Web Hosting Talk : Other Forums : HostingCon : Pre-Association General Interest Meeting Itinerary

[MadroosterTony]

Pre-Association General Interest Meeting

This is meeting will be held on July 16, 2006 at 4:00 pm. Meeting will be held in the Mirage conference area (Room Number: TBD). The idea of this meeting is to get a feeling of general interest and ideas of an Association over the Hosting Industry.

Below is the current itinerary, this can and probably will change in the future:

• 4:00 – 4:10 pm – Brief introduction and ideas
• 4:10 – 4:20 pm – General Pros & Cons of an association
• 4:20 – 4:40 pm – Company requirements & regulations

- What requirements are needed for a company to join

- What advantages are there to starting this now and joining

- General ethics

• 4:40 – 5:00 pm – Group Programs

- Insurance (Health & Business)

- Legal advice & help

- Accounting

- 401K / Retirement Plans

• 5:00 – 5:20 pm – Training & Education

- Technical Training

- Sales Training

- Management Training

• 5:20 – 5:35pm – Vendor Discounts

- Hardware

- Software

- Support

• 5:35 – 6:00 pm - Civilized open discussion

- How to proceed from here

- Thoughts and ideas

• 6:00 pm - Continue discussion in small group over dinner and drinks (every man for themself )

I know I havent allowed alot of time for each topic, but we do not want to be there all night, plus we have all conference long to throw around ideas.

Do Not forget to register at: http://ipitha.org/register.php

[MadroosterTony]

I have been getting alot of emails from several of you saying you can not make the Sunday meeting, because your flights gets in to late. If there is anyone else in this situation, please let me know. There are not plans to move the meeting yet, but as I am not attending classes, I may try to setup some small discussion groups throughout the week.

[the_pm]

Tony, I would like to suggest that people who have an interest in speaking on any one of the topics above should contact you in advance to get onto the agenda, and should be given a limited amount of time to speak, with time given for responses as well. 20-30 minute allocations for the topics you've proposed is nothing. You could spend two full solid days talking about business ethics alone, and then maybe come out of it with something useful. 20-30 minutes is long enough for one half-baked idea and a jumble of reaction.

Seriously, entertain time slots for people to say their piece, and schedule time for responses. Otherwise, I can almost guarantee the end result of these two hours is going to be chaos.

Alternatively, consider paring down the conversation to handle less topics.

But something needs to be established to ensure this meeting is productive. With an open schedule, broad topics and almost zero time to address each one, it is poised for disaster!

[JBIZ718]

Tony I would be interested in getting involved with this, but like many others I wont be in till monday morning.

This may be better if we do this during the conference, that way everyone will be there. Plus on top of that I am sure there are plenty of large hosts that arent even going to this that should have some input to an association.

An association will have no merit unless it is well represented.

Just my thoughts

Joe

[the_pm]

As a general message to all members interested in this meeting, I think it is pertinent to point out that this was first announced on Feb. 9, 2006, nearly four months ago. Unless you booked your flight waaaaaay in advance and didn't have the recourse to change your flight date when this was first announced, I think it is quite unfair to ask that the meeting be moved.

Going back to my last idea, Tony, if you entertained an agenda with time slots, you could allow for discussion in absentia. No date or time will suit everyone's needs perfectly - that's just unrealistic. But if you accepted brief statements for discussion from people who cannot attend, they could be read and discussion could take place regardless. While this isn't a perfect replacement for someone who cannot make it, it's a pretty darned good compromise, I think.

[MadroosterTony]

Paul,

The idea behind the meeting is just to get an idea of what I have seen and heard the association should and shouldnt do... Since we only have a small number of people registered for the meeting (around 40 - including vendors), I am thinking here is the best thing to do. Keep the current schedule for Sunday, and then through out the week, setup times to div into each topic in detail. I know there are some open times currently that were scheduled for "Vendor Sponsored Educational Session". I will have to check with George to see if these have had rooms assigned, and if no one is going to use those rooms, if we can use them to proceed forward. If not, I am sure we can find somewhere we all can meet and discuess ideas. But this way it will introduce ideas on Sundays, and then gives people time to mull over the ideas as we meet throughout the week.

[the_pm]

That's not a bad idea Tony. This will take some serious moderation/facilitation to keep discussions on-time and focused, but it can be done (it will have to be done, right?). See what you can put together for Monday-Wednesday, and maybe we can tackle the most important issues in more depth in breakout sessions.

[MadroosterTony]

Just a quick reminder, we are looking for those that are for and against this idea to attend. Even if you think this is worst idea you have ever heard of, and I think I should be shot to death for ever bringing it up, we want to hear why you feel this way... :-)

Here is the game plan...

We are going to do a quick overview of the idea in this first meeting, and then I will be available to go break for drinks and food somewhere. We will take the top 3 subjects that people want to talk more about, and have some time set aside each day to discuss (MWF). I also will be pretty much widely available the entire conference to hear ideas, good and bad...

Again if you are totally against this, I want to hear your reasoning behind it, not just that its the worst idea you have ever heard.

[MadroosterTony]

Anastasia Tubanos has put together an article on the association:

http://www.thewhir.com/marketwatch/0..._the_Works.cfm

[wyb]

Tony,

I think the whole concept has a lot of merit - our issue is that we don't arrive in Vegas until 15:35 on Sunday afternoon, by the time we get our stuff together, get down to the hotel, check-in and get settled, that's likely to be 17:05 at the earliest.

I'm just afraid you're shooting yourself in the foot here with the amount of people who would like to have attended, but the timing of the meeting just won't work for them.

The big probem is going to be WHEN it could work for the vast majority of those who would attend and listen (and/or participate).

Even though we probably can't make it - can you get the whole thing taped and up on the assocication site after the meeting please?

cheers

Greg of WYB

[MadroosterTony]

I am working to get transcripts of the meeting, but at very least there will be notes from it posted. I scheduled this as early as possible (First announced on Feb 20), and based on arving flights, so alot of people could make plans early enough. But because there are people that did not make arrangements to schedule their flights to make this, is the reason we will be having more time to meet during the conference, and as stated before, I will be available to have some mini one-on-ones with anyone that wants too..

[wyb]

Originally Posted by MadroosterTony

I am working to get transcripts of the meeting, but at very least there will be notes from it posted.

Good news.

Originally Posted by MadroosterTony

I scheduled this as early as possible (First announced on Feb 20), and based on arving flights, so alot of people could make plans early enough. But because there are people that did not make arrangements to schedule their flights to make this, is the reason we will be having more time to meet during the conference, and as stated before, I will be available to have some mini one-on-ones with anyone that wants too..

I know you made this information available, and if there was an earlier flight from our local airport, I'd have taken it - but it's not worthwhile going a whole day early, or driving to Denver for this one meeting.

I'll look forward to catching up with you sometime during the conference though - you were easy enough to spot last year!

[MadroosterTony]

The meeting will be taking place in the Montego A room, it is in the events center hallway right next to the main conference registration desk.