Every year I have told myself I should try to make it to the Fest, but every year work has kept me here during that time; it just hasn't been fortuitous timing. I just found out today that there is a VERY high likelihood I could finally make it, this year... I have to make a trip to the States within the next few months, anyway, and have some leeway in scheduling it, so the timing would have been great. The dates talked about were very close to my birthday, too, so I could have made it my birthday present to myself.
Wouldn't you know, the one year I can finally arrange to come would be the one year the Fest was cancelled. :sigh: :tears:
Just as ironic, I have experience organizing a national conference in the U.S. involving four hotels and several college campuses simultaneously, with several thousand attendees with around 40 key speakers and multiple sessions over 4 days, etc... and with only a small staff that was almost all volunteer (I was paid)-- and did it on very short notice (they were ready to cancel if I didn't step in, and still ready to cancel if I said the time wasn't sufficient), and I did that before there were PCs to help with organizing data, AND everyone said it was the most successful one they could remember. I've also built up a network of three offices and 50 rep/agent offices across ten countries, that became a US$100 million business in less than two years. An AK Fest I could have done, I'm certain -- IF I weren't on the other side of the planet and not really able to take a few months off (a few weeks is possible, but a few months is not, as I'd lose ongoing clients/business --and a couple of weeks is not sufficient lead time to pull of an event like this.) Otherwise, I would have gladly stepped in to make this happen. But I'd have had to move to the States for a while to pull it off, and just can't spare that much time. Even in this age of email and Skype, to remote-control it from Hong Kong? Uh-uh, wouldn't work! :sigh:
It seems like there was a lot of HOPE for a Fest, and a lot of willingness by many to contribute what they could, but the people who might have spearheaded the effort were too far away or otherwise unable, and loose, volunteer committee things usually don't come off without someone dedicated full-time to pushing things through. Way too much risk to rely on such vague promises, without someone competent "making it happen."
I suppose we should all be very grateful to those who have organized all the past Fests, and I'm sure we all wish them speedy recoveries and better times ahead. Let's hope the Fest is back next year. Maybe I'll have another chance to coordinate a trip and make it to that one... I sure hope so!
I'm bummed... I've been thinking about getting to one of these for a few years, and finally... ah, well, such is life.
:scratch2: Maybe next year?!