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--------------------------------------------------------------------- ONE BBSCON Briefs - by Clint Bradford (C) Copyright 1993 ATD & Clint Bradford --------------------------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents ----------------- I. Overview of ONE BBSCON II. DAY ONE - The Flight to Colorado III. DAY TWO - Setting Up the ASP Booth IV. DAY THREE - Vendor Booths Open V. DAY FOUR - Breaking it All Down VI. EPILOGUE VII. Notes --------------------------------------------------------------------- I. ONE BBSCON 1993 - An Overview --------------------------------------------------------------------- With over 137 Educational Sessions and over 100 Vendor Exhibits, ONE BBSCON is the largest gathering of Sysops and Telecommunications Professionals the world has ever seen. Place these people in an environmentally/esthetically pleasing locale such as Colorado Springs - and you have the potential for one incredible week. And it was. I have been assigned to run the ASP Booth at ONE BBSCON. We went first class with the Booth Choice: The Broadmoor Hotel's International Center housed 81 10x10' Booths for Vendors. A dramatic 16,000 square-foot assemblage of telecommunications- related vendor offerings. The adjacent Colorado Hall provided an additional 5,000 square feet of 6x8' exhibits. Seminars were broken down into "tracks" for attendees: -How to Run a BBS for Profit -Survey of BBS Software -Internet -Legal/Social Issues -Technology -Connectivity -Applications -Education & Government And, of course, there were evening activities. What follows are Random Notes taken during the course of my experience at the Conference. Thanks for reading. As always, I may be reached at ATTENTION to Details BBS at 909/681-6221, or on CIS at 71160,2176. --------------------------------------------------------------------- II. DAY ONE: The Flight to Colorado --------------------------------------------------------------------- Arrived at Ontario International Airport an hour and a quarter early, to check in my 270+ pounds of Leaflets, Brochures, Diskettes, and Prizes for the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP) Booth. Checked in four boxes with the SkyCap. SkyCap gives me three Claim Checks. "But Sir, I have four items." "No problem, Mr. Bradford. Have a nice flight!" OK. We'll see. Boarded my flight, and after a ten minute wait, we hear, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your pilot speaking. We're having trouble starting our Number Three Engine, so we're going to pull back to the Boarding Gate." Didn't think flying made me nervous. Ten minutes later: "We think we isolated the problem - need to get a little more air to the #3 engine..." Huh? More air? Aren't the engines OUTSIDE? "We have isolated the leaking valve and we're OK." "Isolated" it? Don't we NEED it? REPLACE IT, DARN IT. And make sure no O-Rings are involved. We take off. Very pleasant Flight Crew. Breakfast Flight. I do not trust "Mixed Fruit Yogurt" at any altitude. Unexpected turbkjegeuw... jhueuyn... T-U-R-B-U-L-E-N-C-E. Yet it's perfectly clear outside. Weird - side-to-side movement, reminds me of our Landers (CA) earthquake last year. Made it to Denver no problem. Watched my bags being transferred to my second plane. No problems. Well, until we board (deja vu). "Ladies and Gentlemen, we are experiencing an electrical problem. Our technicians say they need about a half-hour to dig into it." Arrived at Colorado Springs. Baggage OK. Arrived at the Hotel. "Good afternoon, my name is Clint Bradford," I advise the Registration Desk. Before inputting anything in her computer, the Clerk blurted, "OH, YOU'RE MR. BRADFORD. We have 18 boxes here for you." He he. So, folks, all your materials are here. They get moved to the site tomorrow at Noon our time. All is well and undamaged. Tonight's event was a Smooze Party. Under the stars, classical music played by a quartet of strings, lots of interaction. Had a drink with Jack Rickard - and, to be honest with you, being in a group of several hundred fellow telecomputerists wasn't as bizarre as I thought it was going to be. [Personal aside to Pattie: Yes, there was a Mac User here. Had a drink with Bill Gram-Reefer, who writes for a few publications.] [Personal aside to Bob: Yes, Greg Ryan, author of RyBBS and VP of Exec-PC, arrived in good shape.] [Personal aside to Integrated Solutions: Yes, Troy & Jim are fine.] I think that's all who've paid for their mention tonight. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- III. DAY TWO: Setting Up the ASP Booth ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Enjoyed breakfast with a fascinating gentleman who currently works for the GSA in their CASU Program. He reports to the Director of the OMB - and is mere steps away from the Executive Branch of our government. CASU? "Cooperative Administrative Support Units" - attempting to consolidate overlapping administrative services, and telecomputing workcenters. He's here absorbing all he can regarding BBS software/implementations. Forty-one years with the government. Incredible stories. [Oh, and Greg Ryan, VP of Exec-PC, was with us. (Exec-PC Plug #2).] Skipping the Opening Ceremonies a 9am this morning while arranging transportation of our 20+ cartons to the Broadmoor site. Also placing finishing touches on a couple administration items. Not to mention loading the Red Lion Shuttle Van with my 270 pounds of stuff, PLUS the 18 boxes that were downstairs in Receiving. [Side Note to Jan - I don't have any ASP Compendiums!] A little hitch in the schedule. Was told that Exhibitors could begin moving in at Noon. Nope. Got there with a completely full shuttle van of wares, and was told I couldn't move in until 4pm. Had to leave the stuff on a loading dock, about 250 feet from the actual booth. So, I missed the Opening Ceremonies and Reader's Choice Awards while "mother hen-ning" our materials for the Booth. So - I started moving our stuff in at 3:45pm, and just got back to the Hotel Room at 8:50pm. A lot of effort for one person, ladies and gentlemen. Couldn't touch the hand trucks that were lying about - Freeman Decorating was running the show. After lifting, for the third time today, about five boxes, I talked to Steve - the head of Freeman Decorating. How much could his services be "bought" for? $32.00 was his sympathetic reply, after viewing the pallet-full I was hand-carrying in. No lengthy decision-making process here, folks. Freeman got my $32.00. [ASP Cash Request Number 1.] Couldn't attend the Dvorak Awards Presentation - had to get our booth set up by 8pm. The ASP Booth looks great, folks! I will give you a rundown on all the materials we have - but it is great. [Side Note to the ASP BOD - ONE PERSON cannot do this by him/herself. Next year, have the ONE BBSCON Coordinator MAKE Authors send their wares TO THE SITE - no matter the cost. Or make sure you fly a team out here. A team of three would be ideal. SORE MUSCLE MODE = OFF.] The Boardwatch Top 100 Awards were handed out today. I forget the top ten, except for EXEC-PC got #2. [Hey, if YOU could get a free meal just by typing "EXEC-PC," wouldn't you?] Hayes Microcomputer Products' President Dennis Hayes is demonstrating their V.FAST Class (V.FC) 28.8kBPS modem technology. Same Sysop price on the Optima 14.4/ 14,4FAX as we know - $179.00. But they dropped their price on the Pocket Edition for Sysops. True, the ITU (CCITT) standard might not become effective until the end of '94 - but by working with Rockwell in the chip development, you STILL cannot make a mistake by purchasing a Hayes product. That's it. Tomorrow, 7am, breakfast. 9-6pm, the Vendor Booths are open! ASP is well-represented. We will need to acquire a second table next year (still single Booth, but more tabletop space IS mandatory.) P.S. - NO ONE told me how weird the booth was! A true chinese puzzle torture piece. THANK GOODNESS there was an Instruction Manual. It looks SHARP for a bunch of Pixie Sticks! P.P.S - Fred Hill brought the Computer setup over this morning. All is perfect. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- IV. DAY THREE: Vendor Booth Open! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 7am Breakfast - nothing extraordinary. Arrived at the ASP Booth at 8:30. The place is abuzz with tie-straightening, last second prep, et al. The TRUE calm before the storm. The Vendor Booths were open from 9am to 6pm. The time went by quickly. Had relief for 30-45 minutes by another ASP Member who volunteered his services for the past couple of months. By manning the Booth until all attendees were gone, I messed the second Dvorak Awards Session at 6pm. But the response to our message was well-received. Talked to many extremely interesting people. Without our Compendium to offer, I kept a list of folks who needed a Master Catalogue. (Spent the late hours copying diskettes in the Hotel - made up 100 copies of our Catalogue to give to appropriate people. Sure glad I brought my laptop!) Lance Rose and I discussed life, liberties, competition, and human nature for darn near 1/2 an hour. A meaningful dialogue. Left the ASP Booth for a couple minutes, escorting him to the PC Info Group's Booth, and having him autograph a copy of his book for me. I had attendees drop their business cards in our "FREE DRAWING" box. Alternatively, I supplied small forms for them to fill out. I gave away a prize an hour. . .well, actually more than that. Response to my request of ASP Authors for Prizes was fair, but didn't adequately fill all my intended "slots." I added several copies of my own Sysop-oriented products to make up for gaps. No one was disappointed! A dBase-compatible file of the ASP Booth Attendees will be made available as soon as it is compiled. I missed the 8pm Shuttle back to my Hotel. Next shuttle was at 9pm. Exhausted yet exhilarated, I had the Bellhop call a cab. [ASP Cash Request #2 - $7.50] Didn't realize that there were so many muscles in the back of my legs. . .geeze was I sore from moving in the booth and standing all day. I chose to stay at the Hotel and copy our Master ASP Catalog onto 100 floppies instead of schmoozing on the hill. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- V. DAY FOUR: Breaking It All Down ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Same 7am Breakfast. Arrived at the Site by 8:30. I advised the dear gentleman who was so anxious to assist the ASP with the booth that he would be manning it from 9am to 11am today. There was no discussion. I was going to attend at least ONE Seminar of the 100+ that was happening. Jay wanted to attend the same session. Unfortunate. Dennis Hauser gave an informative talk on targeting a mailing list for your BBS - and marketing/advertising pieces. Got a plug for a great program - BBS Welcome - on tape for all to hear. BBS Welcome, written by ASP Sysop John Hrusovszky, is a custom- made EXEcutable that allows your Users (and potential Users) to experience an on-line session on your BBS. . .OFFLINE! John takes your Screen Shots, Bulletins, et al, and creates an incredible marketing/advertising program for you. Look for BBSW-103.ZIP on better BBSs near you! The Vendor Exhibits closed officially at 6pm. Most hung around until 6:30. Had time to run back to the hotel, shower, and shuttle back for an Invited-Guest-Only Bar-B-Que (well, only if the Invited Guest forked over $50.00 to attend. Which 400+ of us did). Cash bar - I thought I was at LA Int'l Airport: $4.25 for a plastic glass of wine. Jack Rickard told me that the reason for the "cash bar" was that if HE paid for the alcohol, and we fell out of a shuttle bus, we'd sue him. If WE bought it our- selves, his liability was lessened. Well, I was on Diet Coke myself, but many a disgruntled alcohol fan was heard, while gulping $4.75 cans of Heineken. Sysop Tony Davis was hanging around, looking for sympathy. His Oklahoma Information Exchange was raided by the Vice Squad of the OK City Police Department recently. Local media obtained the video that the cops took of the raid, adding an ethereal air to the bust. All three local TV stations played the tape. When asked if he knew his state's obscenity laws, Tony said that he did. When asked if he knew that the distribution of pornography was illegal in his state, Tony replied that he knew so, but "I've been doing it for a long time." Ignorance of the law is no excuse, dude. Facing a potential $100 Million in fines and over 100,000 years in jail, there was little sympathy for the situation. The most satisfying, personal moments were spent at the Bar-B- Que. No - the food was not all that tremendous. (And what Jack is doing with all the money collect is beyond me.) But I sat with three extraordinary people here. Please meet Scott and Karen McKown. A pleasant couple in their, oh, say, mid-forties. They have adult children. They live in California's Mill Valley. They rode AMTRAK out here - and are taking it back home (now that's either true LOVE, or true MASOCHISM). After talking with them for an hour, it is obviously the former. Scott and Karen are absorbing information to take back to California to set up their first BBS. A Mac BBS. Karen's a throwback to the 60s politically. She would get along with my older brother, who is still working on George McGovern's presidential election campaign. But she is not politically naive - she is extremely humanitarian and real in her love of people. Scott and Karen are both heavily involved in local and State-wide issues. Their BBS is being created to disseminate information to the public on issues of all sorts. Their dedication and love of each other and of their fellow citizenry is obvious - and their BBS will go anywhere they decide they want it to. A generation apart, 17-year-old Jason Rupp has flown from his home in New York to attend the Conference. A late Registrant, he had to fork out $325.00 just to walk in the Door. His grandfather lives in Denver (70 miles away from Colorado Springs), and they both drove up to be here. Jason came here with a Plan. After reading about last year's ONE BBSCON, he know that some pretty good prices were to be had for software and hardware. He is attending the "Fame" School for Performing Artists, and he wants to set up a BBS directed to teenagers in his area. A chat board - with a difference. This 17-year-old has a marketing plan and advertising all laid out for this venture. I cannot think of too many individuals at ANY age with the same initial work completed at this point in their Sysop careers. Jason has filled out every FREE CONTEST DRAWING form in the house. Many Vendors here are holding drawings. It would be great to win a serial card, or software, or a modem. . .anything to help out with the initial costs of starting up a BBS. It is five minutes before the Vendor Exhibits close. Jason has arranged that his grandfather write the check for his cash expenditures here at the show. Grandfather has pulled out his checkbook to enable Jason's purchase of BBS software. When his name is called out over the PA system, he is floored. He just won! The GRAND PRIZE of the Show. PCBoard BBS Software. USRobotics Dual Standard Modem. A Pass to the Bar-B-Que. Lifetime Subscription to Boardwatch Magazine. And more items. Well, suffice it to say that he "covered" his expenses arriving here and registering. So, here I am, discussing, with two separate generations, starting your own BBS. And we are one. All desiring to share information with all others. And we all will be successful. The Karma is with us. I hate to - but I must leave. I have our Booth to break down. And I have to finish before midnight. The four of us embrace - honest intentions are voiced to keep in touch (I am faxing this to Karen, Jason will be receiving a couple of my offerings for his BBS.) Diet Coke, the view of the valley, and these three people have made me as high as could ever want to be at this event. I will cherish the moment for quite a while. The Broadmoor Hotel Shuttle Bus bring me back to our Booth - and reality. After swearing to myself that I was not going to take anything home with me, I carefully package up a few remaining diskettes and flyers, and prepare them to take home. The Shuttles are not able to handle excess baggage - so, when I finish breaking down the Booth at 11pm, I call a cab to carry our CPU, 17" Monitor, two boxes containing the Booth Display, and three boxes of miscel- laneous objects/papers. I am the last Vendor to leave. All that is left are fork-lift crates from the "major" vendors, and the Freeman Decorating workers. This cabbie gets a proportionally-larger tip. [ASP Cash Request #3 - $10.00.] Want to know how exhausted I am? I fall asleep during Sharon Stone's performance in "Sliver" on Pay Video TV. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- VI. EPILOGUE ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You heard it before: the ASP was well-represented this week. *Mandatory Plug Time: Hayes OPTIMA Modems, Mustang Int'l, Integrated *Solutions, Rosemary West UNIQUE Software, ASP BBS Exec-PC's VP - *Greg Ryan, and John Hrusovzsky's BBS WELCOME Program.] Personal Letter to the ASP Board of Directors: Dear BOD, Do this right next year, and send 2 or 3 representatives. A one-man show is difficult. Asking for volunteers was fruitless. Well, I guess I should be grateful for 45 minutes of assistance on Friday, and 3 hours today. But please consider budgeting for more appropriate representation. No other of the 75 Vendors in the Main (i.e., large, expensive) Room had less than 2 workers. . .and most of the smaller 8x8' tables in the Small Room had at least 2 workers. We need to "professionalize" our representation at this important event. ALSO - with the networking transmission capabilities out there, and the advent of an ASP CD, looks like we need to re-think our Sysop Membership guidelines. Floppy mailings are soon to be meaningless on most systems - we need the "basic" level of Sysops, who can acquire ASP items "on their own" via several available methods. Then we need a level that is sent (monthly? quarterly?) ASP CDs - and include them in their annual fee. We need to realize that telling Sysops that a benefit of ASP Membership is a floppy mailing is like slapping them. ---Sincerely, Clint What the heck is this SHAREWARE+ nonsense? I apologize if you discussed this here after SSS and I missed it. Shareware via MultiLevel Marketing scheme? On the outside appearance, it's a crock. Do you all have their app to see what they're doing? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- VII. EndNotes ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Several Shareware distribution methods are "out there" - needing to be tapped. The prevailing attitude of the ASP has been, as voiced by a few that I spoke with, non-committal, "stand-offish," or non-responsive towards viable alternatives. Whether entirely accurate or not - this reputation must be eliminated. We must not falter in our mission. We are the "Jay Leno" of the Shareware market: we're in the driver's seat. And if we intend to maintain our Number One Ranking in the industry, we must NOT relax for a moment. 2. The Red Lion is a Class Organization. At ALL Levels of Job Description. They WILL be receiving appropriate written recognition from me for their efforts. 3. Looks like buttonFile will get the nod for the inputting of data from my Booth Attendees. Will post here as a dBase-compatible file for you in a few days. 4. Rosemary West - your Flyer that I made for you created a lot of interest. I hope it generates some Registrations. You're a valued confidante. 5. It was embarrassing for me to cancel an Agreement with a Computer Rental firm that I had set up - after being advised to go ahead and do so. Colorado's own Fred Hill DID come through for us, and saved us a couple hundred bucks. But it would have been nice to NOT be responsible for transporting the system myself to the site, and returning it to my hotel room after the exhibit. Liability for loss/theft/damage would be on the ASP's shoulders. Speaking of theft, we DID loose a Logitech BUS Mouse while I was at the Bar-B-Que Saturday night. When Fred picked up the CPU Sunday morning, I couldn't locate it in my room. Thinking it was buried in my myriad of boxes, I told him I would ship it to him when I got home. I don't have it. It "disappeared" from the floor between 6:30pm and 8:30pm. [ASP Cash Request #4.] Just the mouse - no BUS Card necessary. Fred also took the two cumbersome Display Cases for me. I addressed 'em - but you can't reach UPS on Sundays. Many thanks, Fred, and thanks to your attractive family for their attitude that Sunday morning at the "back door" of my Hotel.