Shedding Some Light

I am please to announce Mike Roof is the lucky winner of the White Light Computing $300 Scholarship for the Southwest Fox 2007 conference. Mike’s company is sending four people to the conference so they increased their odds of winning {g}. I talked to Mike yesterday and he is very psyched about not only attending Southwest Fox, but he is also attending the West Wind Technologies Double Impact training the two days before Southwest Fox. We laughed how much his head will hurt after listening to Rick Strahl for two days, followed by two and a half more days of intense conference sessions. A fantastic training opportunity for any developer. It sounds like a lot of developers are taking advantage of this year.

Sorry for the delay in the announcement, but I ran out of time before my vacation and forgot to hold the drawing. Mike’s name was drawn by the lead marketing advisor here at White Light Computing out of the 85 names registered by July 1, 2007.

Congratulations Mike! Only 76 days until we meet in Mesa!

I really thought the month of July would be really slow at the Southwest Fox registration headquarters because the deadline for early-bird registrations ended, but they keep on coming and today we registered our 100th person to attend the conference. Doug will be updating the Who’s Coming list soon, which now stands at 116 people including the presenters. Note: not all the people are on the list because each person has to opt-in.

Most of my expectations have been exceeded, and we are well on our way to breaking all records for Southwest Fox attendance. Only 78 days until Southwest Fox!

I am looking forward to seeing you in Mesa!

I can only start this post out by saying THANKS!

I am overwhelmed by the response to Southwest Fox 2007 and the number of registrations we have taken for the conference. When I talked to Bob about taking over the conference he cautioned me to not be concerned if the registrations were not hot and heavy until a month before the conference. He said I probably would be worried when less than half would register for the early bird. This puts a lot of pressure on the organizer when planning the budget and determining where money can be spent on things like food for attendees, travel for the speakers, and things like meeting the number of room nights we have committed to before hitting financial penalties. He told me to stock up on Tums (and I do have a Costco membership so I can purchase in bulk {g}).

Southwest Fox is in terrific shape for 2007. We have 88 paid registrations so far, which is more than were at the conference last year, and are on a pace to break all attendance records for this conference. I guess it is even possible to sell-out the conference (something we really did not think about when putting this together).

The Who’s Going page is going to be generated and posted in the next few days.

So thanks from the bottom of my heart for the great response and making the planning much easier. For those who still plan on registering, no need to wait until the last minute. Only 98 days before we meet in Mesa!

I am pleased to announce ProLib Software GmbH is the newest Bronze sponsor for Southwest Fox.

ProLib is located in Germany and has a terrific product called Active FoxPro Pages (offered in the USA by F1 Technologies) helping you put VFP Web applications on the Internet. ProLib has provided two licenses to Active FoxPro Pages to give-away during the conference to some lucky attendees. Thanks wOOdy!

We’ve been inundated with registrations this past week and I haven’t had a chance to process them all. So, we’ve decided to extend the early-bird registration until midnight (EDT) Friday, July 6th so you won’t miss your chance to take advantages of the early-bird savings just because of us.

Honestly, I have been overwhelmed by the number of registrations and they have exceeded my wildest expectations. A big thank you to everyone who has registered and to those who plan to register this week and beyond. Friday and Saturday my daughters were giggling every time the fax line rang because they knew I was getting way behind on the processing.

So keep them coming. Heck, as I am writing this blog entry I got a call from a company in Arizona who wants to send four people to the conference. Sweet.

I am so psyched by how great Southwest Fox 2007 is going to be, and cannot wait to start planning Southwest Fox 2008.

I am very excited to announce Sybase iAnywhere is now a Gold sponsor of Southwest Fox 2007!

I was curious why a company like Sybase would like to sponsor our small and humble conference, but the folks at Sybase are very excited about coming and showing what they have to offer Visual FoxPro developers. They are expecting to make some big announcements at the conference. Cool.

You can check out the complete list of sponsors on the Southwest Fox 2007 sponsors page. Please help us show appreciation for all their support of the conference and Fox Community by visiting their pages, and checking out their offerings.

Two more days to get in on the early-bird registration, and 111 days until we meet in Mesa.

For those planning on going to FoxForward this year, you should consider registering by Saturday June 30th so you can save yourself a cool US$100. The price is only US$450 and is a terrific price considering the value you will get out of the conference. The clock is ticking…

The fax line is taking a beating (compared to the usual one or two a month I get) and the emails are coming in quite often with the registrations for Southwest Fox 2007, the best Visual FoxPro conference being held in October this year! You can sense the early-bird deadline is approaching when we took in 5 registrations one day last week.

Just in case you have not heard, the early-bird discount is scheduled to expire on July 1st (this coming Sunday). Now is the time to save yourself US$75, get that freebie pre-conference session (US$99 savings and way more value considering the sessions available), AND possibly get a US$300 tuition scholarship for the conference from White Light Computing. Definitely a great deal. There are more surprises on the way too!

Your humble registration taker (me) appreciates all the attendees who already registered and did not wait until the last week because I really need to get *some* development done for my clients. Still, I am willing to work at all hours of the day to process the registrations as they arrive, so keep on sending them!

Doug, Tamar, and I are happy with the registrations so far, but we are expecting this to be a busy week with those who like to wait until the deadline to push the credit card process out as far as possible. We understand, but the clock is ticking and we hope you get in on the great deal we have on the table at the moment. We know VFP developers are familiar with deadlines and how to manage them. Mark your calendar, post the reminder in your calendar software, stick a note on the monitor, or even write on your hand if necessary, but get the registration form filled out and sent in.

While you are at it, invite a friend to come along. The more the merrier.

Don’t forget, if you need me to help you with the boss and getting her/him to send you to Southwest Fox, or any of the other VFP conferences – give me a call or send me an email. I will be happy to help you out.

I hope to see you in Mesa in 115 days!