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Count me in.

My dates are very flexible at this point, and I would be glad to work my busy schedule around Jon's ultra-busy schedule.

As far as content goes, I am sure Jon would have many interesting things to tell us.

Bert might be willing to give us a live demo of VIPER? Yes?

I have been working on some Amazing Charts related projects that might be worth presenting.

I think Jon would be amused to see some of our workarounds we have developed, ways we have misused his program to adapt to our practice.

Then we could play show and tell with our favorite bugs!

I will plan on being at any user group put together by the users! I am free any weekend in June other than the weekend of the 6/7th (as we have our local RI AFP meeting on that weekend).

Now, are we talking Branson, CO or Branson, MO? While either looks really cool- and given the amount of energy and thought you've already put into this, I am hesitant to even suggest other options - but I do wonder that if we are going to try to make this a "national" AC conference, I am sure a lot more users would be willing to come to a location that is easier and cheaper to get to for the majority of our users (e.g., St. Louis, Kansas City, Chicago, Denver or another city served by a regional airport where Southwest and other major airlines fly). While I recognize none of these have the calming karma of the Branson locale, they are more logical from a travel perspective if you wish to include a larger group of our users - which is what we need to do if this is going to be our "national" meeting.

If, on the other hand, you prefer to keep this a smaller and more intimate gathering, than I think Branson is certainly a good choice. In either case, I will certainly plan to be there, and AC can help organize the conference as well. Let me know what you guys think - and thank you all so much for taking the time and energy to do what you've already done!

Jon

Jon,
Thank You for your support and commitment to attend the AC conference. Your participation will assure a success of this event no matter where the site. Our minds are certainly open to other venues.
The advantage for Branson Missouri is that the it is a pleasant family friendly atmosphere with lots to do and will be reasonably priced for accomodations, meeting space etc.
Perhaps the biggest advantage is that our two volunteer meeting facilitators (Brian and me) are close enough to keep a hands on management at no cost to the users. That being said, I am very willing to change the location to a more exotic locale such as Colorado (we love it there). I know Colorado quite well and could help set up a meeting in Estes Park, Breckenridge, Vail, Keystone etc.
If we do hold the meeting in Branson MO, attendees could fly into KC, St. Louis or Tulsa to stay with SW Airlines. Tulsa's airport is on the north side of the city and offers the advantage of several routes to drive to Branson through the Ozarks. Of course, you can also check the rates into Springfield MO; I hear that they have become much more reasonable of late.
If we did change the meeting site to Colorado, we would still have to drive a couple of hours from the Denver airport to reach our meeting site; I doubt that anyone would want to travel that far just to meet in Denver - it would be great to vacation and relax a bit together as well. I suspect that we will learn almost as much visiting with each other outside the meeting times as we do during the talks. A drive from Tulsa airport to Branson should be around two and a half hours and thirty minutes from Springfield/Branson Regional Airport.
Barb and I are up for either and would appreciate the thoughts of the other board users. All we need is six commitments to pull the trigger on the meeting although there will undoubtedly be more to follow after the plan is set. So far we have commitments from Jon, Brian, Leslie and me for Branson and from Jon and me for Colorado. Please post your thoughts and votes and try to make a decision by next Wednesday to allow appropriate planning.
Best,
Jim

You can take my commitment on Colorado also. Phoenix is also generally a reasonable place into which to fly from most regions (so I am told). Lots to do there as well.

Leslie

I'm 5' 1" tall, 240lbs, dark hair with a mustache. Very quiet. Rarely talk and have very few opinions. Should be easy to pick out.

In reference to post #5345 by Jim.

Barb and I drove down to Branson today to check out possible conference sites. Our suggestion is the Chateau on the Lake.
Please check it out at:
http://www.chateauonthelake.com/

I was told that we can receive a group discount on rooms and meeting space. The Chateau has a spectacular view of Lake Tablerock and sits high on a hill overlooking Branson.
The hotel has meeting space from 10 to 1,000.

Jim

PS. I think that Bert is making his ID too easy for us.

Checked out the Chateau. It's gorgeous!

Attendees will have no trouble identifying me. The eyepatch and the parrot are a dead giveaway.

Unless I'm wearing my cowboy hat and riding my stick horse that day!

Count me in too.
I'll drag Bert with me. My wife too (my office manager).

Can we set a date ASAP so those of us that schedule out several months in advance will be able to attend without a lot of patient rescheduling?

Hi Adam,
Thanks for your post; your commitment has given us our core group and we can now say that the AC Conference is an offical go.
We will have a date set by Wednesday and it will likely be the second,third or fouth weekend in June (Friday, Saturday, Sunday). Jon is already booked for the first weekend and he plans to participate. We would like everyone to please post your preferences. I will check the room availability with the Chateau on Monday.
Jim

Let me just throw this out. Having meetings on Sunday, even if they are just in the morning, makes getting back to our respective homes a little difficult. I would likely not participate on a Sunday.

Leslie

Leslie,
We could have four hours of talks on Friday and again on Saturday. We had also planned two hours on Sunday a.m., but someone mentioned doing a couple of optional workshops on Friday and/or Saturday and we could do that. We do want to give the opportunity for at least ten hours of CME for everyone attending (coupled with adequate time to enjoy the area and dialogue with fellow attendees).
By the way, the Chateau has an incredible Sunday Brunch.
Jim

I am relocating my office the last week of June, 23-27th.

My preference is to meet prior to this, for the week of June 16th through the weekend of June 20th-22nd, this is the 3rd week/weekend of June.

This works best for me as I have other committments the other weeks. This may not work for all others, but this is my vote.
thanks Jim.

Most conferences I've ever attended have a few hours of conferencing on Sunday morning. I think this is fine.

Friday through Sunday format makes sense (and I'm coming from Maine). Thursday through Sunday could work too.

I'd also be willing to volunteer to give a talk if my point of view as a newbie AC user would be valuable to anyone.

I am just going to play the Devil's advocate here because I really don't care where we go. And I very much appreciate all of the work Jim and Brian have/are doing on this. But, after doing a little research I have found out some interesting things. Most of us could fly to Phoenix more cheaply than we could to St. Louis. And, if one flies into St. Louis, then there is a 250 mile drive from there to Branson. That would make getting back to St. Louis to catch departing flights on Sunday a challenge for many. Examples (looking at some reputable travel sites): Providence to Phoenix = $278 and to St. Louis = $355.
Portland, Me to Phoenix = $338 and to St. Louis $ 311. New York to Phoenix = $298 and to St. Louis = $353. Syracuse to Phoenix = $307 and $376 to St. Louis. Newark to Phoenix = $236 and $323 to St. Louis. Seattle to Phoenix = $197 and $315 to St. Louis. I am sure one could find some medium-priced places to meet and there would be a wide variety of even cheaper places to bed down for those on a budget. Also, lots and lots of things to do in the area. Just a thought. Again, I don't care where we go. Branson would be the cheapest for me as I would drive. But, I am thinking of the others who might be more willing to come from farther away if it were someplace easier to get to.

Leslie

I'll be the Devil's devil advocate to the last post by Lstrouse.
Bert and I can leave Bangor, ME (our closest airport) on Thursday and return flight on a Sunday to Springfield, MO.

Springfield, MO is 42 miles from Branson according to MapQuest.

We could rent a car or take a shuttle (which are offered from Springfield). Coming from ME, I don't see this as being a very big problem.

However, I personally don't care what part of the country we go to. My only request is that it NOT be in Orlando (I went there 3x last year for pharma conventions) and NOT be Hawaii because that's really too much travel time.

I'll pay for me and my wife, Bert will deflate his doll Paula and place her in the overhead compartment. Remember, no liquids in bottles over 4 oz and must be in zip-locked bags. Also remember to bring your thumb drives.

Hi Leslie,
I received an e-mail from Jon today and we are ready to finalize Branson on the June 20, 21, 22 dates.
Jon and I plan to visit on the phone tonight and I will call the Chateau on the Lake tomorrow to check on the date availability.
I think that you make a great point about the flights, but the drive from the Tulsa aiport to Branson is only two and a half hours and the Springfield/Branson airport is forty minutes or so.
Trip Advisor reviewed 141 hotels in Branson and this did not include the dozens of condominium complexes. There will be lodging possibilities for every budget and activities from Golf to fishing and shows from Andy Williams to Jim Stafford to attend.
The fact that Jon is planning to attend with his family and serve as our keynote speaker will undoubtely make this event a success. He is considering bring some of the AC staff as well.
The fact that the event will be in Branson will allow Brian and I to devote the type of continual attention that this meeting may demand in terms of flexibility (at this point we really do not know the possible magnitude of our attendance). We could have a conference of 15 or of 100; the Chateau can accommodate us for whatever we need up to 500 or more in one meeting room. I just spoke with Brian and he is planning on coming to Springfield the weekend after next to help plan the event with Barb and me.
We will keep in continual contact with Jon and his staff to be certain that we meet their expectations as well.
I think that this is going to be a great meeting and may well serve at least as a template for future meetings.
I will give everyone an update on the room availability tomorrow.

Best,
Jim

Jim,

That sounds terrific! Thanks for everything you are doing. I will likely drive down on Wednesday and make a little more of a vacation out of it. I may camp somewhere for the first two nights. I would camp the whole time but I doubt the gang would appreciate me showing up to the meetings with 3 days of Missouri crud on me. I am really anxious to meet everyone. I hope we will have a big turnout. I am looking forward to one of those grilled turkey legs from Silver Dollar City!! Let me know if there is anything I can do to help.

Leslie

So, it's official:

The Amazing Charts Amazing Convention, or ACAC pronounced A' Kak.

Bert,

I think it would be grand for you, Brian and Adam to prepare talks for our upcoming meeting on:
1. Options for backing up AC databases
2. Using EXCEL for tracking labs in AC.
3. Encrypting databases

Having handouts for us technologically challenged users would be terrific. I get lost trying to follow the different threads and assimilate all the wonderful suggestions.
Just a few thoughts.
As for me, I would be willing to talk all weekend about the wonders and humor of owning donkeys. Get ready. I can do it even better under the influence of good Mexican beer.
http://s247.photobucket.com/albums/gg136/jlmule/?action=view&current=Misc004.jpg


Leslie

Excellent notions, Leslie. I especially like the part about beer and donkeys!

I think backup and encryption issues go hand-in-hand and we could easily get a talk together on those topics. From our past discussions, I can testify that Bert and Adam have vast knowledge of this topic. Adam even owns an IronKey (perhaps he will demonstrate its self-destruct feature for us!)

https://www.ironkey.com/

I will talk with them about getting a talk together on those topics, and I will make them speak in terms that we mere mortals can understand. And I will make sure there are handouts!

As far as the Excel for lab tracking, I am not sure there is enough material there for an entire discussion, but I can envision us having a workshop where each of us shows off our "Tips and Tricks" in person. We could take requests!

We like JetBlue! One of the only decent Airlines with lots of Direct Service to and from Syracuse. I only wish I knew our kids last day of school this year; It's gonna be close. Last minute suggestion for all your landlovers. Rhoade Island itself is a nice place to have a trip. Nice beaches and convenient to us eastcoasters. No less more convient for AC and its staff. I for one would love to see "AC central" and shake the hands of all those folks who are but voices on the phone or ping type written messages.

But RI can be fairly pricy for all the other things we need like rooms and lodging. But its a thought.

Paul, I think you will really like Branson, and I hope you can come. It's a great family town.

I know you just got back from DisneyLand, so you may not want to check out the amusement parks, but there are also some really spectacular family-friendly shows that your kids would love.

Jim has found a location for the meeting that is like a palace overlooking the lake, and they have child care available:

http://www.chateauonthelake.com/FamilyActivities.cfm

However, if you want to be closer to the shows and things, there is very reasonably-priced lodging in town (we have spent a lot of time there with our kids in the past).

I agree that it would be fun to meet all the folks we talk to on the phone. I have heard that Jon may be bringing some AC folks with him to Branson.

Brian,
Like I said this old stagehand would love to see Branson. Heck I might even want to live there if I could free myself of the business of medicine. As a card carrying member of IATSE I may even get to hang out with some of the crew backstage. And we like fishing and trout very much.

Just wish it was a day's drive instead of a flight. You have no idea how shaken up Nancy was from flighting. It is a real, honest to goodness phobia. This tough as nails kid from the Bronx (fairly sweet too...) who survived the residency program from hell, and who was able to score a standard deviation above the norm while taking Step 3 of the Boards on 9/11 was a complete basketcase and almost couldn't get on the plane a few weeks ago. Psycho for a director, no joke, I swear he had a few ball bearings to run thru his hands like Capt Kane. "Who took my strawberries, where are my frozen Strawberries???"

I would much prefer to drive just about anywhere as long as it is about a day or less to get there.

The drive from Syracuse, NY would be a pretty straight shot, 17 hours 46 mins, per Google Maps. Probably, if you took your Jeep, you could go offroad and shave a few minutes off here and there!

18 hours in the Jeep. We'd have to tie the kids to the roof-rack to keep us from ringing both their throats. Videos, lots of new Videos. It's a thought though... Thanks

Hi Paul,
We have just offically announced the meeting on a new thread entitled "National AC Conference in Branson Missouri".
Hope you guys can make it; it should be a lot of fun.
Best,
Jim