I'll be there. I've not see the speaker's roster yet so I'm not sure I'll get much out of it or not.
To me, the big draw for a show is being able to hear from my peers and see my friends. I can talk to a vendor any time. It's those that are doing what I do, successfully, that I want to listen to. marlon ----- Original Message ----- From: "Rick Harnish" <rharn...@wispa.org> To: <memb...@wispa.org>; "'WISPA General List'" <wireless@wispa.org> Sent: Sunday, June 27, 2010 12:28 PM Subject: [WISPA] What are the Challenges? > Members and WISP followers, > > > > We would like to better understand some of the challenges that many of you > face on a daily basis as we continue to fine tune the Regional Meeting > Agenda. As you know the 1st Regional Meeting is scheduled for July 21st > and > 22nd in St. Louis. We have been pleasantly surprised at the response we > have > received from vendors in our industry in committing to exhibit at our > Regional Meeting. > > > > One thing we have noticed during the signup period is that many WISPs that > are attending are traveling long distances to come to St. Louis in the > first > stages of signup. We originally picked St. Louis because of its central > location in the US and because there are a tremendous amount of WISP > companies throughout the Central US. We really anticipated that 70% of > our > attendees at this meeting would come from a 500 mile radius from St. > Louis. > This does not seem to be the case and we find ourselves wondering why this > to be the case. > > > > My first inclination is to blame it on weather. I realize that weather in > the Central US has been extremely volatile this summer with persistent > storms continually moving across the region. I am asking if this is > really > the reason preventing many Midwestern WISPs from signing up for this > meeting > or not. If it is something else, I would like to investigate further. We > believe it is our obligation to the Vendors who have committed staff, > money > and resources to attend the meeting, that we ask these tough questions. > > > > Our goal and the budget for the RM are based on a count of 200 attendees. > We > are pretty sure we will reach this goal but if we are not going to get > there, we need to start preparing now. As you may or may not know, we do > have a price increase of $50 per attendee beginning on July 1st. It would > be silly of me not to point this out to any prospective attendees. > > > > This week, we were able to negotiate a much nicer hotel and meeting > facilities at the Renaissance Hotel in St. Louis. The Renaissance > actually > lowered its room rate surprisingly to $79 per night and threw in free > internet, parking and shuttle. These concessions are saving our > participants nearly $60 from the previous hotel. The catering and AV > budgets alone exceed the registration fees we are charging for members. > > > > Therefore, I ask that everyone describe your intentions for attending or > not > intending and send a brief description why. If it is summer vacation, > that > is fine, that is a risk we took when choosing these dates. If it is > summer > activities such as 4H fairs, baseball tournaments, or whatever, just let > me > know. If it is the weather and damage has not allowed you to book because > of excessive repair bills, that is also fine. I am just trying to get a > feel on the pulse of the industry as we analyze the success of this > meeting > and possibly plan the next one. > > > > If there are other challenges you wish to discuss, let me know. I would > rather the Board be aware so that we can formulate policy and programs to > alleviate these concerns as we move forward. > > > > Respectfully, > > > > Rick Harnish > > President > > WISPA > > 260-307-4000 cell > > 866-317-2851 WISPA Office > > Skype: rick.harnish. > > rharn...@wispa.org > > > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > WISPA Wants You! Join today! > http://signup.wispa.org/ > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org > > Subscribe/Unsubscribe: > http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless > > Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
