Here's what I posted in the ARMA Forum:

Overall, I have to say I think the conference went pretty smooth. It would
have been nice to have been able to register earlier on Saturday and obtain
your bag and all, but the 3pm time worked okay for me, seeing as I was in
Committee meetings all day anyway.

The attendance seemed to exceed even the seasoned staff and leadership's
expectations, as we not only ran out of bags, but proceedings CDs as well. I
heard there were 2200 bags and 2500 CDs.

Some things that could have been a bit better were the general signage and
especially the signs on the sessions. It was a little tough finding things,
and there weren't a lot of staff members on the floor directing traffic.

I was also disappointed that there were a lot of presenters that hadn't
provided their materials in time for printing or inclusion on the CDs, and
this time around there were quite a few non-ARMA Member presenters, so they
aren't in the directory so you can contact them. It would seem in these
cases, contact info should have been included in the proceedings for
post-conference.

The International and Federal Day programs seemed to be plenty successful,
as the attendees were streaming in and out of those sessions all day long.
And the poster sessions were well attended, but there are still a few bugs
to work out on those.

The exposition floor was packed with a lot of the "usual suspects" and a
number of new vendors this time as well. There wasn't much in the SNIA area
beyond that which we're used to, which was sort of surprising... I expected
to see some more novel storage and networking concepts there compared to
what we're accustomed to, but I think that just speaks to the fact that
we're pretty mainstream already in the RIM Profession!

Would have been nice to see a better turnout at the General Meeting and
Candidate Forum, and if there had been more time allotted for questions from
the floor, but the candidates seemed to all be pretty well prepared for the
meeting and most had a good grasp on the issues facing the profession and
professionals. No earth-shaking announcements and the financial position of
the Association seems fairly strong, but it will require vigilance to keep
it that way.

I was pleased to hear that the surplus allowed for a donation to be made to
the ARMA International Education Foundation, as that is a critical aspect of
what we're doing as we move forward... the efforts to continue developing
salient educational offerings for everyone in the RIM Profession and others
from the outside that are being impacted by compliance efforts and are
beginning to develop RIM Programs.

Only 11 months until the 50th Anniversary event, I wish ARMA all the best in
putting together a blockbuster event for Chicago... I guess the one problem
with having a successful Conference is trying to come up with something to
top it year after year, especially in a landmark year like this.

Congratulations ARMA!

Larry

Larry Medina
President, ARMA Golden Gate Chapter
2003-2005

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