I was there for the weekend, and had a really great time. The event turned out to be a really good one, and it was nice to meet people on this board and others in person, and catch up with other bonsai friends. Too bad I also missed you Adair - I would have liked to have met you too.
Ryan Neil was fantastic as always. If you haven't seen or worked with him before, I would strongly encourage that you do so. He effortlessly blends artistry and horticultural knowledge in a very engaging educational style (sort of the Socratic method, but much more fun than what is used in law school). I don't know how the guy was standing by the end of the weekend. I checked into the resort at about 11pm on Wednesday night, and he had just arrived off the plane from the west coast. His RMJ workshop was supposed to be from 10-3 on Thursday, but he stayed to work with people until about 5pm. Friday and Saturday with full workshop days for him (Friday evening also including the Arboretum reception), and then Sunday morning was his BYOT workshop. Somehow outside of all that, he also managed to style a collected RMJ for the Saturday auction. He's a really nice guy and a special talent, and I think what he is doing for American bonsai with the Artisan's Cup is going to be incredible.
Guy Guidry was another of the experts at the show. When the trees brought in for his bald cypress workshop and for his demo weren't up to par, he instead used a big old bald cypress brought in by one of the participants to demo on, where he spent three hours carving and burning the tree. Wanting to finish the tree, after the Arboretum event, he worked from about 10pm to 1am in an impromptu demo session with Michael Levin from Bonsai West and about a dozen others in a very fun, relaxed atmosphere (the beer that kept coming to the room probably helped). It was one of those really fun memorable events that will stay with me forever, and the tree ended up amazing. Like Ryan, he was also incredibly nice and one of those guys you'd like to have a beer with (or six or more as we did on Friday night), and if you could take a workshop with him, it would be well worth your while.