I arrived in Rancho Mirage on Saturday night. The hotel is nice and the

room is spacious. After going out to eat, I wander around the hotel and

find the acoustic jam session. Ken Levy gives me a VFP 8 shirt. The

small group of us talk for a bit but not much is happening. I leave

after about a half hour, leaving the acoustic jam session with no audience.

Because the keynote is on Monday morning, I decide to do a hike on

Sunday. Get up at 6:15 AM, out by 7:00 AM, get breakfast and get to the

Fuller Ridge Trailhead at 9:00 AM. I brought my hiking gear in case I do

a hike, but I've forgotten my hiking shoes. Tennis shoes are my

backup... This is an hike to San Jacinto Mountain and back that spans

over 15 miles. I get there around 2:00 PM, meeting and partnering up

with a couple of nice people along the way. After eating lunch and

taking pictures, I leave and get back to the car around a little after

6:30 PM. By the time I get back to the hotel, it's 8:00 PM. Needless to

say, I'm tired...

After a quick shower, I have dinner with Twila Miller at PF Chang's.

Rick Strahl, Marcus Egger, Kevin and Nicole McNeish are also eating here.

The conference...

The conference officially starts with the opening keynote. Up on stage

are Ken Levy and Yair Alan Griver. After the "Welcome to DevCon" and a

couple of jokes, the "strategic" .NET message is given by YAG. It's all

very polished and much too long. The LA Fox User Group gets two mentions

during the keynote. After an hour is passed, VFP is the focus and the

audience stops fidgeting. After 15 more minutes, it's over.

Here are the numbers: Visual FoxPro/VFP gets 37 mentions, FoxPro/Fox

gets 88 mentions and .NET gets 77 mentions. This is fairly close to last

year's ratios. But unlike last year, these statistics are quite

misleading. A lot of discussion went into Tablet PC, Pocket PC, J#, the

Compact Framework and a bunch of other topics that do not show up under

the .NET count. .NET dominated the keynote. And the keynote ended early

for some unknown reason.

So, we trudge off to the sessions. The sessions are of high quality.

There's a bonus session at night. The discussion topic is the next

version of VFP. It starts at 7:30 PM. When I walk in and the PowerPoint

slides are up showing the bullet points of what is to be discussed. It's

more .NET. Then "Afternoon Delight" is pumped over the loudspeaker. This

is too annoying -- I've had enough crap for the day and leave for

dinner. The talk hasn't even started.

I go out, eat and come back. It's 8:35. Oddly, it looks like they're

finishing up the Europa discussion. Doug Hennig comes on and it wraps up

about 9:30 or so. A bunch of us gather around Ted Roche's computer,

looking at old DevCon images and photos. More acoustic jam session

(where's the official jam session???) and off to bed. Trouble is, we're

all talking to the same people. No newbies in the group.

Some analysis now...

For those that remember the Paul Gross keynote (I think it was the

Scottsdale 96 DevCon), that one was just bad. Afterwards, though, the

attendees could talk about how bad it was. They could, and did, have a

common experience to share. By the end of the conference it was pretty

much forgotten.

This keynote laid an egg, pure and simple. However, the keynote was in

the morning, followed immediately by sessions. This is like getting a

cold that you don't have time to treat. After the bonus session, the

newbies immediately went to their rooms. Everyone else was already

getting tired from staying up late. No bonding. No real time to share

experiences. The conference is off to a bad start.

Back to the conference...

By Tuesday afternoon, I received a FedEx package. Our portable USB

drives with the LA Fox logo have arrived! I have to admit, they're

pretty damn cute. Mike Stewart gets the first LA Fox USB drive. He likes

it. Everyone is hanging around Twila as word gets out about the USB

drives. Several people buy 'em right on the spot.

Up to this point, I've been quite careful to not say a word about my

feelings regarding the keynote/bonus session. I don't want a situation

whereby I "seed" my opinions onto others. After a day and a half I feel

that personal opinions have gelled to the point where I don't affect

them appreciably. To a person, asking about the keynote breaks open a

dam of emotions. None of them are positive. Somewhere in here I hear

about an interruption during the bonus session, Ken got flustered and

whizzed by his PowerPoint slides faster than you can read them.

There's a outdoor dinner on the golf course that's rather uneventful.

Ken Levy appears among the crowd. Prior to this he had been nowhere to

be found, short of the keynote. He looks tired and edgy. He tells me

that he's running on less than an hour's sleep. That explains the tired

part...

Okay, I've now found the official jam session. The great drummer is here

at this DevCon but he's not playing. The band is mediocre at best and I

don't stay long. The action is at the acoustic jam session. The fire

alarm goes off in the hotel around 12:30 AM. We mill around outside for

a bit, the alarm is cleared and we head back in. I give up around 2:00 AM...

Come Wednesday, people seem to be tired, talking and smiling. Monday's

keynote hangover has passed. More interest in the LA Fox USB drives. The

closing session is fairly enjoyable. Andrew Ross MacNeill is hosting the

closing session and does an admirable job, given the lack of questions.

Of note, however, is the first PowerPoint slide -- it has the word

"Marketing" with a flashing red circle with a slash flashing on top of

it. Does this mean "no marketing questions" or "no marketing during the

closing session"? Or both?

Afterwards, a group of three LA Foxers and three speakers head across

the street to the YardHouse for an enjoyable dinner. Afterwards, we hang

around in the lobby. Some other people join us, including Ken Levy. Jim

Duffy has Ken and I laughing our a** off. A few more join, a few more

leave...

Ken asks a question. I turn the question back on him but more

importantly, I make sure Ken doesn't interrupt me. He tries very hard

though -- we're both yelling at one point but he has to back down. I

make my point and Ken takes offense. He asks the rest of the people

standing around, but everyone agrees with me. Everyone. Now he's mad. He

gets back to his original point but his point looks foolish in this

crowd. Innocently, Twila Miller asks a EULA question. Ken snaps at her

repeatedly. Soon thereafter, Ken is gone.

We continue to talk well into the evening. We're all exhausted but we

talk anyway. The acoustic jam session is on and a few of us join in. But

we're too tired. I hang around until 2:00 or so and give it up.

Twila, Lauren Simon and I hung around on Thursday. All of a sudden, it's

four thirty or so and both Twila and Lauren leave for LA. I hang around

until Friday morning and drive on back...

I'll leave the detailed analysis for another message.

Bill