Recession Buster Deals Offered

It is hard to believe we are into the second week of September already. What this means is the speakers are scrambling to finish their white papers and polish up their sessions for the conference.

Here at Geek Gathering Headquarters it means we are busy making decisions on what we can do within budget, starting to order things we need for the conference, and firming up details with the conference center.

We're definitely seeing a drop off with registrations this year. Based on what people have told us, it mostly has to do with the condition of the global economy. So we have a couple of special "recession buster" deals we hope will encourage a few more people to sign up for the best Visual FoxPro conference in North America.

Deal #1: "Organizers: please share my deal!"
If you already registered and paid for the conference and you know someone who wants to register, you can give them the same deal you got when you registered. If you want to come to the conference and you know someone who got in at the Super Saver ($620) or the Early-bird ($695) registration, you can sign up for the same price they did. Sharing is caring!

Deal #2: Southwest Fox "Pair Programmer" deal
Have one or more FoxPro friends who are considering coming to Southwest Fox? Sign up together and take $50 off each of the registrations.

No matter what deal you take, we will give you your first pre-conference session for free!

There's only one catch. You have to take advantage of this deal by 11:59 PM September 30, 2009 Eastern time. We have to make some serious commitments on October 1 for various expenses we have for the conference.

Need some more convincing? How about some new news about the conference:

1) Sara Ford, Program Manager for CodePlex (home of VFPX) is going to present: "Towards a Stronger Open Source Ecosystem on CodePlex.com" at the Thursday night keynote.
http://swfox.net/blog/2009/09/southwest-fox-2009-keynote-announcement.html

2) Schedule of the conference sessions is posted
(http://swfox.net/schedule.aspx)

3) We have added a couple of bonus sessions on Friday, including "Show Us Your App," "Getting involved in VFPX" and an open space discussion "The Future of the VFP Developer."

Got suggestions? info@swfox.net
Got questions? info@swfox.net
Got registrations? register@swfox.net

Or you can call the Geek Gatherings' World Headquarters at 586.254.2530.

Read about the registration process and get the registration application here:
http://www.swfox.net/register.aspx

Check out our list of amazing speakers:
http://www.swfox.net/speakers.aspx

Dig into our six session tracks:
http://www.swfox.net/sessionstrack.aspx

Follow the news about the conference on our blog:
http://swfox.net/blog/index.htm

Use our brochure to convince your boss (or spouse or SO) to let you go:
http://www.swfox.net/brochure.pdf

Only 36 days until we meet in Mesa. We hope to see you there.

Super-saver deadline is July 1

Your opportunity to save big on registration for Southwest Fox ends soon. Super-saver registration offers $125 off the price of the conference, and gives you one free half-day pre-conference session, for total savings of $224. But hurry, because the super-saver offer expires on July 1.

Check out the the complete list of speakers and
topics on the Southwest Fox website.

Conference Registration App Update

Based on our customer feedback we have released a new version of the Conference Registration applet. If you have already installed the first release (Build 151) you can install the new version (build 161) right over the existing folder. All your data will be preserved, but a new version of the EXE and the Help file will get installed. The newest build is a full install if you have not installed this applet at all. The same one install works for everyone.

There is no need to resend your registration if you have already registered (yes, several people have)!

Here is the list of changes for this build:

• Message is displayed if you previously sent in a registration when you start the application. If you cancelled the registration before it was emailed you can delete the ZIP file(s) from the SendZip folder if you don't want to see this message.
• Tooltip on the highlighted area warning you contact information is shared with select vendors. The tooltip tells you which information is shared with the vendors.
• Added shortcut menu to all textboxes and editboxes to help with undo, cut, copy, paste, clear, and select all functionality. This was added specifically to meet a request from a tablet PC user, but naturally works for everyone.
• Additional adjustments were made to help out those with low resolutions or for those working on tablet PCs in portrait (tall and narrow) mode.
• Added hyperlinks to conference Twitter page and the Southwest Fox Conference blog.
• Updated specific data entry elements in the Help file to note the information shared with vendors. (Name, company, address, city/province/region, country, email, daytime phone number)
• Updated the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) topic.

There was one minor bug:

• Corrected the registration date and time when registration is sent to organizers.

Please download the new setup file before sending in your registration to enjoy some of the tweaks and to provide the smoothest of experiences. All the details about the registration process can be found on the conference registration page, including the download and a 15 minute video showing you the installation and using the registration applet.

Southwest Fox Sessions and Speakers Announced

We announced the speaker and session lineup for Southwest Fox 2009 today. This year was the hardest yet selecting from the list of proposals because we had a record number of submissions. Once again, there are great topics such as using Visual Earth in VFP applications, implementing MySQL, getting the most out of FoxCharts, and adding full-text search to your applications.

Registration is now open, so be sure to sign up today for a fun three days in Phoenix in October. Take advantage of the “Southwest Fox Stimulus Plan”: if you register before July 1, you save $125 and get a free half-day pre-conference session, a $99 value. With sessions on Web development, source control, and refactoring legacy code, the hard part will be picking which one to attend.

We also offer an early-bird special: register before September 1 and save $50.

We're looking forward to seeing you in October!

Interesting Early Statistics

I spent a little time this week preparing for an interview about Southwest Fox on The Fox Show, (not posted yet), and came across some interesting statistics with respect to the registrations.

• 31% of registrations are first time to Southwest Fox
• 11% of registrations are first time to a Visual FoxPro conference

The way we receive registrations has definitely changed since we tweaked the registrations process a bit:

• 51% email
• 29% fax
• 13% snail mail
• 7% in-person

Email and fax have flipped percentages and email and in-person remain almost the same. This past week I came up with a couple of ideas I might implement for next year.

81 days until the conference convenes in Mesa!

Registration One-Day Record Set

The pace of registrations yesterday was exhilarating and exhausting, but at the end of the day I processed 22 registrations. This sets a new one-day record for Geek Gatherings. The previous day record was 14.

Fingers are soar and I am behind on the processing of the registrations. So if you are thinking you missed the deadline to save on the early-bird, your right. But...we are a group who believe in second chances. {g}

Based on the fact I am tired and in a weak state from all the data entry, I am officially extending the deadline until Monday July 7th at Midnight, EDT. Consider this the last chance to get in on the $75 discount and the free pre-conference session.

Registrations are just a little behind last year's record setting pace, but just by a little bit.

Registrations heating up, so are prizes

My day started with some sweet news I wanted to share with everyone. Just in case you have not read the news on the Southwest Fox site, I wanted to let you know that Tightline Computers has donated three licenses for Microsoft's Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Suite and MSDN Premium Subscription (1-year), valued at US$11,000 EACH.

That means we have six licenses to give away! Imagine yourself returning to the office on October 20th with one of these licenses. How good would that feel?

Thanks to Andy Kramek and Marcia Akins for this fantastic contribution to the conference.

Not long after I read Marcia's email, six registrations dropped in the registration email box. Looks like it could be a very busy day.

Southwest Fox Just Got Better

Southwest Fox 2008 Gold sponsor xSQL Software is giving away a free license of xSQL Data Compare Pro (a $399 value -- allows you to compare and synchronize data in two SQL Server databases) to every conference participant. What a great offset of the conference price – you pay $695 for the conference and get back more than half of it ($399) with this offer alone! Even better, you'll receive your free license as soon as you register for Southwest Fox 2008 so you don't even have to wait until October!

Registration Streamlined for Email

I had a recent discussion with some people coming to Southwest Fox 2008 concerning the registration process and possibly streamlining it. They asked a question about online registration and why we don't have it. The basic reason is simple: I don't want to store your credit card information on our Web site or someone else's Web site. The merchant setup we have is relatively economical and integrates with QuickBooks seamlessly, but requires me to enter in the credit card number into QuickBooks. I literally have had nightmares about someone calling claiming we were responsible for their credit card getting out for hackers and thieves. Not going to do it (in my best impersonation of Dana Carvey impersonating George Herbert Walker Bush).

The reason the person was interested in an online form is the fact they have to print out the form and sign it, then scan it in to send to me via email. Some registrations come in with a scanned signature image pasted into the Word document. Others have printed out the registration and fax the printed form with the added cost of a one or two minute long distance phone call. All this because they had to sign the form. This takes more time for everyone using either technique. Wouldn't it be nice if you could just fill out the form and email it in and have the signature somehow be electronic? Sure. Several registrations emailed in have a note on the signature line about the signature being "on file." The fact the individual emailed it to us is good enough for the electronic signature. So feel free to email those registrations in.

Earlier this year I was streamlining the data entry part of the registration. I was curious on the distribution for the way people sent us registrations for last year's conference. I was surprise by the results back then:

1. Fax: 49%
2. Email: 29%
3. Snail Mail: 13%
4. In Person: 9%

I expected email to be the clear winner. So far the distribution for this year's registration is:

1. Fax: 43%
2. In Person: 24%
3. Email: 19%
4. Snail Mail: 14%

Now I might have a better understanding why so many people prefer fax. It makes no difference to me how you send in a registration. The streamlining of the process is designed to help you save time and possibly a little bit of cash.

With the biggest bulk of registrations expected over the next few weeks I think this streamlining of the process is being timed well. Let me know your thoughts. We are open to different ideas especially if it reduces administrative overhead.

The updated registration form is on the Southwest Fox Web site. No need to get it if you already have it filled out, just note on the signature lines that your signature is "on file."

Only 22 days to take advantage of the early-bird registration benefits: save $75 for the registration, get a free pre-conference session, a chance at a $300 scholarship toward your registration from White Light Computing, and the bragging rights that you are already registered for Southwest Fox 2008.

Only 129 days until we meet in Mesa!