Possibilities - Report on ONE BBSCON

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REPORT ON ONE BBSCON
--------------------

*** From October 1992 Possibilities Newsletter ***
*** Copyright 1992 by eSoft, Inc.  All Rights Reserved ***

Report on ONE BBSCON
by Phil Becker

The first ONE BBSCON occurred August 13-16, 1992 in Denver, Colorado.  
Remember that date, because it marks when the world came to know that the 
BBS industry exists.  One thousand sysops met in Denver along with every 
major vendor and developer of BBS software.  None of them knew exactly what 
to expect, but when it was over they all knew they had been a part of
something special.  They also knew that the BBS industry would never be the 
same again.

How Big Was It?

In addition to the photos in this issue, some numbers may help those of you 
who were not there to get a bit of a feeling for what happened.  The 1,000 
attendees represented sysops of over 40 different brands of BBS software.  
Nearly 50 journalists attended to cover the event from the U.S., Canada, 
Mexico, Europe, and Japan - including representatives of EVERY major U.S. 
personal computer magazine.  Nearly twenty percent of the attendees came 
looking to learn enough about some aspect of BBS software or hardware to 
make a buying decision.  Many of them found the information and product 
demonstrations they needed at the show and this led to a hyperactive vendor 
floor.  In the two days that the vendor exhibits were open over $250,000 of 
hardware and software was sold!

By presenting over 100 hours of seminars and expert panel discussions from 
the most informed people in the industry (including most of those who 
created each part of it) ONE BBSCON lived up to its claim that it would have 
more information on BBS technology in one place than had ever occurred 
before.  Everyone who attended said at least once "I thought it would be 
good, but I never expected anything like this!"

What Happened at ONE BBSCON?

The pictures on the next two pages should give you some idea of what 
happened at the show.  There really is no good way to express it to someone 
who wasn't there, but it made everyone feel just great to be a part of it 
all.  It is one thing to know that there are over 150,000 BBSs and that 
over10 million people use them on a regular basis.  But the truth is that 
most sysops don't know very many people who understand what a BBS is or 
care, and it makes us all feel that BBSing is much smaller than it really 
is.

The primary impact of 1,000 sysops in one place is that for a few days a 
world is created where everyone you see cares a lot about the technology.  
For many it was the first time they could talk freely about BBSing and not 
feel out of place!  It brings home in a big way how isolating this 
technology really is emotionally, even as it connects us all together.

The most popular seminar tracks (based on the ones that got the fire 
marshall's attention) were the BBSing for profit and the Legal tracks.  The 
BBS software tracks (TBBS, Wildcat!, PC-Board, and Galacticom) were also 
well attended.  The roundtables which featured successful sysops who are 
running BBSs for profit were huge hits.  It was interesting to watch those 
sysops learn from each other right in front of our eyes!  It was a perfect 
example of how important face-to-face contact is in the BBS community.

Listing the "firsts" for the BBS industry that occurred at ONE BBSCON would 
fill this article, but it still wouldn't convey the "flavor" of the event.  
The real power of what happened came from people meeting people and 
exchanging information outside of the structured portion of the show.  
Everyone present learned something that started new ideas flowing.

As an example -- developers of PROCOMM, QMODEM, and TELIX sat at a table 
with all of the major BBS software authors and discussed how the "chicken 
and egg" problem of online graphics might be solved.  This impromptu 
gathering indicated to me how much "fallout" this event will create.  Many 
of these people weren't even thinking about this subject until the show and 
now they are deciding how they will contribute to its implementation.  A 
"standards committee" of sorts was formed as a result of this exercise, but 
the main thing that happened was that everyone started talking together 
about how to solve common problems in a unified way.

This sort of "cross-pollenation" happened repeatedly at ONE BBSCON.  One wag 
said that the networking that was going on in the halls was transferring 
more information than all of the online networking in history had ever done.  
That may be a bit of an exaggeration, but it is certain that a lot of people 
went home with new plans to do things they hadn't even thought of before the 
show.

Everyone who came had something they wanted to learn more about.  A few were 
disappointed in that their primary goal wasn't met, but they weren't 
disappointed they came.  Usually they learned several new topics of interest 
they hadn't known anything about before they came, and that led them to have 
new ideas about how to use this technology to solve their problems.  The 
excitement of learning was evident in everyone (myself included -- possibly 
most of all).

The vendor floor was a sight to behold.  Many likened it to the "look and 
feel" of a COMDEX style show.  That is a bit overblown, but the vendors 
(eSoft included) certainly got more benefit from ONE BBSCON than they would 
expect from COMDEX.  With over $250,000 of sales on the vendor floor in a 
two day period, some companies who came in a financially weak position made 
enough at the show to become viable.  Others gained enough recognition and 
sales to grow faster than they might have otherwise.  This marks a major 
shift in the BBS world, as the presence of an event with this power will 
speed up development of many new technologies.

In the weeks following the show over eleven vendor press releases were run 
in major publications.  The show was reported on in major computer press in 
the U.S. (Infoworld and PC week ran immediate reports), in Europe, and 
Japan.  I can't read Kanji, so I don't know what was said, but I sure 
recognized the pictures in the six page article on ONE BBSCON and it looked 
like it made as big a splash in Japan as it did here.  The large amount of 
media coverage of ONE BBSCON will help many new companies solve the problem 
of "how to get the word out" about what they are doing in the online world.  
Now there is a place to go to both learn about BBSing and test out whether 
that product you are developing generates any interest among BBSers.

How Did TBBS Stack Up?

I was personally pleased that there were more TBBS sysops present than any 
other brand of BBS software.  WildCat!, PC Board, and Galacticomm all had 
large contingents of sysops present as well.  eSoft conducted several 
presentations of our products, and the feedback I have gotten from TBBS 
sysops who were there is that eSoft made the best overall impression of any 
company at the show.  The "story of TBBS" was heard loud and clear, and we 
have many new TBBS sysops today as a direct result.  The number of people 
who bought TBBS in the booth and then carried their new TBBS software around 
at the show (proud they had made the right choice) was very gratifying to 
me.  In an arena where they could see each BBS package in person and compare 
them head-to-head, more people who came undecided chose to buy TBBS before 
they left than any other BBS software.  I can't ask for a better testimonial 
than that, and I'll freely admit that it felt pretty good.

Most of the eSoft sessions were oriented towards those who aren't experts on 
TBBS (or may not even have purchased it yet).  These presentations were well 
received by their target audience, but I did get some feedback from those of 
you who are more experienced with TBBS that we should have had more of the 
advanced presentations as well.

I could do hundreds of hours of "advanced TBBS" presentations and still miss 
a lot, so I'm very interested in hearing from each of you who plan to attend 
ONE BBSCON next year.  What areas of TBBS you would like to see advanced 
workshops cover.  Remember that an advanced hands-on workshop on a single 
aspect of TBBS (such as file area management) could easily cover three or 
four hours.  Since I can only choose a small number of subjects to cover in 
that depth, I have to choose carefully.  The turnout this year indicates to 
me that I can afford to invest the money to develop serious advanced course 
work for next year, but I need your guidance to pick the proper subject 
areas.

One one advanced session that was very well received this year was the TDBS 
Developer's conference.  Some of the information from that three hour 
session is condensed and reprinted in this issue of the newsletter.

For TBBS sysops, though, it looked to me like the biggest benefits of the 
show came in the lounge and hospitality suites.  The mood of ONE BBSCON 
caused sysops who used different software to have substantive conversations 
in a way I have never seen before.  The result for TBBS sysops was that they 
got a much clearer idea of how using TBBS impacts them as compared to how 
using other software impacts its sysops.  TBBS looks very good in this 
light, and in fact many sysops who were using other "big name" software are 
converting to TBBS since the show!  The simplicity of the single CPU 
approach, and the reliability of TBBS made a big impact on those who weren't 
truly aware of it before -- especially on those who have used other types of 
BBS software.

What New Products Did eSoft Demo?

In the eSoft booth, we were demonstrating QSO (the QWK Support Option), TDBS 
1.2(the latest version of The Data Base System), and TIMS 1.1 (Dial-out 
multi-user FidoNet Support).  Since the show TDBS 1.2 has shipped, and QSO 
will ship soon (see the article on page 6 of this issue).  TIMS 1.1 has 
entered testing and will ship later this year.  Without doubt QSO caused the 
most excitement, especially among the many authors of QWK off-line readers 
who were in attendance.  This response has given eSoft the leverage to 
standardize a few extensions to the QWK format so that support of things 
like enclosed files in messages and return receipts should soon appear in 
many of the more popular QWK readers.  This is yet another direct outgrowth 
of the networking that happened at ONE BBSCON.

What About Next Year?

With the success of this year's ONE BBSCON, there will definitely be a 
bigger and better show next year.  Most of the vendors were talking about 
having larger booths next year, and nearly all intend to return.  Many 
vendors who didn't exhibit this year, did attend to see what the show was 
all about.  Most of them have already indicated they will exhibit at ONE 
BBSCON next year.  Along with the return of nearly all of the experts 
present at this year's show, many more experts have indicated they are 
willing to give presentations at next year's ONE BBSCON, so there should be 
even more opportunity to learn about every aspect of the online world.

Site negotiations aren't final yet, but the show will be in Colorado again.  
It will be for 2,000 sysops this time, and the vendor floor looks like it 
will be about three times as large -- nearly 18,000 square feet of exhibits.  
As with this year, a sellout is a near certainty.

The big question at the end of this ONE BBSCON was "how can they top this?"  
I feel very safe in saying that with the response we've had since the show, 
and the plans that are starting to shape up, we will leave attendees feeling 
just as overwhelmed next year.

Both Jack and I plan to make the ONE BBSCON grow into a true showcase for 
the BBS industry.  All of the work and plans for next year and the years 
beyond will be focused on making sure that those who come continue to have 
access to the largest gathering of information, experts and products 
possible.  Since the personal networking is also key to making the 
information transfer turn into ideas, we will make sure that both the show 
structure and the show setting continue to emphasize that as well.

The tentative dates for the next ONE BBSCON are August 26-29, 1993 so start 
making your plans.  I'll see you there next year at the bigger, better, even 
more fun and informative ONE BBSCON.

- END -
PS1092-3
Rev. 10/92

Copyright (C) 1994 eSoft, Inc., All Rights Reserved.  Permission granted
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