I’ve been having a love/hate relationship with MACNA (Marine Aquarium Conference of North America) this week. I love it because its a great show and one many hobbyists, vendors and indusrty peeps look forward to each Septmeber. I hate it for one reason — I’m not going! Still, even though I’m not in Atlantic City for MACNA XXI I want to find out as much as I can and follow what’s happening at this reefing mecca. So here are some ways to keep up-to-date on what’s happening this weekend.

I wish they has some of the speaker sessions and workshops streaming but I haven’t been able to find out if they will. If it were up to me, I’d stream sessions for free. Sure you are giving away info, but it will also spread the vibe the show has and infect some future attendees! If you know of any other places sharing info on MACNA, let me know.

Twitter: Not familiar with this service? It’s a simple way to share tidbits of information in 140 character or less. Plus with the addition of apps like TwitPic and TweetPhoto, you can snap pictures and share right away. The perfect vehicle for quick updates like “OMG! Just saw the new Warner Marine skimmer at MACNA … awesome!” I’ve already got a peek at the goody bag they’re handing out thanks to @drimo717 and his TweetPhoto.

Blogs: We’ve gotten quite used to live blogging from all sorts of events and MACNA should be no exception. We’ll hope our favorite blogs will not being having any internet issues and can pump out information to us. I know Reef Builders already primed the pumps (no pun intended) with lots of sneak peeks earlier this week and they’re already onsite and scoping for news. Jeff will be on hand from Frag’d It and from my Twitter stream, I heard that Jeff should be there any time. Also looke like Eric and the GBD team will be there. Check out your other favorite blogs to see if they have some news coming from the event.

Word of Mouth: If you really are patient (who is in the digital age!) you can do it the old fashioned way — wait for your friend to come home, acclimate his new corals, catch up on sleep, knock out that “Honey Do” list that suddenly got HUGE because they took off for a “Fun” weekend and then fill you in on all the details. I’ll be waiting for the trickle down news to come through, but I’ll definitely be hitting refresh in my browser all weekend (while taking care of MY “Honey Do” list!).