PSOA convention

[Julie Deane]

Does anyone know why they alternate between only a few locations? I would love to see them try someplace closer to my neck of the woods sometime.

[Bianca Berends]

I will be there, coming all the way from The Netherlands and looking forward to it. It will be my first conference. It is a shame they don't organize an event like this in Europe!

[Marina Dieul]

I feel very lucky that I could organize the trip to be there !
I hope I will have the opportunity to meet other forum members.
So exciting!

[Karine Monaco]

You are perfectly right, Bianca!
It would be absolutely terrific, if we could attend such an event here in Europe.
I envy you all, and I sincerely hope I can go next time, maybe in 1 or 2 years...
Have fun and please let us know how it goes!
Karine

[Alexandra Tyng]

Originally Posted by Julie Deane

Does anyone know why they alternate between only a few locations?

Julie, I really don't know the answer, but I'm guessing that the East Coast is a convenient destination for people flying in from other countries. Of course "convenience" is a relative term! Last year when it was in Texas it felt horribly inconvenient and the plane connections were terrible. So I know how you feel. And the West Coast people always have a long flight. So really there is no good answer.

[Tom Edgerton]

I'll be there.

Julie, it's a complicated issue. It has a lot to do with the concentration of members in the country (most are towards the East Coast), and very much to do with identifying facilities that can handle the special needs of a group that size in general (close to 1000 attendees now), and the needs of our organization in particular. It's a draw also to be in a city with a major museum or event going on at the same time. And, as mentioned, it has to be fairly easy for most attendees to get to.

If a location meets these criteria, and a venue demonstrates a real understanding of what PSOA needs, the tendency is to repeat at that location. The Reston facility has done so in the past, very well. But the guys in Tallahassee try to balance this with some responsiveness to members in the Midwest and West, hence the occasional forays out into other cities.

This one gathering essentially has to be successful, for PSOA to create enough revenue to cover the operating budget for the rest of the year--membership fees alone won't do the job. The planning and coordination of an event this size is conducted a number of years in advance, and the efforts toward mounting it are Herculean. Some of the behind-the-scenes stories of difficulties and risks overcome in the past will curl your hair.

All of this from a non-profit organization created for the elevation of the art and the benefit of the member artists. In short, we can't thank them enough, but if anyone attends this year, please seek out Christine and the staff and express your appreciation--it's a real boost for them to hear it. (I'm reminding myself here, too.)

Hope to see everyone there!...TE

(PS...not to add pressure or anything, but Chris's demo last year was a must see.)

[Bianca Berends]

Hi there! I am home save too, arrived this morning. I really had a great time, learned a lot and met many interesting people. I was really impressed with how the conference was organized; I thought everything went very smooth. I went to al the lectures and demonstrations and liked them a lot, it is interesting to see that everyone has his or her own unique style. I had a portfolio critique with John de la Vega and Michael Shane Neal, they were very useful and gave me tips I could really do something with.

Cynthia, thank you so much for organizing the dinner, it was great to meet people from the forum. I promoted it to as many people as possible while I was there, there are still a lot of them out there who want to join, but seem to think it is difficult! So hopefully some of them will!

So now I am going to do some work, it is 10:30 pm, during the dinner last week I could barely keep my eyes open around this time and now I am to awake to sleep!! Oh well, these are the hardships of a world traveller...lol

Hopefully see you next year!