Convince your boss!

One of the ideas that came out of our discussion at the MVP Summit was to put together a brochure about Southwest Fox, so people would have something to show the boss (or the spouse or SO). The brochure is available now on the conference website. It contains an overview of the conference, reasons for attending, a list of sessions and speakers, and of course, a registration form.

For those of you trying to convince your boss to pay for the conference or just give you the time, we hope this helps. Please let us know.

Southwest Fox Sessions and Speakers Announced

On May 1, we announced the speaker and session lineup for Southwest Fox 2008. It was even harder selecting from the outstanding list of proposals this year than it was last year, and Rick, Tamar, and I are very excited about the sessions being presented this year. There are some killer topics such as taking advantage of GDI+ in your VFP applications, creating custom report controls, profiling and refactoring code using the VFPX Code Analyst tool, using WMI, taking advantage of the Sedna Upsizing Wizard, using Ajax and jQuery in Web applications ... the list is long and exciting!

Even better, in my opinion, is the chance to see old friends again and meet new ones. Many people say networking is the real reason to attend conferences, and that's absolutely true.

Registration is now open, so be sure to sign up today for a fun three days in Phoenix in October. Even better, if you register before July 1, you get a free pre-conference session, a $99 value. With sessions on Transact SQL, MySQL, and the VFP 9 report writer available, the hard part will be picking which one to attend.

We're looking forward to seeing you in October!

Spreading the word

Rick, Doug and I spent last week visiting Microsoft to attend the MVP Summit (a more-or-less annual opportunity for Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals to interact with Microsoft staff). We spent some time with the organizers of the other two main VFP conferences in the world (the German DevCon , and the Prague DevCon), and a few other MVPs chatting about what we can do to increase conference attendance.

We identified three main problems. The first is convincing people that conferences are worth the money and time. Sometimes, it's the individual we need to convince. Sometimes, it's the boss. We're working on a conference brochure that, among other things, addresses these issues; we'll put it on our site for download and we'll ask VFP user groups to distribute it. The brochure includes testimonials from people explaining why they can't afford not to go to conferences. We're adding them to our Testimonials page, as well, and will be taking a new look at the Why Southwest Fox? page, too.

The second problem is getting people to come back. While lots of people love conferences from the first one they attend, others come once and never come back. At every Fox conference I've ever been to, about one-third of the attendees were new, either to that particular conference or to FoxPro conferences in general.

What determines whether people who come to a first conference come back? Rainer Becker, the organizer of the German conference, contends that it's not about the sessions; it's about what happens between the sessions and after the sessions. Do people get to meet others and form bonds that bring them back? We're working on some ideas to increase the interaction that new attendees have with others.

The final problem is the hardest. We publicize Southwest Fox in all the online VFP venues we know of and we reach out to local VFP user groups. But we also know there are many developers out there working in VFP who've never visited an online forum and don't go to a user group. How can we find these people?

Years ago, Microsoft would have helped by doing a mailing (or an email blast) to registered VFP users. But due to increased privacy concerns, they no longer do that kind of thing; all their mailing lists are opt-in. We're going to look into opportunities to get listed on some of those opt-ins, but again, we're not convinced that people who don't visit the Universal Thread or Foxite or any of the other VFP sites have opted in to any of Microsoft's lists.

We'd love to hear your suggestions on this subject. Send any ideas or testimonials to info@swfox.net and keep watching our site. Registration begins May 1 and we're very excited out this year's list of speakers and topics.

Session Selection Process

Today is opening day for many baseball teams here in the USA. All the players went through spring training to prove to the team management they are the best of the best and will help the team be successful during the year. All the players dream that in October they will be playing for the baseball championship.

In many ways I see parallels with respect to Southwest Fox 2008. Each of the potential speakers have submitted sessions hoping they are selected and make the roster for the conference in Mesa this October.

At Southwest Fox I am both a player and on the management side of things. I don't enjoy being on either side during the selection process. I believe it is the most difficult part of the entire effort to put the conference together.

As a speaker I try to find topics I am passionate about and topics people will be interested in seeing. I submit them hoping the organizers find them to be sessions that draw attendees to the conference. Then I wait for the decision with fingers crossed hoping I get picked and the session I really want to do are the sessions selected. The wait time seems like forever for most conferences. With Southwest Fox I can at least bribe the other organizers to pick my sessions. {g}

As an organizer I try to select topics I think developers find interesting and inspirational. We need to find a great mix of practical topics people can use when they get back to the office on Monday, as well as futuristic "visionary" topics people can think about as they manage new features and projects and their careers. I am looking for as many topics as possible for people to walk out of the session telling others "this session paid for the entire conference."

The organizers are both blessed and cursed by the quality and quantity of sessions to pick from. The problem is simple, more great speakers than we have budget for, and more great sessions than we have slots for. The submissions this year are no different, and maybe even triggering more difficult decisions than what we did last year.

The selection process is in the final stages as Tamar, Doug and I have individually reviewed the proposals and made some of our own picks. We then get together for a conference call for the "Battle Royale" (image of the three of us in a wrestling ring comes to mind - but too many sports metaphors for one day) as we negotiate the slots. Truth is, I am very glad there are three of us to make these decisions because the perspectives give us a rounded selection. I guarantee you, we will do our best to pick the right sessions, keep as much of a balance as possible, and try to provide you with as many sessions as we can where you walk out feeling like that one session was worth the entire trip to Mesa.

199 days until we meeting in Mesa!

Time to submit session proposals

Over the weekend, Doug updated the Southwest Fox website (www.swfox.net) to show information for this year's conference. Simultaneously, we released this year's call for speakers. If you think you have something to share with the VFP community, check it out at http://www.swfox.net/callforspeakers.aspx.

Be sure to read the entire Call for Speakers document, as it explains our philosophy for the conference and for choosing speakers.

Southwest Fox 2008 *and* 2009

During the closing session of Southwest Fox 2007 we announced Southwest Fox 2008.

Today I signed the conference center contracts for 2008 and 2009! So the announcement is official: Southwest Fox 2008 and 2009 will be held in Mesa, AZ at the Arizona Golf Resort and Conference Center (same place as 2007).

The organizers knew the conference location was not going to change based on the overall terrific service the conference center staff provided to us last year. We have worked out a deal we think will benefit everyone who comes to the conference over the next couple of years.

So mark your calendars to come to Southwest Fox in Mesa for at least the next couple of years (and hopefully many more to come):

Southwest Fox 2008: October 16th-19th
Southwest Fox 2009: October 15th-18th

More details to be revealed soon! Only 273 days until the conference this year, and 637 days until 2009 {g}.

Where was KOKOPELLI?

Happy New Year everyone.

One of our questions on the evaluation form asked people to rate KOKOPELLI. One of the themes we got in the responses is "What is KOKOPELLI?" and "Where was KOKOPELLI?"

Apparently we did not do a good job making the Southwest Fox schedule helper applet from Dave Aring public enough on the Web site, in our email announcements, and the RSS feed. You might not be aware that we had it loaded on the kiosk computer we had set up at the registration table. The majority of people who used it gave it a high rating, which is good. What is not good is many people did not get to take advantage of the tool.

Looking on the conference Web site I see it mentioned once on the News page. This is where the only link is. I am hopeful we will get a second chance from Dave to better promote KOKOPELLI. If he does, I promise we will make it more apparent how to get it, and where you can find it.

Southwest Fox 2008 is this year. Only 287 days until we meet in Mesa!