The Conference Season is upon us
First, I must apologize for the lack of posting recently but it’s been a hectic couple of months for us in Akron. Preparing for the autumn round of conferences always takes up a lot of time and this year I have been preparing a couple of new sessions, plus a pre-conference workshop on data layer design that has really soaked up my time. Hopefully Marcia and I will see some of the readers of this Blog at one or other of the events we are attending in the next few months.
We are starting out with a one-day “Boot Camp” where we are each giving two sessions, plus one joint session for the LA Fox user group, on Saturday 24th September. If you are in the LA area, and have some free time come along and join us. You can get all the details at this web page:
http://www.lafox.org/newsletter/bootcamp6.htm
Then, in October we are lucky enough to be speaking at SW Fox in Phoenix (Thursday 13th October – Sunday 16th October). See http://www.swfox.net/Speakers2005.aspx for details,
This is, without doubt, going to be THE conference to go to this year. If you have been wondering whether it is really worth it, stop wondering and GO! The speaker list is IMPRESSIVE and the topics and content will be of the highest standards. Notice that not only will Ken Levy be there, but so will Calvin Hsia! The speaker list is a “Who’s Who” of VFP experts and exponents and I for one will NOT be missing Steve Black’s session on “FoxPro is dead! Now what do I say?” or Doug Hennig’s session on “Extending VFP with VFP”. Oh, did I mention Cathy Poutney’s “Hidden Secrets of the VFP IDE” or Marcia’s “Modeling Hierarchies”. Don’t just sit there, get signed up and get that flight booked!
Phew! We get home from Phoenix and within a couple of weeks are off to Frankfurt, Germany, to speak at what I believe is the best all-around conference, on any topic, anywhere in the world (and my personal experience includes conferences in the UK , USA, Germany, Holland, Czech Republic, and Australia). Dates for Frankfurt are from 8:00am on Thursday 10th November to 6:00 pm on Saturday 12th November. A hectic and fun-filled three days!
Rainer Becker, the organizer not only hosts a tightly organized and extremely well-run conference with top-notch international speakers, but the location is fabulous, the food unbelievable and they even have free beer in the evenings! What more can you ask? Flights to Germany in November are incredibly cheap, the hotel is very reasonably priced and the conference is a bargain any way you slice it.
Marcia was the first person from the US side of the Atlantic to go to Frankfurt (as a delegate) back in 1998 [and yes, if you are wondering, it was at that conference that we became more than just friends and colleagues] and there are still only a handful of people who have made the trip – Steve Dingle, Bill Anderson and Twila Miller for sure. But anyone who has ever been there will tell you that it is simply wonderful!
Don’t speak German? You don’t need to! Apart from the fact that most people over there speak better English than we do, there is always at least one, and usually two, sessions in English for every time slot. Just take a look at the speaker list for Frankfurt this year (Click the link at top left for “Redner (engl)”):
http://devcon.dfpug.de/
Surprisingly I am often asked why anyone bothers to go to conferences these days when there is so much information and help available on line. Sadly conference attendances are down everywhere, and that is I believe largely due to the proliferation of on line information reducing the perceived value of attending. This is, I know, is a fallacy!
No matter how much you read, nor how much time you spend on line, there is simply no substitute for sitting down with a bunch of people who do the same things that you do, with the same tools, and who have the same love of what they do. I always get a buzz out of talking to other VFP developers about what they do and how they do it. I always learn something new in the process too. Of course, I also get to see a lot of old friends, and make new ones every time. For the attendees there is the added bonus that you actually get the chance to grab Doug Hennig, or Steve Black, or Tamar Granor and ask them your special question directly! There is no-one speaking at conferences in the VFP world who will ever ignore you, or do anything but their very best to get you an answer. If not there and then, then by asking someone else, or by following up after the conference. Trust me, this is true for all speakers!
One of the most important things, in my book, about being a speaker at any conference is being there! To me, that means being visible, and available, to the people who are attending the conference. After all I just said that the main benefit of a conference is not the formal sessions, but the casual interaction with others, and particularly with the speakers. This is why you can usually find me in the bar (what other reason could there be?) it’s an obvious place to start.
I particularly remember an occasion at an Advisor Devcon a few years ago where Jim Booth and I were talking to some people over lunch and one of them had a problem with a Web Service (this was in VFP 7.0). He was trying to describe the problem when Jim asked it he had a laptop handy and could show us the problem. So the guy ran up to his room and brought his laptop back down. Well, we took a look , saw the problem, but we couldn’t solve it (hey, neither Jim nor I are exactly web-oriented. We’re data guys!) But just them Markus Egger walked by, so we grabbed him! He couldn’t solve it, but he dragged Rick Strahl over and got him involved, we were getting closer to the solution now! Then Christof Lange walked past, saw the crowd and came over. Finally he and Rick nailed it! It was some obscure configuration issue with ASP that was causing the problem. But what a concentration of VFP (and associated technology) talent! The guy who had the problem not only got his solution but, as he said afterwards, he also got a ton of useful information! Just from the conversation between Markus, Rick and Christof as they analyzed the problem he learned a bunch of stuff (and so did I!). For me, THIS is why I go to conferences!
Of course, you have to work at it too! The people that always amaze me at conferences are those who attend the sessions and then go back to their room and hide. Don’t expect people to come and find you – you have to be willing to go up and introduce yourself – talk to people, ask what they are doing and they will ask you. It’s all about making that first contact. It can be hard, I know because, believe it or not, I am basically a very shy and retiring person.
So as I said at the start of this Blog, make the effort and don’t put it off until ‘next year’! If you do, there may not BE a next year for these wonderful conferences. If you haven’t been, stop wondering and take the plunge – you’ll enjoy it! If you have been before, you’ll know that what I am saying is true, and I look forward to seeing you somewhere on the circuit real soon!