Mike Jordan Com-Dat BBS Author of M & S Software Doors Fido: 1:105/314 and 1:105/317 Main Call-in Numbers: Node 1: (503)681-0543 Node 2: (503)640-0278 Node 3: (503)681-8324 email: mjordan@europa.com ============================================================= If anyone has ever had the urge to go to Tampa, Florida, in August...believe me, don't. Tampa in August is hot and humid, not to mention the occasional hurricane that swirls by. Although we were lucky and didn't get any thunderstorms during the show, they did have a good size one come through as our plane was about to land, necessitating that we fly around and around until we got low on fuel and had to divert over to Orlando for fuel. I should have taken Northwest up on their offer of $500 in flight credit to be voluntarily bumped to the next flight a few hours later... I would have arrived about the same time. But I did make it to Tampa for One BBSCON... which was a poor place to have it in the first place. Attendance was probably less than half of what the One Inc., people were predicting... I heard numbers from 2800 to 3400. One local newscast had said that One Inc., had pre-sold 3000 tickets and were expecting a lot of drop ins, which never materialized. Those that did come, for the most part, were interested in anything relating to putting their BBS on the InterNet... and non-InterNet related products did not do very well. We did not do very well with the door booth. We did get registrations, and I was correct that few people would be concerned about not getting registered copies (only one person hesitated and then he registered a package anyway) until after the show, but the numbers were just not there. The door that brought the most interest was Mehul Petel's "Falcon Eye". We had people lining up one and two deep to register that door. I have just installed it on my board, so I've not had a chance to look at it very closely, but if the interest in it is any indication, this is going to be another hit for Mehul. His BRE has been real popular and still maintains it's popularity. Other than doors, we had a good number of people interested enough in the new Allfix! for Wildcat, GEcho for Wildcat and Telemate for Windows, to register at not quite a steady pace. If you forget about the booth for a moment (I wish), the rest of the show was interesting. I got to meet a lot of people that I'd known, heard about or knew about for years. I got to meet several other door authors, Tom Wildoner, Dennis Maidon, Scott Jibben, Jim Brewer, Andy Stewart, Bob Dalton (and a few others that the names escape me at the moment) as well as Walter Cade, the king of door distributions. I also got a chance to talk with some of the great people that have registered my doors in the past and those that registered at the show. I would say the cost of airfare and hotel was worth all of that, although I wish I had had more time to sit and talk with everyone. Tom Wildoner and I did get a chance to talk about various ideas for doors as well as what we both have in mind for the future. There have been several of us that have talked about how we would like to see some kind of "Door Author Convention", where a group of door authors could get together to discuss ideas. Since most door authors are young or have real lives, the chances of pulling one of these together is slim... but even if 20, 30 or even 50 door authors could get together, just think of the ideas that could be generated, techniques that could be shared, the pizza that could be eaten... and even the sparks that could fly . We could probably pay for it just from the door author wanna-bees that would come hoping to learn how to write doors. Why we could even sell door certificates testifying that the holder was a dully registered door author . What possibilities! Next year One BBSCON (or One InternetCon as someone pointed out... or even One CON as someone else was heard to say) will be in San Francisco, California. The location will be better, but will attendance rebound? If you list to One Inc., they are already predicting 8000 or more are going to pay money to be there. I may go down as an attendee (it's only 10 hours from me) but I have no intentions of having a door booth again... unless I'm there selling something that does interest the crowds. Well, this is going to be a short article and also my last one. I'm finding that putting aside the time to write is getting harder and harder, plus I get the feeling I've been writing to myself, RoAnn and a few other people... without feedback, it just isn't as rewarding as it would be if I knew people were reading Door World. It's been fun, and I've enjoyed writing (even when I've had to struggle) the articles that I have written. You may see me pop up from time to time with an article and you will definitely see me along the cyber highways and doorways. þ