Hi all. I hope you are doing well. With all that has been happening, it appears that we made a wise decision to delay the conference from early March to mid-May. My original thought was to get us to some warmer weather. Since it is currently snowing as I am writing this in early April, it remains to be seen if that will be accomplished. However, we do have much to talk about this year. Some of the items that have necessitated the delay from our traditional March meeting time include the following:
- FrontRange announced at the end of March their new product direction. We have been expecting some changes for months but were on hold until we knew that specific vision and its impact on our clients and systems - especially GM-Standard clients.
- Microsoft's release of the Vista operating system early this year has thrown some real kinks in normal procedures with GM 6.7 or earlier releases of both Standard (dBase) and Corporate (SQL).
- Recent professional staffing additions in early April at Christian Consulting will greatly increase our the service and offerings to our clients.
- My son's wedding in January and daughter's wedding in late April have caused some craziness in the Henderson household.
We are pleased to announce that the conference will be held back in Rogers, Arkansas (Northwest Arkansas) at the Candlewood Suites, May 15-17, 2007. As we did last year, on the first day (Tuesday, May 15) the Pre-Conference Session for newer users will begin at 8:30am and the main Conference will begin at 1pm and go through noon on Thursday, May 17. We think you will like the setting -- a new facility, larger meeting rooms, many walkable restaurants, a great movie theater and even decent shopping. More importantly, Famous Dave's BBQ is just across the street.
With the changes listed above along with many others, we are urging ALL CLIENTS to send at least the main C3M contact as well as an IT professional to this conference. Updating/upgrading options for dBase users will be completely discussed and future migration paths for all versions will be presented. As the sunsetting of the dBase product has been discussed at some length for the last two annual conferences, we have all known that this transition was going to happen at some point. Now it is really upon us. We feel that it is most vital that all installs of GoldMine, AdmitGold or DonorGold have at least one representative at this critical conference.
Many of the speakers you have relied on over the years will be a part of this conference -- John Neighbors will be joining us all day, Wednesday (May 16) for the Technical Roundtable. Donna Quick will be leading much of the communication flow related topics. We are excited that Mike Mathews will be joining us bringing a wealth of 18+ years of higher education technology and strategic planning expertise. Additionally, the President of MasterMine (Rob Machalck) will be doing some training on this very user friendly reporting tool that many of you have been recommending. Representatives from FrontRange will be coming to talk about the product road map. As always, we have tried to incorporate topics that will keep you informed of best practices and well as preparing for your technology future -- many of these have been topics that user's have been asking for. It is still not too late to let us know additional topics that you would like to see addressed. The evaluations from last year's conference have been an invaluable tool in preparing the sessions for this year's conference.
More details are listed below by topic area. We can't wait to see each one of you again and catch-up on events of the last year. The web-site will be available for registrations beginning Monday, April 9. Please also note that the hotel will only hold our block until three weeks before the conference -- to get rooms in our block please make your reservations by April 23 (extended to May 1). See you in Rogers, May 15-17. Blessings. sh
Cost:
The registration fee will be $475 -- this covers the conference costs and most meals. With a paid Technical Support contract, the fee will be reduced 50% to $240 for one attendee from that institution. Any additional conference registrations from the same institution for support clients will be given the customary 20% discount to $380 per registrant. Additional registrants from non-support clients will receive a 10% discount to $430.
Pre-registration:
Click here to pre-register for the conference.
Pre-Conference Training - Intro to GoldMine:
We are planning an Intro to AdmitGold/DonorGold user-level training session for Tuesday, May 15, starting at 8:30am until noon. For those attending the conference, this session will be covered by your registration fee. For those not attending the actual conference, the cost for this training session will be $75. Please inform all those who are new to AdmitGold and DonorGold (GoldMine) of our effort to jump-start them in the use of the products. Please look for more information on the training session in the full agenda that should be out by May 1. Please register each attendee separately.
Conference Sign-In and Welcome Snacks:
Sign-in for the Pre-Conference workshop will begin at 8:00am Tuesday (May 15). Sign-in for the actual Conference will begin at 12:30pm on Tuesday (May 15) with the first session beginning at 1pm. The last session will end at 12 noon on Thursday (May 17). Snacks will be available for both sign-in sessions.
Hotel and Travel Information:
Click here for information about the hotel, airport options and directions.
Meals:
Meals covered by the registration fee are all breaks, dinner on Tuesday night at a local restaurant and a catered lunch on Wednesday.
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