Shedding Some Light

We’ve issued the Call for Speakers for both the Southwest Fox and Southwest Xbase++ 2014 conferences. If you are interested in presenting at either conference, please check out the Call for Speakers page.

This is your chance to share what you know with others in your development community. There is no higher calling as a software developer and a great opportunity to take what you have learned and bring that knowledge to your peers in person.

Someone recently asked the organizers why they should submit sessions to a conference their boss is going to send them to anyway, and what they would get from the experience. Honestly, speaking is really more because you want to do it than what you can get from it. We responded with the following:

1. Preparing materials is a great way to really learn a topic deeply. (my personal favorite reason)
2. There is the pleasure of knowing you are sharing your knowledge with others. For some of us, it is addictive.
3. For independent developers, it’s also a great way to become known as an expert and as a result sometimes you get more business.
4. You get invited to the speaker dinner. Who doesn’t want food and drinks and some laughs with your friends?

There are many more reason to speak at a conference. It is personal and the reasons for doing it are personal. Additionally, you get my personal gratitude. I know the effort it takes to prepare sessions and I know the sacrifices made by each person who accepts the challenge. Speakers are remarkable in so many ways.

All the details are found in the Call for Speakers doc.

Once again, Geek Gatherings is using the conference Submission, Registration, and Evaluation site developed by White Light Computing. Think up some topics and make it your next stop.

Guidebook

Southwest Fox and Southwest Xbase++ have gone mobile! We’ve created a conference schedule on Guidebook, a popular mobile guide for events. Simply install the Guidebook app on your mobile device, then load the Southwest Fox/Xbase++ 2013 guide. You’ll be able to see complete session descriptions, view the conference schedule, see speaker photos and biographies, create to-do items, and best of all, create a customized schedule of sessions.

See our Guidebook page for details on how to set up our guide on your mobile device.

Broadcasting Sessions

For the last 7 years we have broadcast the conference Keynote and this year we are adding one conference session we think will interest Visual FoxPro and Xbase developers.

1. Keynote: “In Code We Trust” by Christof Wollenhaupt
2. “Project PolarFox: Sneak Preview” by Steffen Pirsig

See SWFoxTV for all the details including dates and times. Sessions should be recorded if all goes well in case you are busy with other things and cannot watch it live.

The VFPX book is finally available for purchase!

Just in case you have been busy, or on vacation, or not on Twitter or Facebook where I posted this earlier, our book “VFPX: Open Source Treasure for the VFP Developer” is available directly from dFPUG in Germany. (this book is not available from Hentzenwerke, so no need to check for it there)

Go to the FoxRockX home page and click the Get VFPX! on the menu. US$49.90 is the introductory price.

From what I have been told, Rainer has been swamped and short-handed so fulfilling the orders is slower than most people expect. Please be patient. I think you will find it has been worth the wait.

From the back of the book is something we hope sounds like a future review on Amazon.com:

This book is terrific! I had no idea VFPX was this extensive. This book documents 35 VFPX projects in 600 pages. It is the encyclopedia of VFPX projects for Visual FoxPro developers written by the leading VFPX authorities in our community. The authors share their real world experience, which saves you time and provides a jumpstart on using the different tools and components. At first glance, VFPX can be a bit daunting. This book is organized so you can select any VFPX project you want to know more about and read about it in a single chapter (except for a few projects that are so big, a single chapter wasn’t sufficient). By the time you finish the chapter, you know how to install the tool or component, what it does, and all the functionality it provides. The authors share the benefits and the shortcomings in great detail. This book saves you time, and helps you improve your Visual FoxPro development experience and the way your applications work for your customers. Get it today!

While I am slightly biased, I think this may be the single most important book on Visual FoxPro since “Hacker’s Guide to Visual FoxPro 7.0″

Special thanks to my fellow authors and partners Doug Hennig, Jim Nelson, Eric Selje, and Tamar E. Granor. It was a pleasure working with everyone on this massive project.

One last quick reminder: you can save $50 by registering with the early-bird registration discount. The deadline is this Saturday, August 31st. Every registered attendee gets admission and white papers to all regular conference sessions.

http://geekgatherings.com/Registration

To see what a couple of our speakers have to say about their session, check out the conference blog.

Only 50 days until we gather in Glibert!

Thanks to those of you who responded promptly to our message about the future of Southwest Fox. Registration has picked up, but we still need to hear from more of you before the Super-saver deadline.

June 30th is less than a week away and we thought we would pass along a reminder just in case you forgot to type it into your task list, or put a yellow sticky note on your monitor. We still need people to register to make the conferences happen.

The conference takes place October 17-20, 2013 in Gilbert, Arizona and we really hope you can be there. We would hate to see you miss out on the $125 discount and the free pre-conference session. The pre-conference sessions are quite popular this year.

Head over to the registration Web site today: http://geekgatherings.com/Registration. As promised, we are not cashing checks or processing credit cards for new registrations until the middle of July.

Already registered? Thanks. Can you help us remind your fellow developers who have been procrastinating about the looming deadline?

Please go listen to the recent “FoxShow #77: Southwest Fox 2013″ produced by Andrew MacNeill for some important news concerning Southwest Fox 2013.

I’ll wait here while you listen….Done?

OK, now go read the official written word from the organizers on the same subject on Doug Hennig’s blog post “You can save Southwest Fox.”

I’ll wait here while you read….Done?

Great, thanks for taking the time to listen and read. The Fox Communitgy has done a terrific job supporting this conference for the last nine years. We really want to do it for a tenth.

We want you to hear our voices so it was loud and clear, and not misinterpreted. The conference needs your support. If you plan to come to the conference, please, please get registered. It has never been more important!

Geek Gatherings Registration Page

Only 122 days until we (hopefully) gather in Gilbert.

The Ceil Silver Ambassador Fund raises money from the VFP community to bring a developer to the Southwest Fox conference as an ambassador for the developers in his or her country. This gives the recipient the opportunity to meet and share experiences with developers attending Southwest Fox and gives other attendees the opportunity to learn about VFP development in the recipient’s country.

We are looking for nominations from the VFP community for the 2013 recipient. To nominate someone you think deserves to be selected, please email their name and a brief list of their contributions to the VFP community to ambassadorfund@swfox.net. Names must be submitted no later than May 31, 2013.

In addition, we are looking for donations to allow us to pay for the travel costs for the ambassador. We urge you to consider donating any amount you see fit, small or large, to this fund. See http://www.swfox.net/ambassador.aspx for details. 100% of donated money goes to the travel costs for the ambassador. Not a single penny is used to cover administrative costs. All time managing the fund and working through the selection process is donated. No one is paid for their time.

Geek Gatherings LLC has officially opened registration for Southwest Fox 2013! The developer conferences will be held October 17-20, 2013 at the SanTan Elegante Conference and Reception Center, the same great location as last year. Last year was a huge success.

Super-Saver Registration, which saves you $125, is available only through June 30th, so don’t wait. Head over to the registration Web site today: http://geekgatherings.com/Registration

Registration fees are the same as last year! More details are available on the conference’s registration page.