First, allow me to address the issue of selling items at the meet. In the past it has been part of the fun of the event so long as no one went overboard with it. Simply putting a price tag on an item was all that would be necessary. This allowed some attendees to sell some of their items and other attendees to find some real treasures. This is a win-win situation for all as long as it did not get out of hand and it has not in the past four CanFests that I organized. So, in my opinion, a little bit of wheeling and dealing is part of the fun and excitement of the event. Given that history, I will let others decide how they would like to proceed.
Regarding the other issue with this being scheduled on the same weekend as CanJam, Army-Firedawg has explained it nicely. It was felt that we didn't want to have a large presence of vendors as that changes the feel and purpose of the event. It can be a good thing but the focus changes. We have done this in the past and it was a terrific experience. We had some very "heavy hitters" in the industry who were kind enough to take the time and expense to be with us. However, it was decided to keep this low key and more personal. We have done both types of events in the past. Should there be an interest in having a more vendor focused meet for the next one, then this could be considered. Please realize that this is much more work and time intensive for the organizers and several volunteers would be needed. However, it can be very rewarding both in seeing new equipment directly from the manufacturers and actually meeting them.
Additionally, in regards to CanJam, it was felt that there would be very few, if any attendees, that would want to attend both CanJam and CanFest 5. Thus, we did not think this would have any effect on our attendance.
Finally, nc42acc, you MUST attend. This is a brotherhood/sisterhood and is an important support system for all of us. It's nice to see that other people are as crazy or even more so than you. So, if you attempt to not join us we will hunt you down and drag you to the meet and we might even ground you from using headphones for a month. We also know people in the Winston/Salem area who break knee caps for a living. Are you getting the hint? See how nice we can be?