Held once every 4 years, the VIII International Parrot Convention sponsored by Fundacion Loro Parque was an overwhelming success this year!  Around 840 parrot enthusiasts from all over the world were in attendance.  We met people in person from Facebook, saw old friends from the last conference we attended in 2010 and enjoyed 3 days of amazing lectures from top parrot conservationists around the world.

ENTRANCE AND GROUNDS OF THE CONVENTION CENTRE

Every day we were welcomed to the conference by the friendly Loro Parque staff and the Scarlet Macaw mascot.  Everyone was given a headset so they could hear the lecture in their own language as some speakers spoke English, some spoke Spanish, French or German.  Between presentations, snacks were served on tables scattered around the lawn.

VENDOR BOOTHS AND ARTWORK INSIDE

As you come into the building, there are several vendor stalls of people who specialize in parrot orientated products.

Aviva and David Vishnia from Israel with their Inca Incubators

Loro Parque T-shirts and other merchandise

PRESENTATION TOPICS

Here I will only post some title slides to protect the copyright of the speaker’s material.  I didn’t get all of them as my SD card filled up unexpectedly.  Most of them were conservation orientated which is why I love this conference so much.  Topics which catered to breeders were of a more scientific nature so even if you are not a breeder (like me) you still learn something!  A full list of speakers and topics can be found here.

The whole conference was amazing and everyone learned something new about parrots!  Even the breeders who previously weren’t familiar with conservation efforts learned a lot.  The one thing that I found a bit sad is that attendance dropped off on the third day.  I think some people were so exhausted from the late nights of the social program they just couldn’t get up for the early starts of the actual conference.

I personally would have preferred a much earlier social program (luncheons or BBQs?) on the 1st & 2nd day of the conference.  The 3rd day doesn’t matter as you leave the next day unless you stayed on in Tenerife for tourism or some of the Loro Parque workshops.  I ended up leaving the evening events as soon as possible to try to get some sleep as I didn’t want to miss any of the lectures.

In tomorrow’s post, I will show a few shots from the evening social programs and the visit to the La Vera Breeding Facility.