Future Commodore Vegas EXPO (fwd)
Robert Bernardo
Amiga brethren)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2004 23:06:18 -0600
From: Bruce Thomas <rbthomas59(at-no-spam)shaw.ca>
Subject: Future Commodore EXPO
----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Panks" <dunric(at-no-spam)yahoo.com>
> You know, I've been meaning to make it to one of the
> Expos for the past three years now. Are there any
> upcoming in Arizona/Nevada/New Mexico/Cali? I live in
> Phoenix and would love to attend an Expo and see all
> the cool machines/people.
>
<snip>
>
> I'd love to attend one sometime in the near
> future...I've missed out on so many of them.
>
Here is some info in answer to Paul's questions posted on September 9th.
At the LUCKY EXPO in May there was Dale Sidebottom's 'favorite hour of the
year' on Sunday morning when attendees sat around and discussed possible
ways to enhance and improve on future EXPOs (although as a first time
EXPO-goer I'd say it would be hard to improve on what Dale and the rest of
the local LUCKY members put on this spring).
The big idea that I seized upon and came home with also sprang from the
fertile young mind of Seth Sternberger when he stated that, in his
profession, they have annual conferences but the events are staged in
different parts of the country so more people get a chance to attend a
'local' event.
Like Paul above, I have wanted to attend an EXPO for quite a few years. We
held some very successful shows in Edmonton in the late 80's and early 90's.
While they were a lot of work to put on they were also very enjoyable and
brought the members of the club who worked on the event much closer as a
group. This year I was very lucky that I was able to work out the
arrangements to attend the LUCKY EXPO when Todd Elliott proposed that I do
the premiere demo for his geoPublish V1.1. Once again, it was a lot of work
to prepare for my demos and it took a lot financially to get to Louisville
but I am very happy that I took advantage of the opportunity when it came
along. To be able to finally meet so many of my Commodore friends that I
have only known through mailing lists, e-mail and the odd phone conversation
was fantastic. There were also so many other people that I met who I had hea
rd of before but never really connected with. It makes it so much easier now
to chat with these people or drop an e-mail to them since we have met face
to face. The social side of Commodore Clubs has always been a very important
part of the success of the computers.
Which takes me back to Seth's point about roving EXPOs.
When I returned home I started looking into User Groups in the Western US. I
contacted a few people to see how active they were. One of the people I
contacted was Robert Bernardo. This worked out great as Robert was planning
a trip north in the summer. During his stop in Edmonton he stayed at my
house for a couple of days. We talked a lot. Did some touristy things. Saw a
ton of Commodore equipment at my buddy Bob's places. And we talked a lot.
A big topic was an EXPO out west. It turned out that Robert would also be
travelling to Las Vegas later in the summer and he would check into some
options while he was there. Robert also came up with a possible name. Here
is a little history.
" Comdex traces its roots to a casino owner who launched the Computer
Dealers Exposition in 1979. Four years later a young Bill Gates delivered
his first keynote speech and demonstrated Microsoft's new DOS 2.0. Although
it grew to become one of the biggest trade shows in the world, at its peak
attracting more than 200,000 attendees and filling more than 1 million
square feet of floor space, Comdex's fortunes have sagged in the past few
years as the tech economy faltered and security jitters kept some companies
from traveling. "
So, what Robert came up with was CommVEx - Commodore Vegas Expo. While in
Vegas Robert met up with Hernan Vergara who works at a place with a very
large room that would be perfect (and cheap) for an EXPO. There is a
reasonably priced hotel just down the road. Things are starting to come
together. Vegas has plenty going for it. There are usually cheap flights
from most places to get there. Hotels can be fairly cheap. It is out west
where a different group will have easier access to attend.
Up to this point a fair number of people have been involved in discussions.
Dale Sidebottom and Randy Harris have provided input and their thoughts on
running an EXPO. Dave Ross (also of SWRAP) has talked with Robert B about
the EXPO. Al Jackson and the 5C's Commodore Club in Las Vegas have said they
could be counted on to provide enough ahrdware for demo's so that people
wouldn't have to lug whole systems across the country. Quite a few people
have been asked for their opinions on whether or not they would attend such
an event.
So far the responses have been quite positive and I think that a great deal
of excitement will build in the coming months.
One of the things behind this effort was not to disturb the existing EXPOs.
I think that Dale Sidebottom and the LUCKY Club and Randy Harris and Dave
Ross and Robert Schwuchow and the SWRAP Club have been doing exceptionally
well with their EXPOs. It's just that I (and a lot of others) can't afford
to go that far every year.
We have the upcoming TPUG World of Commodore show on December 3-5, 2004 in
Toronto. Still a fair distance to go for me. Dale is planning the LUCKY EXPO
for May 13 - 15, 2005. I have not heard about plans for the fall Chicago
SWRAP 2005 EXPO yet but I believe they want to continue their tradition.
I just got off the phone with Robert Bernardo (temporarily disabled after an
accident at work - he can't type) and he agreed that it is time to let the
cat out of the bag in response to Paul's queries.
CommVEx 2005 is tentatively planned for July 30 - 31, 2005 in Las Vegas,
Nevada.
I'm not sure if this will be the start of an annual event or not. It would
be great if the back drop of Las Vegas could provide a place for hundreds of
Commodore Users to gather and share and enjoy each other's company for a
weekend. There is still a lot of planning to be done to make this show a
reality. But we have to get started now because of that old saying -
"Objects on the Calendar are closer than they appear".
We are going to be looking for people with interesting Commodore software,
hardware and activities to put on demos. We are going to be looking for
volunteers to help set things up, man the ticket/registration table, pick
people up at the airport/hotels, etc.
So, if you want to be part of something really great; if you want to attend
the first big Commodore EXPO in the Western United States in this millenium;
if you want to demo your latest Commodore related invention; if you have
Commodore related products for sale and would like to set up a table with
your wares, Please get in touch with Robert Bernardo or myself and let us
know what level of participation you would like to have. The event can only
get better and will only be as good as the participants make it.
Bruce Thomas