2025 Symposium & Workshop – Portland

AALSO has expanded greatly in the last 30 years. The organization now has over 1,000 members, 500 certified operators, and roughly 300 vendor members. These vendor members supply the zoo and aquarium industry with pumps, valves, filters, heat exchangers, sensors, and every other piece of equipment that keep animals and their habitats healthy.

March/April 2025
March 29th – April 2nd

Hosted By

Oregon Zoo

Registration is now open!

The 31st Annual Aquatic Animal Life Support Operators Symposium and Workshops will be hosted by the Oregon Zoo in Portland, Oregon. Registration will include access to:

  • All workshops, lectures and AALSO Exams
  • Hot breakfast and lunch Monday – Wednesday
  • Appetizers at the Ice Breaker Sunday Night
  • Wednesday Certification Banquet.
Event Registration

Registration is now open!

You must be a current AALSO Operator Member before registering as an Attendee for the 2025 Symposium & Workshops.

Become an AALSO member now by clicking here

OPERATOR Registration

There will be 4 types of registrations this year, Attendee, Exhibitor, Non Exhibiting Vendor and Guest.

CLICK HERE  to begin your Operator Registration! Early Registration has been EXTENDED!

    • Operator Attendee registration fees:
      • Academic Partner (University Student) $445
      • Early Registration (ends 2-28-25) :  $495    
      • Late Registration (begins 3-1-25) : $695
      • Day Pass : $175/day
      • Single Evening Guest Event Passes: $75/event
        • Ice Breaker Sunday Evening
        • Monday Evening Aquarium
        • Tuesday Evening Mixer
        • Wednesday Evening Certification Banquet
    • Certified Pool Operator Course (20 people MAX)  $350
    • Virtual AALSO Level I LSS and WQ certification for those who cannot physically attend? $100 per certification
    • Attendee Cancellation Policy: Attendees can cancel with a full refund up to seven (7) days before the start of the Symposium. Substitutions from the same facility can be arranged without penalty. Please send an email to treasurer@aalso.org to initiate a cancellation or substitution.

OPERATOR SPONSORSHIP APPLICATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED.  Thank you for all who applied.

We have closed the applications for sponsorship.  If you were not selected this year, please apply again next year!  Sponsorship can cover your registration fee, lodging, airfare, or everything!

How to apply? CLICK HERE!

All applications must be submitted by January 17th, 2025 and notification of sponsorship will be sent out by February 1st,

so you can still get early bird registration prices, if you are not selected. No applications will be considered after the deadline.

The 2025 AALSO Symposium and Workshops mobile app will be available closer to the Symposium

VENDOR Registration

Exhibiting and Non-Exhibiting Vendor Registration:

CLICK HERE  to begin your Vendor Registration!

  • Exhibiting Vendor Registration: $2500  SOLD OUT!
  • Additional Booth Attendees: $500/attendee
  • Non-Exhibiting Vendor: $1500
  • Non-Exhibiting Vendor Day Pass: $750/day
  • Single Evening Guest Event Passes: $75/event
    • Ice Breaker Sunday Evening
    • Monday Evening Aquarium
    • Tuesday Evening Mixer
    • Wednesday Evening Certification Banquet

Guest Pass Cancellation Policy: Guest passes can be canceled with a full refund up to seven (7) days before the start of the Symposium. Please send an email to treasurer@aalso.org to initiate a cancellation or substitution.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

  • Please, please, please make sure that whoever is supposed to be registering your company has their profile up to date on the AALSO.org website. Everyone within your company will receive these communications as long as their contact information is up to date.
  • Please also make sure that whoever registers your company keeps the passwords they set up for each attendee so that everyone can log in and make any necessary changes to their individual registration as needed, including registering for workshops.
  • Booth selection this year will be based on a set of metrics rather than a straight first come, first served method.  The metrics include:
    • years exhibited
    • years as a sponsor
    • years of workshop support

Vendors booth assignments will first be sorted based on these metrics, secondly by when they registered.  If you register late, then your place in line will be based on the same vendor participation metrics, in latter chronological order.  Further details…

 

Booth Number(s) Company Company Booth Number(s)
100 Armada Systems ABB 214
101 Aqua Logic, Inc Abyzz by venotec GmbH 117
108 Weld-On Adhesives, Inc. AirSep Corporation 109
109 AirSep Corporation American Sealants, Inc. 204
110 Praher Plastics Canada Aqua Logic, Inc 101
111 Ozone Water Systems Aquatic Equipment and Design, Inc. 208, 210
113 Tenji, Inc Aquatic Solutions, LLC 311
115 IDEXX Laboratories Armada Systems 100
117 Abyzz by venotec GmbH Asahi/America, Inc. 308, 310
202, 301 CECO Environmental CECO Environmental 202, 301
203 Ryan Herco Flow Solutions Champion Lighting & Supply 317
204 American Sealants, Inc. Cloward H2O 412
208, 210 Aquatic Equipment and Design, Inc. Delta Hydronics, LLC 212
209, 211 MDM Inc GF Piping Systems 408, 410
212 Delta Hydronics, LLC Harrington 309
213 RK2 Systems Inc Hayward Flow Control 302, 401
214 ABB IDEXX Laboratories 115
215 Kessil Integrated Aqua Systems, Inc. 304, 403
216 RCK Controls, Inc. Ipex North America 515, 517
217 Waterco Usa Kessil 215
302, 401 Hayward Flow Control Longhorn Organics 411
303 Satchell Engineering & Associates, Inc. MDM Inc 209, 211
304, 403 Integrated Aqua Systems, Inc. MH&W International 312
308, 310 Asahi/America, Inc. MRC AMERICA 415
309 Harrington Neptune Benson, Xylem 313
311 Aquatic Solutions, LLC Ozone Water Systems 111
312 MH&W International PerformancePro Pumps Inc 315
313 Neptune Benson, Xylem Praher Plastics Canada 110
314 SEE CLEAR LLC ProFlow Pumping Solutions 316
315 PerformancePro Pumps Inc RCK Controls, Inc. 216
316 ProFlow Pumping Solutions Reef Brite 409
317 Champion Lighting & Supply RK2 Systems Inc 213
408, 410 GF Piping Systems Ross HX 414, 416
409 Reef Brite Ryan Herco Flow Solutions 203
411 Longhorn Organics Satchell Engineering & Associates, Inc. 303
412 Cloward H2O SEE CLEAR LLC 314
413 Sivat Services Inc. Sivat Services Inc. 413
414, 416 Ross HX Spears Manufacturing Company 504
415 MRC AMERICA Speck Pumps – Pool Products, Inc. 417
417 Speck Pumps – Pool Products, Inc. Tenji, Inc 113
504 Spears Manufacturing Company TJP, Inc. 513
513 TJP, Inc. Waterco Usa 217
515, 517 Ipex North America Weld-On Adhesives, Inc. 108

 

Facility & Accommodations

This years Host Facility is:

Oregon Zoo

This years hotel is:

Holiday Inn Portland – Columbia Riverfront
909 N Hayden Island Dr, Portland, OR 97217

All AALSO  block rooms in the hotel are officially sold out!

 

There are other hotels in the area,

The Oxford Suites hotel is very close by.

 

 

 

 

The local airport is the Portland International Airport PDX

7000 NE Airport Way, Portland, OR 97218

 

Arriving & Departing transportation will be the responsibility of each attendee.  FlyPDX – Ground Transportation

Transportation to and from AALSO evening events will be provided by AALSO.

Agenda

Agenda available now!

Abstracts

Thank you to all who submitted abstracts!

We are no longer accepting abstracts for presentations for the 2025 Symposium!

The 31st annual AALSO Symposium & Workshops will be hosted by the Oregon Zoo in Portland Oregon and take place March 29th – April 2nd, 2025 .

Thank you to everyone who submitted lecture presentation abstracts.

Topics should include but are not limited to:

Instrumentation, Green and Sustainable Technologies, Renovations, LSS and Exhibit Design, Innovations, Water Quality, and Dirty Laundry.

Presentations will be both in-person and virtual!

Transferable Registration: Virtual Presenters may now transfer their FREE registration! If you have a presentation to share but are currently unable to commit to attending in-person, consider sending a fellow staff member in your place!

All presentations will be video recorded by Animal Professional and will be available on their website.

We thank you all for your participation!

 

 

Abstract Directions:

 

(1) Title:
Presentation title should be short and succinct, but clearly represent the theme of the presentation.

(2) Authors:
Include the full names and affiliations of all authors; with full mailing address, email address, and telephone number.

(3) Abstract text:
Abstracts should be informative, stating the purpose of the work and summarize significant findings. They should include an introduction, convey the main point, and outline results and conclusions. Contributions should be scientifically robust. Abstracts should not contain statements such as “this will be discussed”; instead, include information to make the abstract informative. Abstracts must not exceed 150 words.

Submissions & Deadlines

 

Registration is FREE for all lecture presenters! *One per presentation

Abstract submission deadline: January 24th 2025

Notification of acceptance: January 31st, 2025

Workshops

2025 Workshops

Once again we will offer an assortment of hands on workshops this year. Workshop registration will open in the fall.

Workshop Agenda is available now!  Click HERE to view this years assortment of workshops.

Workshop Abstracts can be viewed by clicking HERE

We received a lot of great feedback in the workshop surveys and wish to thank all who took the time to provide us with input.

Certifications

Get Certified

AALSO offers a multi-level operator competency acknowledgement program based on exams created and administered by the AALSO Certification Committee.

AALSO believes that it is appropriate to develop recognition criteria and a proficiency program that encourages Zoo and Aquarium institutions to incorporate these training criteria into their operator development program.

 

* additional fee applies (contact treasurer@aalso.org for more information)

For workshop related questions: workshops@aalso.org
For agenda related questions: agenda@aalso.org

Previous Symposiums & Events

I very much lacked hands-on experience in life support and AALSO provided me that experience in plentiful amounts. The certification exams were an additional bonus that greatly aids my own professional development.

Workshops were AMAZING. It is one thing to read white papers and look at tech sheets but it’s another thing to be able to do it. The only wish I have is to have more time to do more workshops

Really appreciated the “choose your own adventure” pacing of the conference.  I felt like I had the opportunity to shape my week’s schedule in a way that best suited what I needed versus getting stuck in one track.  Offering the hands-on workshops multiple times through the week was appreciated.