We are finally ready to go live with registration.  I feel bad about this, since the registration page was ready almost a week ago and I've just been to busy to validate it.  Big thanks to Mark-N7WSU for getting the page updated and ready to go.  For those with a good memory, you might have noticed the cost of the conference has gone up $5 this year.  We were able to keep the cost flat last year, but the cost of the lunch/food has increased enough this year that we needed to raise the price.  I still think the we provide a great value for what we do.  I hope others feel the same.

Now that registration is ready to go, I can switch my focus to speakers.  I got a co-chair this year, so please reach out to either Steve-N8GNJ or Kenny-KU7M if you have an idea for a topic or want to speak.

Registration Link: http://www.microhams.com/registration

de KU7M

At the board meeting on Thursday night, we got a chance to review the results from the survey.  At that time, ~1/3 of the people who received the survey e-mail had responsed.  That is about the norm for these kinds of things in my experience, so we are all really happy.  I included the results below, except for the general comments people provided. (to difficult to try and capture and report)  

Here are my general analysis:

• The conference seems to be popular, over 90% said they would be returning this year. (even with the move in dates)
• Our general format seems to be liked, at least there weren't any strong opinions for the proposed changes.
• Everybody wants a demo area
• We hit the sweet spot last year with regard to the technical level of the talks
• People were split down the middle with regard to adding more D-Star content this year.  The strongest comments were actually about this topic, both for and against.

I really want to nail down the remaining detail for the conference next week, which is the cost. (Which basically means getting a handle on the food costs)  At that point all the critical pieces are known and we can publicly announce the event. (Which means the registration site can be enabled)   The board also spent some time brainstorming about speakers and topics, with some really good results.  Lots of really good ideas were thrown out, so I have a list to start working through now.  Having something like this list makes the process easier.  One thing I need to figure out is if there is a talk about my own personal pet interest.  I'd really like to have something on mesh networking this year, I think the topic has all sorts of possibilities.  Maybe I'll break down and give a talk this year if I can't find a speaker.

73, Kenny, KU7M

One of the things we have really fallen down on with the previous years conferences was collecting feedback.  The only real input we got were the random comments from attendies and the fact that more people attended then the previous year. (So I guess we didn't screw up to much. :-)

But we are now at the point where we really need some outside input, so we are going to try a online survey.  We are going to spam all the previous attendiess shortly with a online web survey.  I took a first past at the questions, I'm going to send them out to the organizing group for feedback.  What did I forget?

Which MicroHAMs Digital Conferences have you attended? (mark all that apply)
1. 2007
2. 2008
3. 2009
4. Every one of them!

Would you attend this years Digital Conference if it was held in late September?
1. Yes
2. No

If you attended previous years Digital Conferences, do you think:
1. there were to many sessions?
2. there were just the right amount of sessions?
3. there were not enough sessions?

Would you prefer fewer sessions overall, with longer breaks between sessions for socializing, viewing demo's or small workshop sessions?
1. Yes
2. No

Do you think last years sessions overall were:
1. to technical?
2. just at the right level for me?
3. not technical enough?
4. not sure, I wasn't able to attend last year?

Would you be interested in a half day group of talks focusing on Icom's D-Star technology?
1. Yes
2. No

If a half day of the Digital Conference was focused on Icom's D-Star technology, would you be interested in a 'beginner' session on D-Star?
1. Yes
2. No