Andy Kramek

SW Fox is Coming

As I am sure most of my readers in the USA are already aware, this year's SW Fox conference will be held in Phoenix, AZ real soon now. The full details of the conference can be found at www.swfox.net and if you are not already booked to attend, I strongly urge you to take a good look at this conference - and not just because I am speaking there

Here's what they have to say about the conference this year:

The best Visual FoxPro conference in North America is back! Phoenix, Arizona is the place to be in October 2008 as the top VFP gurus on the planet show you how to make the most of VFP.

Geek Gatherings LLC, a partnership of Rick Schummer, Doug Hennig, and Tamar Granor, are organizing Southwest Fox 2008, to be held at the Arizona Golf Resort and Conference Center in Mesa, Arizona from October 16 - 19, 2008.

Check out the speakers and sessions. We think you'll agree that this is the best lineup of both speakers and content of any VFP conference this year.

Read some of the testimonials from previous attendees. As one attendee said, "The experience gained from just one session can easily pay for the cost of the conference."

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!

Geek Gatherings is also offering eight MSDN Premium Subscriptions, each worth almost $11,000, as door prizes. There is over $100,000 in giveaways in total.

For more information, please see the Southwest Fox Web site, http://www.swfox.net. We look forward to seeing you there!

On a personal note, I have to say that I am really looking forward to SW Fox this year - for a number of reasons. First it is going to be a great conference - with some of the best and most exciting content I have seen in years. Second it is a great location and a lovely time of year to be there.  Third, I hope to meet up with lots of old friends whom I haven't seen for a year.

I should add that this conference will, in all probability, be my last as a speaker. For more than 10 years now I have been lucky enough to have been  asked to speak at least twice a year at conferences. Most years there have been more than two and, in one year as many as five! To be honest, I am tired.

It takes an enormous amount of work to prepare a conference session (my personal estimate is about 50 hours of preparation per hour of speaking time) but as long as I was enthused and felt I had something to say that really didn't matter much. However, I am running out of things to say, and my enthusiasm for the task has waned too - I have other interests outside of FoxPro and they are taking up more of my time these days.

So to all of you who I have met over the years at various conferences I want to say a big THANK YOU for your support and encouragement.

To all the conference organizers I also want to say THANK YOU. Organizing and running a conference is no easy job and it is often a thankless one. Without your efforts and dedication VFP conferences would never have lasted the course and I really hope that you continue to keep up the good work.