Re: Conference locations in the East

ditto on all of this (except the firearms) Rob plus a few additions...
- parking a car at the airport for a week ($$$$$$$) or puddle jumping
from the town I live in to a major airport which can double the airfare
- raising my wife's blood pressure for a week, she hates planes since
the Flight 800 crash
 
I too don't go (and neither do the other few local iSeries pros I know)
 to a conference for the local attractions, at COMMON there usually
isn't time. We are all there for the training and talking with others
who live in the same world. I like a nice safe area with good eats but
could care less about the availability of a casino or amusement park.
Getting out of the cold is sometimes nice. 

rob@xxxxxxxxx 10/27/2006 1:45:56 PM >>>

I go to conferences for the educational content.  That IS the primary 
issue.  I don't get some spam from someone hosting a "me too"
conference 
in Orlando with free passes for  the family to the attraction(s) of
their 
choice and say "Man, I've got to go there."  I do often take the
family, 
but it doesn't matter if the event was in Las Vegas or Rochester MN.

Now, if I can drive someplace reasonably I find that attractive.  I do
not 
like flying.  No fear of flying just:
- the feel like you're being herded like cattle
- driving to airports
- having to arrive hours early
- checking luggage
- rent a car hassles and expense
- the big guy with the rubber gloves
- having your luggage full of clean underwear inspected by someone who

just inspected someone else's luggage full of dirty underwear
- having that puddle jumper flight delayed 6 hours when you could have

driven home in less time.
- paying for a flight from Rochester only to get put on a bus to 
Minneapolis.
- being definitely not overweight, and twice being asked to move to a 
different seat to help balance the load in one of those puddle jumpers
- putting my wife at one end of the plane, me at the other, and my 
preschool child somewhere in the middle.
- cancellations after you've checked baggage and can't get to medicine,

toothpaste, etc
- having to check the firearms
Although I had no problems at all simply taking my leatherman tool with

knife off of my belt, placing it in my carry on and passing that
through 
the xray machine.  I did leave it in the carry on and not back on my
belt 
until I landed though.

Rob Berendt