VCF PNW 2026 - Six weeks left!

[Michael Brutman]

Hi everybody,

We are less than six weeks away from the event.  I have some quick notes and things to ask for:

• Everybody:
• I've updated the participant guide.  I've added the detailed schedule and some other notes.
• We have a volunteer who is going to help us put together a nice news-style "reel" for the return of VCF PNW.  If you want to avoid the camera for whatever reason, that's fine, please just give me a heads-up.  (Nobody will appear on camera without consent.)
• Exhibitors:
• I'm putting together an online event program.  Please send me your exact exhibit title and a paragraph describing the exhibit.  I'll help you with the "word smithing" part, but you have to help me first by giving me something to work with.  Please start sending these to me, or risk my persistent nagging.
• Our load-in time will be on Friday afternoon, starting after noon and going to 6pm.  This is different than at the ICF events, where our load-in time went later into the evening.  Please be aware and read that section of the guide.  (Some of the exhibits will have a later load-in time due to other activity at the community center.)
• Presenters: We have a dedicated presentation room now and I've created the presentation schedule.  We also have solid plans (and help!) for recording the presentations.  How are those presentations going? :)  Please plan on getting your presentation to me a week or two before the event for a small review.  Remember, target 40 to 45 minutes and 15 minutes for questions.
• Volunteers: I've started to loosely organize the volunteer squads.  Please check the volunteer section in the participant guide and if you have a burning desire to work on something specific let me know.

Advertising:

So far VCF PNW seems to be a very well kept secret.  Part of that is my fault - we had a delay in locking down the presentation room.  I've updated the home page at https://vcfpnw.org/ and we are ready to start advertising!

Here is how you can help:

• If you have a favorite vintage computing web forum that you are active on, post there about the event.
• Are you on X/Twitter, the Fediverse, or something similar?  Spread the word there too.
• Do you have your own prominent web site or YouTube Channel?  Don't be shy, go ahead and spam for us ...

Questions?  Let me know.  Lastly, stay tuned to the participant guide - I'll be updating it more frequently now that we are in the final weeks of preparation.

Regards,

Mike