All your points are valid and your experiences are being shared by many these days...


>Hi Tamar,
>
>I must be speaking for myself. I was gathering from the thread that the group was looking for possible solutions as to why attendance would be down or not increasing. I added in my 2 cents that I couldn't go because last Sunday was Father's day and that it wasn't worth it for me to spend a day flying, 2 days at an annual convention and the fourth day flying. If it was at Las Vegas like the other Advisor conventions, I would have scheduled a few vacation days.
>
>Times are different now. Everything is more of a risk and everyone is less affluent. As a result of my health insurance premiums going above $1,000 a month, I made the tough decision to hang up my business and get a full time job. My first year I didn't have vacation and this, my second year I get 10 days vacation. About the only bone my boss throws me is being able to attend the FoxPro DevCon. This country has less vacation days on average than any country in the world. Realizing this, I would like to maximize any free time available. I would have loved to spend 3 or 4 days at DevCon and use 2 of my vacation days enjoying myself in Las Vegas, or New York, or Orlando. Not everone eats, sleeps, and breaths FoxPro.
>
>After reading today that the panel refused to answer questions on marketing, I'm glad I didn't attend. Besides learning the latest and greatest about the product, I want to know if I should invest a majority of my time mastering .Net instead of VFP. If MicroSoft doesn't want to promote VFP any more, I want to know. Unfortunately, it all comes down to dollars and common sense. Now adays, you are lucky to find a 60K job developing in VFP while you can get at least 25% more with other MicroSoft skills. If I got the impression when going for that big account, that massive development project, that 6 or 7 figure contract, that my big brother MicroSoft was going to back me up when I praised VFP, then I could at least get my foot in the door. When I need to hire that 20 year old apprentise programmer that is willing to start at 25K-30K, I need MicroSoft to be telling him for the past 4 year that FoxPro is HOT!!! This way, the graduate will already have VFP skills before he sends me his
>resume.
>
>I respect you and the Advisor staff and all the MicroSoft VFP programmers tremendously. Unfortunately, I feel that you all think to much like programmers and not enough like business people. It is hard to master both skills. That is why MicroSoft should hire a marketing team that is as great in marketing VFP as the developers are in writing it.
>
>Thanks for your time. Please do not be angered by anything I've said. I feel as if I'm going through a programming mid-life crisis.
>
>Louis