Hello Aquarium Professionals, Due to some unfortunate and unforeseen circumstances, the Virginia Aquarium was forced to cancel their planned hosting of the Regional Aquatics Workshop in 2023. Per the RAW bylaws, as the first loser in last year’s voting process, the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium was asked to step up. Some of you may remember not voting for us last year. To each of you, no hard feelings, but BYOB. To both of you who did vote for us, the Hospitality Suite awaits!
But seriously speaking, we are beyond excited to welcome you all to Dubuque, Iowa from May 7-12, 2023! The rough agenda will be as follows
Sunday, May 7 – Aquatic TAG steering committee meetings
Monday, May 8 – Aquatic TAG public meetings
Tuesday, May 9 through Friday May 12 – RAW proper
Tuesday, May 9 evening – Icebreaker at the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium
Hotel Venue: Grand Harbor Resort & Waterpark, $119 per night plus 12% tax and 16% service fee. (Overflow hotels include the Holiday Inn and Hotel Julien, each within walking distance of the conference venue and the River Museum.)
Conference Venue: Grand River Center, Dubuque, Iowa, right next door to the Grand Harbor Resort, the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium, and Diamond Jo Casino.
Airport Info: We recommend people fly into the Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids, Iowa (CID) where Travel Dubuque will arrange for a shuttle service from there to Dubuque (82 miles). Alternatively, you can fly into MLI Moline, IL (80 miles), MSN Madison, WI (98 miles), or Chicago, IL (177 miles from ORD O’Hare, 199 miles from MDW Midway) and arrange your own ground transportation from there.
Registration: Individual registration rates for general attendees will be $150.
More information will be provided as it becomes available. I’ll send another note as soon as we set up the registration portal. Thank you for your patience as we hustle to get our ducks in a row in an attempt to pull this off as successfully as all our previous hosts have done. I think you’ll all be pleasantly surprised to see all that Dubuque has to offer.
See you in a few short months for RAW on the River!
Andy Allison Vice President of Living Collections & Education National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium 350 E. 3rd St., Dubuque, IA 52001 Cell: 608-331-0358 Office: 563-557-9545 x239 rivermuseum.com <http://www.rivermuseum.com/>