Longtime Sweetwater employee here!
I also remember when GearFest was a very small, 1-day affair, and how it exploded about 5 years ago into the phenomenon it has become. The amount of care and effort that goes into making GearFest happen, and happen better every year, would be very difficult to quantify. It truly is a massive combined group effort of Sweetwater employees, manufacturer representatives, and even support staff, volunteers, and outside companies who help us execute the event. Next year's planning begins even before this year's event is over, with specific planning meetings already happening by January.
Craig mentioned this year's improved site layout for the tent "fairgrounds" - I think this was the single biggest GearFest improvement this year (kudos to our corporate architect Mandy). The new layout established logical traffic patterns for customers and made it far easier for a customer to see what they wanted to.
As for the comments about how positive everyone is, I'd say the same about our customers. It really is a delight to host such a large event and have so many customers attend from so many places - and they are invariably enthusiastic in their enjoyment of being at Sweetwater and at GearFest. That's the best part of GearFest, and IMO what drives the positivity.
As you may suspect, there's a wealth of notes and suggestions compiled each GearFest which we apply to making the next GearFest even better, and that process is already well underway.
For those of you who attended GearFest, either as a customer, a manufacturer representative, as a presenter, for the press, or remotely via live streams or GearFest reports - thank you! We look forward to doing it all again next summer!