It's disappointing to see these types of comments being thrown around.
In September 2001, 4 days before VCF 5.0 and CAX, the World Trade Center in New York City collapsed to the ground. Airports nationwide were shut down, and people were glued to their television sets. The nation effectively shut down.
The economy, as it were, was already casting a pall on the VCF. With this added catastrophe, there was no way that the VCF could go on and not result in anything but a severe loss. Three speakers had cancelled out for various reasons, and I'm sure a number of attendees who were planning to attend would have decided to stay home instead to grieve. Some might recall that there were also calls for events being held that weekend to be cancelled in deference to the victims of the attacks.
The decision was made to cancel the VCF, while the CAX folks decided that they could better serve their fans by giving them a diversion for the weekend. From what I understand, CAX did well.
To hear that CAX was "burned pretty bad" by the VCF is a bit disappointing. I imagine the real grievance stems from an insurance bill from the SJCC. When one rents a portion of any public convention center such as the SJCC, you get a tax bill at the end of the year for the portion of the space you rented and the amount of time you rented it (for smaller events like ours, it's under $200, not insignificant but not onerous either). Since I had begun the contract negotiations to rent Parkside Hall on behalf of VCF and CAX, my address was on the rental agreement, and so the tax bill was sent to my address. By the time tax letters were sent out, my address had changed, and so the letter was bounced back to the SJCC. By the time they looked up my new address and re-sent the bill, the due date had already expired and a late fee was added.
I contacted my colleagues at the CAX and explained the issue (or at least I thought I had). It was then that I became aware for the first time that some folks at the CAX were angry with my decision to cancel out. My forwarding the tax bill was apparently received as an insult. Well, fine, but to me the situation was strictly business, and I wasn't going to get into a pissing match. Some at the CAX were of a different mind.
I offered to get the late fee taken care of by talking with the folks at the SJCC. However, one person at the CAX bluntly said he would just pay it and end the controversy and that would be that. Well, fine. I could have saved him a few tanks of gas with a couple phone calls, but in my opinion, spite got the better of him as he simply would not listen to anything I was saying. That was the end of the collaboration bewteen the VCF and CAX.
You'll notice I kept things very vague with regards to whom I was dealing with at the CAX. This is deliberate of course. Some there are still my friends to this day, and I guess some consider me not their friend, though I harbor no ill will towards anyone, and I'm not going to contribute to petty bickering over dealings that occured years ago. As I've mentioned, it was strictly business, but some chose to make it personal. There's nothing I can do about that. But I won't stand by and let misinformation tarnish the name of the Vintage Computer Festival. We had a tough decision to make and we chose what was in our and our attendees' best interest.
If anyone has any further questions, I'll be happy to discuss it with them in private. You can contact me through the Vintage Computer Festival website at http://www.vintage.org.
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CGE 2004 in SAN JOSE August 21 & 22
in Events
Posted
It's disappointing to see these types of comments being thrown around.
In September 2001, 4 days before VCF 5.0 and CAX, the World Trade Center in New York City collapsed to the ground. Airports nationwide were shut down, and people were glued to their television sets. The nation effectively shut down.
The economy, as it were, was already casting a pall on the VCF. With this added catastrophe, there was no way that the VCF could go on and not result in anything but a severe loss. Three speakers had cancelled out for various reasons, and I'm sure a number of attendees who were planning to attend would have decided to stay home instead to grieve. Some might recall that there were also calls for events being held that weekend to be cancelled in deference to the victims of the attacks.
The decision was made to cancel the VCF, while the CAX folks decided that they could better serve their fans by giving them a diversion for the weekend. From what I understand, CAX did well.
To hear that CAX was "burned pretty bad" by the VCF is a bit disappointing. I imagine the real grievance stems from an insurance bill from the SJCC. When one rents a portion of any public convention center such as the SJCC, you get a tax bill at the end of the year for the portion of the space you rented and the amount of time you rented it (for smaller events like ours, it's under $200, not insignificant but not onerous either). Since I had begun the contract negotiations to rent Parkside Hall on behalf of VCF and CAX, my address was on the rental agreement, and so the tax bill was sent to my address. By the time tax letters were sent out, my address had changed, and so the letter was bounced back to the SJCC. By the time they looked up my new address and re-sent the bill, the due date had already expired and a late fee was added.
I contacted my colleagues at the CAX and explained the issue (or at least I thought I had). It was then that I became aware for the first time that some folks at the CAX were angry with my decision to cancel out. My forwarding the tax bill was apparently received as an insult. Well, fine, but to me the situation was strictly business, and I wasn't going to get into a pissing match. Some at the CAX were of a different mind.
I offered to get the late fee taken care of by talking with the folks at the SJCC. However, one person at the CAX bluntly said he would just pay it and end the controversy and that would be that. Well, fine. I could have saved him a few tanks of gas with a couple phone calls, but in my opinion, spite got the better of him as he simply would not listen to anything I was saying. That was the end of the collaboration bewteen the VCF and CAX.
You'll notice I kept things very vague with regards to whom I was dealing with at the CAX. This is deliberate of course. Some there are still my friends to this day, and I guess some consider me not their friend, though I harbor no ill will towards anyone, and I'm not going to contribute to petty bickering over dealings that occured years ago. As I've mentioned, it was strictly business, but some chose to make it personal. There's nothing I can do about that. But I won't stand by and let misinformation tarnish the name of the Vintage Computer Festival. We had a tough decision to make and we chose what was in our and our attendees' best interest.
If anyone has any further questions, I'll be happy to discuss it with them in private. You can contact me through the Vintage Computer Festival website at http://www.vintage.org.
Thanks.