I find it very interesting that the Art of Bonsai Project gets hundreds, or you could say record breaking amounts of entries to their Art of Bonsai Awards. Yet the Knowledge of Bonsai Forums struggles to get more than 20 in the Knowledge of Bonsai Forums Progressive Styling Contest. It is true that one could say that you would acually have to do work or put in some accual physical effort to be a condender, and one could say that you really would not have to do much of anything (now that is) to enter AoB Awards.
The Facts
AoB Awards Stats:
226 entries from the following countries.
“The 25 countries that are participating are:
Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, India, Indonesia, Italy, Turkey, Mexico, Netherlands, Puerto Rico, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Taiwan, UK, USA, Venezuela”
KoB Stats:
19 entries from the following countries.
Austria, Bangladesh, Costa Rica, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Norway, Spain, USA
Prizes:
The prize offerings are almost equal, minus the “sponsor” awards.
So I am asking you, the readers (if there are any)
- Why did/would you enter one contest over the other?
- Why did you not enter one or the other?
- What would make you enter either contest
Until next time;
-Paul Stokes
Tags: online bonsai contests
Hi Paul–I entered your contest last year under the professional category with a twin-trunk spruce. If you recall, I had trouble meeting your criteria for the proper size pictures. It may well be that not everyone has the equipment (photographic, computer) to compete in your contest. As it was pointed out to me by Rob K. , the contest is as much about the photography as anything else. It should be about the styling, but if one can’t see the images clearly, what’s the point?
I felt the judges for last year’s contest were also weighted heavily towards tropical expertise. I know you can’t please all the people all the time but it might be a good thing to get a Japanese master as one of the judges. I also felt that the species I chose was difficult for a contest like this and one of the judges wrote me off that I had just pruned my tree and no real styling had been done. If he could see the tree now!
On a positive note, the contest did motivate me to see a tree through to the finish and enough momentum was created for me to want to see the tree in a bonsai pot, which I did with Mike Hagedorn’s help this spring in our study group. I would encourage you to try to keep the contest going; there will always be ups and downs.
Im pretty sure you have a UK entry in this years KOB
Last years event was marred by the majority of Prize givers failing to supply the prizes.
My Prizes last year should have been :-
The best of Bonsai in Europe volume (recieved)
Low Boy Rotator (MSRP $79 each) Donated By Graydon Swedberg of McDonald Street Products (recieved)
Gold Awarded Penjing Of The World Donated By Alan Feng of Qing Wang Garden (recieved)
$50 US Donated By Dorothy Schmitz (not recieved)
“Bay Island Bonsai An Exhibit of Fine Bonsai January 11th and 12th, 2003″ – Donated by Paul Stokes (not recieved)
A Vance wood original patented training planter donated by Vance Wood. (not recieved)
A gift certificate valued at $100.00 usable towards any tropical pre-bonsai plant donated by Jim Smith of DURA-
STONE CO http://www.jimsmithbonsai.com/ (not recieved)
A Knowledge of Bonsai Sponsored Blog (recieved)
Half of them were not recieved and 3 of the 4 biggest prizes were not hounoured (around $250 worth for me alone). News like this travels fast, and i know 2 people who didnt enter this year for this reason, as they didnt recieve the majority of there prizes either.
I would suggest that if this is repeated this year, you will get almost no entries next year.
Paul,
It is difficult to asses why was one contest more succesful than the other. Was it promoted in the same way? Was there another element of media promotion in the AoB contest that wasn’t used in the KoB one? Do both websites have similar level of traffic? Was the promotion on the AoB website more evident from the home page (with visual elements like pictures perhaps)? I ask this because it took me a long time to realize there was a contest on the site and that people like me, non-proffesionals, could participate.
Paul,
Your reasoning that KoB entries need actual work done over a period of time vis-a-vis sending only a pic for the AoB entry may seem logical to some extent.
But that should not deter the bonsai enthusiasts from participating in the KoB contest, which is indeed a very interesting and challenging contest.
I also noticed that many entrants did not mention their country, and hence your Stats did not include UK and possibly many other countries.
What David has pointed out regarding the prizes should not have happened once the prizes have been declared by the sponsors. At least a note from KoB on the delay in sending the prizes should have been informed to the winners (that is, if these would be sent at all?).
It’s a pity that last year’s 2 winners have not participated due to this reason. If a prize is not delivered (for whatever reasons) why declare these in the first place?
That reminds me of BCI-BOIDA 2006 contest……. in which my entry had got an Award of Merit. It was only a Certificate but in spite of my few reminders on this , the organizers did not even bother to respond and the Certificate has not been delivered to me till date !!!
Nevertheless, the KoB Contest is really great and should be continued, and with proper promotion in advance, I am sure there would be substantial participation from all over the globe, in the future.
Shaukat
Paul,
Well my thoughts are the following
First AoB contest is not necessary for artist it also includes collectors and growers, while KoB contest is for those that can work on a tree knowing its potential. As such it is much more of an intimidating contest. for professionals well they don’t want to look bad against others and usually hate the idea of “loosing” against others, they consider them selfs better and ego’s get in the way. Also the time frame could be longer, and less restrictions with the number of entry’s would help a lot in my opinion. as it is hard to select for just one tree and what if the tree does not respond as well, as fast or dies! I think professionals would lose face as the Chinese say. But by having more than one entry one would see more possibilities and less stress. Even Kimura has some trees that dye so at the end we are not gods but by having more than one entry people would be able to show much more of their work. From the novice, I think they are also afraid that their one tree will not do well and that they would look silly.
Also the prices I think they are far to distributed into to many categories. I think two categories is sufficient, one for professionals and one for beginners. It makes no sense to award according to the source. As artist they choose the tree by looking its potential it does not matter if it is a prebonsai or a collected tree, it is what it can be done at the end that matters, and of course what is judge is the transformation that is taken place. This way the two prices would be more significant and probably easier for you to get and organize and less writing on the rules would simplify things for lazy readers.
Also I think it takes time for a contest to get to be known and anticipated, I hope it continues next year.
Best regards
Enrique
The news about the prizes is indeed distrubing, to say the least. This is a problem that needs serious attention.
As to the popularity, at the risk of sounding self serving, it is all about the management and promotion.
Nobody can work the backend of a contest like Paul can, he is also the best damn prize donation solictor on the web, but it takes a certain type of egotistical jerk to be able to pull a contest together and set records……hard work, promotion, and sales.
We all have our talents, the trick is matching what is needed to the talent.
This years stats are even more distant.