleep Patterns - What They Reveal,’ ‘What Your Face Reveals About Your Skills,’ ‘Seeing Your Health in Handwriting,' ‘Change Past DNA Patterns,’ ‘How To Get Your Employees To Do What You Want,’ and my personal favorite, ‘Making Raw Veggie Burgers,’ brought to you by the same people who teach the riveting, ‘The Effect of Cooking on Food.’ My guess is that it makes it hot and less raw.

So, at this point you are wondering why anyone goes back to the conference year after year, as I and many others do, when they have so much to complain of? There is a very simple and compelling reason for this: the people who attend and the vendors that display here. Fantastic networking! I’ve met some wonderful people through this show and found some great sources for Essential oils and Aromatherapy supplies. The conference itself is free to attend, and the classes, such as they are, cost only ten dollars each with early registration.

The first year I attended Stacey Miller and I met Ken Goodger from Norfolk Essential oils, and learned how he and fellow farmers organized a cooperative of growers and distillers of Essential oils plant materials, producing a very nice Rosemary, Angelica Root, Lavender, Peppermint and Chamomile. The people from Natural Oils International who offered different free samples each day of their carrier oils. Heaven Soaps’ Jerry Willis and his wife Michelle with their lovely soaps and bath products.

Last year Graham and I met here Chris Condon from Natural Extracts of Australia, Glen Wolfe of Aromatherapeutix, Trygve of Enfleurage, Michael Scholes, Butch Owen, Tom Lucks and Tom Begley, Alyssa from Medicine Flower with her great Aromatherapy candles, Trudy Welker, Linda Sherman of Richards Packaging, Greg Faust of Citrus and Allied Essences, and Marge Clarke of Nature’s Gift.

We arrived this time following our long drive up from Tucson (during which I spilled coffee on myself and had to stop to buy new clothes, and so wandered about with hanger-corners at my shoulders all day) and after a quick trip to the food vendor’s exhibit rooms for grazing Graham and I prowled the exhibit halls and met up with some new faces in addition to those we remembered from last year: a booth for Shifting Sands Studios and the beautiful but pricey hand blown glass Aromatherapy necklaces sold there, Sid from Lakshmi Enterprises with his lovely oils, Dr. Mogre from Nisarga Biotech who was showing some nice CO2s, Neuchatel Chocolate and their incredible organic Swiss chocolates, Erbavaria who were selling great Aromatherapy products for mothers and babies, Ondre Seltzer of Advanced Botanical Research, and natural skin care products from Prophediet of France.

I was sorry to see fewer vendors than had been at the show in previous years, including some with booths reserved who never showed up, others who were at their booths only one day before closing down, and some old favorites that didn’t return for various reasons. For a show whose main attraction in the minds of many is the trade floor, this was disappointing. The vendors I spoke with, including Marge Clarke of Nature’s Gift, have said that this can be a fairly profitable show for them, with repeat sales during the ensuing months, and great exposure.

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