FoxPro ILL-Advisor
Well, having been away for three weeks it is comforting to know that FoxPro Advisor is being true to form and once again doing its utmost to disrupt the FoxPro community. You may recall that back in 2002 they originally announced that their next (i.e. 2003) DevCon would be held in November, quite coincidentally conflicting with both Whil Hentzen's GLGDW and Rainer Becker's German Devcon conferences. This at a time when Advisor had always held its conferences in either late spring or early fall. Fortunately they relented on that decision and changed so that DevCon 2003 did not conflict with GLGDW and Germany.
But now they are doing it again! I see from the Advisor web site that their VFP conference has been moved out of the Las Vegas group of conferences (to be held in April of next year) and has, instead, been added to the Phoenix, Arizona group for August 27-31. Now let me see! Why does Phoenix ring a bell when associated with “VFP” and “Conference”?
Oh yes, SW Fox has, for the past two years been hailed as the best value VFP conference in the USA and it is held, each October, in Phoenix - just 5 or 6 weeks after Advisor's (so-called) “VFP” conference.
Now I am not normally a cynical and suspicious person but this is just too much of a coincidence for me to swallow and it certainly looks like a deliberate attempt to interfere with SW Fox. Something which, given the decline in conference attendance in general, and in VFP conference attendances in particular we, as a community, certainly do not want to see. Having two conferences in the same location, within such a short time of each other can not possibly be described as being helpful to the VFP community and, yet again, demonstrates that Advisor's interest is simply to kill all competitive ventures. Remember, FoxPro Advisor is the magazine that will not even acknowledge the existence of, let alone advertise, any VFP conference other than their own!
As for the technical merit and content of Advisor’s conferences - I invite you to judge for yourselves. Go look at the Conference Reports on UT, the speaker lists and topics on the various conference web sites and then decide.
What will I do about it? Unfortunately there is little else I can do other to state categorically that I will not now, nor ever, have anything to do with anything that comes out of the Advisor stable - be it conference, publication or other event. Even if I am not invited back as a speaker I will definitely attend SW Fox 2006 instead. Not only will it be a better FoxPro conference than anything that Advisor can manage it is so much cheaper that I will be able to afford to go to another conference (Montreal in the spring, Prague in early summer or even Frankfurt later in the fall) and still spend less than the cost of Advisor’s event.
I would also urge anyone reading this to let Advisor Publications know that they are not happy with this scheduling and that they too will shun FoxPro Advisor's conference if they persist in this blatant disregard for the well-being of the community that has, for so many years, supported them loyally.