On the Catwalk Again

Last week, my wife Peggy and I both modeled in a fashion show fundraiser for Sofia House, a second stage shelter for women and children escaping domestic violence that Peggy used to be the Executive Director of (she now works for the United Way as Director of Community Investment). It was her first time, so she was a little nervous. Fortunately, I’d done it before.

We were both in four sets, although only one together, showing casual, business casual, and business outfits from local shops. Most of the models this year were inexperienced, so we had several practices in the weeks before the show. Things were a little rough even in the dress rehearsal the night before the show, but everyone magically pulled together on the actual night and it went without a hitch. It was likely the beer and wine we had backstage that settled the nerves.

This year’s theme was “Mamma Mia”, so all of the sets were done to ABBA tunes (I still have several running through my head). We could tell the 500 women (and a few men) in attendance were having fun because of all the smiles and singing along to the familiar songs.

Here’s the first set Peggy and I were in; she’s on the left. Everyone had to wear glasses for this set (which I normally do, so I didn’t need a fake pair like she did); I guess it made us look more business-like. I also have a wad of (fake) $50 bills in my coat pocket because the ABBA song playing was “It’s a Rich Man’s World”.

I had to do another set where I wasn’t actually modeling clothes. In case you can’t tell, we’re all wearing flippers. If you’ve seen the movie, you’ll know why. In addition to doing muscle poses, we also had to do the can-can together. I think this skit got the loudest reaction from the audience.

I’m not sure how much money the fashion show raised this year, but it’s was likely as least $15,000. Since Sofia House gets no government funding, everything they make comes from private donations, organizations like the United Way, and fundraising efforts from the dedicated board, making this a very worthy cause. Plus it was a ton of fun to be involved in.

Griver and Black Coming to Southwest Fox

I have some great news: VFP luminaries Alan Griver (aka yag) and Steven Black are coming to Southwest Fox this year! It’s been a couple of years since Alan last came and 2005 since Steve was last at the conference. This is your chance to hang out with them and find out what they’re up to today. Who knows, maybe with enough beers, Steve will re-tell the infamous Brewster McRooster tale.

New Offer for Southwest Fox 2011

Alpha Software is offering a free full copy of Alpha Five Developer to every attendee of Southwest Fox 2011, a $349 value. Alpha Five allows you to rapidly develop both web and desktop database applications. Alpha Software is exhibiting at this year’s Southwest Fox, so you’ll have a chance to meet and talk with them about their product. For more information on Alpha Five, please see their web site: http://www.alphasoftware.com/.

Cool PowerPoint Transitions

PowerPoint MVP Glenna Shaw created a cool presentation showing how transitions work in Microsoft PowerPoint 2010. They may not necessarily be suitable for technical presentations but for general presentations add some excitement to what otherwise might be boring slides.

Southwest Fox 2011 News

Anyone who is registered before midnight EDT on September 1st (including those who are already registered) is eligible for one of three drawings for a DBi Technologies Studio Controls for COM license (which sells for $749). Thanks to DBi for their ongoing support of Southwest Fox!

We're trying to get a better handle both on how many people to expect and the factors in people's decision to attend or not. Please help us by taking a brief anonymous survey.

2011 FoxPro Lifetime Achievement Award Nominations

The FoxPro Lifetime Achievement Award honors those individuals who have contributed a great deal to the FoxPro community over the years: http://fox.wikis.com/wc.dll?Wiki~FoxProCommunityLifetimeAchievementAward~VFP. The previous recipients have created a committee to select one or more recipients for 2011. The committee consists of Whil Hentzen, Rick Strahl, Doug Hennig, Tamar Granor, Rainer Becker, Rick Schummer, Lisa Slater Nicholls, wOOdy Wondzinski, and Christof Wollenhaupt, as well as Alan Griver (yag) of Microsoft and Naomi Nosonovsky representing the FoxPro community.

To submit your nominations for the 2011 recipients, please email me by August 31, 2011.

2011 Ceil Silver Ambassador Announced

Geek Gathering is pleased to announce that the 2011 Ceil Silver Ambassador is Borislav Borissov. Thanks to the many contributors to the Ambassador Fund for once again showing your generosity!

Southwest Fox 2011 Deadline Approaching

Just a reminder that anyone registering for Southwest Fox by Monday, July 25, is eligible for the Super Saver discount rate of $645. Registering includes entrance to all conference sessions, two lunches, one dinner, access to whitepapers for all regular conference sessions, and much more.

Check out the list of speakers and sessions at http://www.swfox.net/speakers.aspx. Full registration information and access to our registration application at http://www.swfox.net/register.aspx.

Mixed Feelings

Later today, my business partner Mickey and I are signing the papers to complete the sale of Stonefield Systems Group Inc. to a group of employees.

In case you weren’t aware, there are actually two Stonefields: Stonefield Systems Group Inc. (SSG) and Stonefield Software Inc. (SSI). (Actually, there are three: Stonefield Software USA is our U.S. operation.) SSG was created in 1991 (yes, that means the 20th anniversary is this year) by another business partner, and Mickey and I joined a few months later. SSG did all kinds of stuff: custom software development, Accpac (a popular accounting system now owned by Sage) sales and consulting, pharmacy software development and sales, IT stuff … basically, anything for a buck. Over the years, the business structure changed: Mickey and I bought out the other partners in 1995 and we refocused the business to just Accpac and software development. In 2000, we split off the software development side to Stonefield Software so SSG could focus exclusively on Accpac.

As a result, I’ve had very little to do with the day-to-day operations of SSG for over a decade. Several years ago, Mickey also decided to focus almost entirely on SSI so we handed the management reins to a general manager. So while we owned SSG and oversaw its general operation, neither of us was closely involved for quite some time.

A few years ago, a couple of long-time employees approached us with the idea of buying SSG from us. It took a while to make it happen, but later today it becomes a reality. Note that we are NOT selling SSI; it’s the business we’ve been focused on for a long time and will continue to do so. I’ve been working on Stonefield Query for more than a decade and will do so for (hopefully) another decade. I still write code every day and get grumpy when I don’t.

I have mixed feelings about selling SSG. Although it wasn’t my first company (I had a one-man company in the late 80s), it certainly was the one I was associated with the longest. So, there’s a bit of nostalgia at leaving something I spent so much time and effort building. However, I’m also very excited for the new owners, Connie, Bernie, and Rene. They’re young, have a lot of talent, and tons of new ideas about directions to take SSG in. The company is in great hands and the future is very bright. I’ll be watching happily to see how they make my old baby and their new one grow.

Southwest Fox 2011 Pricing

We tried something new for pricing Southwest Fox this year. Instead of using calendar deadlines, we divided the number of attendees we expect into a set of "buckets," with an increased price for each bucket. We even put the number of seats left in each bucket on the conference home page.

The reason for the change was to get people to register sooner, which helps us in many different areas of planning. We put 20 seats in the first bucket and they all sold in the first few days after we opened registration. We were thrilled.

After that, we blew it. We put 60 seats into the second bucket, which failed to create any kind of urgency; as we write this, only 21 of those seats have sold. Even the July 1 deadline for getting a pre-conference session for free didn't light a fire under many people. The result is that registrations are running considerably behind last year's; we're pretty sure it's the pricing mechanism causing the slow registrations, not a lack of interest.

Since we really do need to know how many people are coming, we're going to adjust the bucket sizes. But before we do, we want to give everyone a chance to get in on the current price of $645 (a discount of $125 off the regular price).

After Monday, July 25, we're going to reduce the size of the second bucket to a total of 30 seats (or the number of people who've already received the Super Saver price by that date, if that's more than 30), and add a new bucket called just "Saver," with a price of $690, which is still $80 less than full price, for the other 30. However, anyone who registers on or before July 25 will get the Super Saver price, even if that means we have more than 60 Super Savers.

So, if you've been waiting for the Super Saver bucket to get close to empty before registering, that time is now. (If company bureaucracy or other factors make this deadline a problem for you, please contact us at register@swfox.net.)

Thanks for understanding our need to tweak this new approach. We look forward to seeing you in Gilbert in October.