Whil,

I know that there are a lot, and I mean a whole lot, of VFP developers who greatly appreciate what you do with GLGDW and the VFP books. Don't let a few idiots bug you.

>Hi folks,
>
>There's been some discussion on the various online forums about why Hentzenwerke won't be at DevCon this year. A lot of guesses, some innuendo, and a few half-truths, much of which implies that I'm doing this for competitive reasons and personal gain at the expense of another. It's all nonsense. Here's what's really going on:
>
>1. I'm not going to have a booth at DevCon purely because of financial reasons. I paid less than $2000 for my first booth at DevCon a decade ago, and there were about 2400 attendees. Advisor wants $3000 for a booth and everyone I've talked to is saying that 500 attendees is a good guess for this year's attendance.
>
>In addition, unlike other vendors, I have to ship product to and from the show. And as every owner of HackFox 6 will attest, that's a lot of weight. It'll run between $3000 and $4000 to ship, warehouse, transfer the several thousand pounds of books I need to have available. And then there's another grand for the trip itself: airfare, hotel, beer.... So all told it's between $7000 and $8000. For 500 attendees? Most of whom already have a sizable Hentzenwerke library?
>
>It doesn't make financial sense anymore. A few years ago the big publishers dropped out of the Fox market because they couldn't make money anymore. I'm dropping out of DevCon's vendor area because it, too, isn't financially worthwhile. I remember when there were 40 or 50 booths in the vendor area. Increased costs and decreasing attendance have pushed most of those vendors out of the conference.
>
>2. My involvement with GLGDW has nothing to do with my attendance at DevCon. GLGDW draws from a different crowd; primarily small shops and independents who pay for it themselves, while DevCon draws a larger percentage from companies that pay for the trip out of the corporate wallet. Given that DevCon can run close to 3 times the cost of GLGDW and has the 'official stamp of approval' from Microsoft, that's pretty much expected.
>
>GLGDW attendance is about the same as it has always been. We had 301 people in 1994, about 310 in both 200 and 2001, and it looks like we're on pace to have about 300 this year. DevCon's 75% slide in attendance over the past six years hasn't really affected GLGDW at all. Perhaps a few people are going to GLGDW instead of DevCon, but then a few people who would have gone to GLGDW aren't going anywhere this year.
>
>2. I'm not attending DevCon as a speaker because I'm not speaking at all this year. I turned down every speaking invitation I've received this year. That includes EssentialFox, Cttm (the Netherland's terrific DevCon), DevCon, and Rainer Becker's wonderful show in Frankfurt. I did attend Kansas City to do User-Hostile, because there wasn't a charge to vendors, and because I wanted to support Russ Swall's first shot at a conference.
>
>3. I'm not attending DevCon at all for personal reasons. I've been to every DevCon since Phoenix, where it was a dry heat. I remember the excitement of those early shows - I'd get extra sleep the week before, because I knew I'd be up until 2 or 3 each morning, and then back awake by 7 for some event or other. I had a list of 50 people that I wanted to meet at Phoenix, just from chatting with people on CIS back then.
>
>When I decided not to go this year, I waited for the letdown, the depression that I expected to hit when I realized I wasn't going to be at the greatest event Fox developers had each year. And that letdown never came. The excitement isn't there for me anymore. I don't know when it disappeared; maybe during the daylong bait-and-switch force feeding of .NET at DevCon two years ago?
>
>Or maybe it was when the keynote speakers had to start asking for applause after demoing new features. I remember Dave Fulton getting a spontaneous standing ovation when he casually mentioned that you didn't need to surround "and" and "or" with periods in expressions. Now, you see a new feature demonstrated, silence from the audience, and then the speaker begs, "Isn't that cool?"
>
>I did a poll among the HWP authors and GLGDW speakers. Of over 60 people, I only know of one (except the 15 or so people speaking at DevCon) who is attending DevCon this year. I didn't nudge or suggest or in any way attempt to influence anyone else about their attendance at DevCon; indeed, I've kept quiet about my own decision specifically because I didn't want to impact DevCon attendance. I'm only posting this now because anyone who has been considering going to DevCon has already made up their mind.
>
>And when Advisor called me about having a booth, they had no idea who I was, nor did they have any idea that I've had a booth at 8 of the last 10 DevCons; when I said I wouldn't be having a booth this year, they just said, "Oh. OK." and hung up. Is this how you treat long-term customers?
>
>I'm rather disappointed at nasty things people have implied about my attendance or lack thereof, particuarly when those people don't know me but still feel entitled to make suppositions based on third-party heresay and an incomplete set of facts, and when people don't have the courage to sign their name. Everyone who knows me knows that I firmly believe that a rising tide lifts all boats. I've worked with other conference organizers year after year to help them put on good conferences (well, except the DevConnections folk, but that's a different, rather sordid story), and I've worked with and encouraged authors to get them published with other publishing houses.
>
>I'd much rather have a smaller chunk of a bigger pie than try to grab the whole pie myself. I'd rather have one of a half dozen conferences in a vibrant, growing market than the only conference in a stagnant market. I'd rather be one of several publishers each battling to produce the best books in that same vibrant, growing market. But that doesn't seem to be our lot in life these days.
>
>I'll do all I can - by the end of 2002, I'll have produced 10 new Visual FoxPro books, have our sixth conference, and ship an issue of FoxTalk every month. And there are some other things going on behind the scenes that I can't talk about right now, but you'll find out about soon enough.
>
>Whil
>
>Hentzenwerke InterGalactic: http://www.hentzenwerke.com
>Latest Fox News: http://foxcentral.net

Chris McCandless
Red Sky Software