March 12, 2013

Southwest Fox 2013 : Dates confirmed; call for speakers issued

Photo: Therese Schummer
By Mike Lewis

Geeks Gatherings have now confirmed that Southwest Fox 2013 will be held on October 17 - 20, at the SanTan Elegante Conference Center in Gilbert, Arizona. For the second year running, the conference will be combined with Southwest Xbase++, a conference which focuses on Alaska Software’s Xbase++.

If you're a serious Visual FoxPro developer, you should consider attending Southwest Fox. I've done that myself, and I can tell you that it really is a terrific event. It's now the leading VFP conference in the United States, and it attracts developers from all over the world.


The organizers have also issued a call for speakers. The standard of presentations at the conference is always very high, and there is never a shortage of highly-qualified speakers to choose from. But Geeks Gatherings also encourage new speakers to come forward. If you are an expert in particular areas of VFP development, and you can communicate your expertise to your peers, consider putting yourself forward as a speaker, even if you've never presented a conference session before.

Sessions

Each speaker presents two or three different sessions, and most sessions are given twice. So those selected will have to deliver their sessions up to six times in total. Each session lasts 75 minutes. In addition, there are special pre-conference and post-conference sessions which last three hours.

Speakers are not paid, but they do get their travel and hotel costs reimbursed. They also get free admission to all the conference sessions. More importantly, they receive valuable exposure within the FoxPro community, and the chance to earn the respect of their colleagues - assuming they do a good job, of course.

If you're interested in applying as a speaker, you can't afford to hang around. The initial deadline is Friday, March 22, 2013. You can find full details of the requirements and the selection process here.

Registration

Registration for the conference itself opens in May. Pricing has not yet been announced, but, based on previous years, the basic registration fee is likely to be around US$800. I'll post more information on the pricing as soon as I have it. There are usually generous discounts for early registration, so be sure to keep an eye on this blog, or on the conference's own website.

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