MILOfest 2010 Announcement

Hello Mac-Lovin’ Lawyers! It’s that time of year again. Bees are buzzing, pools are being prepped for a summertime’s worth of fun and yours truly has begun to put the wheels in motion for the fall conference known as MILOfest.

Last year was great and the feedback I got was that everyone who attended had a blast and wanted it to continue. So, here we are.

Let’s get the pesky details out of the way and we can move onto some of the exciting (at least I think so) changes for MILOfest 2010.

MILOfest 2010 in a Nutshell

Dates: November 11-13, 2010 (Thursday-Saturday)

Thursday – Recent Convert/Newbie Track (times TBD)

Thursday Evening – Social Event

Friday – General Programming – 8:30am to 4pm

Saturday – General Programming – 8:30am to 4pm

Venue: Disney World Coronado Springs Resort & Conference Center

Orlando, FL

Hotel: $144/night – good for 3 days prior to and after the event

Price: $450/$500/$550/$600

(2009 Attendee Appreciation Rate/Early Bird Pricing/General Admission Pricing/Last Chance Pricing)

Parks: Discount pricing for part-day tickets to the Disney Theme Parks

Dates

The fall is a tough time for conferences because lots of groups are trying to get some last minute things in before the end of the year. Unfortunately, the exact same weekend was unavailable because Disney was completely booked. Given the choice between backing up to Halloween or Thanksgiving, I decided that the next weekend (with the possibility of stretching the trip into Veteran’s Day) would be best. I hope you can join us.

Venue

I am dedicated to keeping it at Disney for a few powerful reasons. First, it’s Disney! For folks that came before with their family, they can arrange a second vacation. Second, if folks came last year without their family and want to change it up this year, they can. Third, for folks who didn’t make it last year, they won’t miss out on the chance to make it a family vacation.

Finally, and most importantly, the facility folks rocked and I can be confident that the same high-level of client service and experience will be there. That’s a big deal for me because I’m planning this from a distance and I’d hate to risk a bad experience so young into this conference’s existence.

I know that some will find it hokey, but I received no complaints from attendees about the accommodation or the facilities. I sincerely apologize I can’t make it more convenient for those who are apt to complain, however I honestly believe this is in the best interest of the majority of attendees and the life of the conference.

More Venue

In addition to the space rental, your registration fee covers breakfast on Friday and Saturday, snacks on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Unfortunately, providing Internet at the event is prohibitively expensive. So, if you have a Mi-Fi, bring it. If there’s enough interest, maybe we’ll teach a session on jailbreaking your iPhone/iPad and tethering your computer.

The conference rate for the hotel is $144/night and that’s good for up to 3 nights before and three nights after the event. The rate is also about $30 less than the retail pricing for rooms at the Coronado Springs. In addition, for those of you looking to turn this into a Disney vacation, there are special discounts on part-day tickets for conference attendees – these will let you get into the parks at 2pm or 4pm for dinner, fun, and more.

There are a limited amount of rooms booked at this rate. The conference space is really being used a lot and it took a lot of negotiation to get this rate and this many rooms set aside for MILOfest. That rate is good only for the first 60 registrants. I might be able to increase it if there is a big, early rush to registration, but no promises.

Programming

If this is your first experience with MILOfest, let me welcome you and let you know, you’re in for a treat. This conference was outstanding, by all measure, and it was due in part to the superb speakers and programming. (The other part was how warm and collegial the attendees were.)

As with last year, my commitment is to bring the best speakers with the most interesting subject matter. Already we have 6 speakers with topics ranging from “Responsible Connectivity” to “iPad Use in Trial” to “Launching Into the Cloud: A Practical Workshop” to “Trial Presentation Technology” to “Applescript Basics” and more.

We’ve got great speakers for these sessions, like Ron Elkins, Mark Metzger, Jack Newton Larry Port, Finis Price, Larry Staton, Ben Stevens, and yours truly. I’ll share bios and more details on their talks as we get closer.

New Stuff for 2010!

There are some programming changes for this year, beyond just mixing up the speakers and the subjects covered.

First, I heard from many of last year’s attendees that I did not leave enough time for informal networking and socializing. I agree that the “who” of the conference is as important as the “what” and I personally would have liked more time to get to know more of the attendees better. So, there will be fewer sessions on Friday and Saturday with longer breaks in between the sessions for more interaction between the sessions. I think that’s going to work out very well.

The second major change on programming is the addition of programming on Thursday. I heard from some folks who expressed a little anxiety at the skill level assumed by some of the programming. Others wondered if this conference has any room for the “newbie” Mac attorney. So, we are adding a Recent Convert track on Thursday. It probably won’t cover the whole day (details to be determined), but the goal is to provide a general overview of using the Mac OS and some of the more common programs that the attorney new to the Mac might be using. I also think that there will be a lot of value for other attendees as we cover tips and tricks that you might have overlooked. My hope is that “newbies” will feel very comfortable signing up for the conference and following the (possibly) more advanced sessions on Friday and Saturday.

Stay tuned for more information, but if you are at all interested in learning the basics and beyond of using your Mac, plan on being there for Thursday’s programming.

Price

The price has gone up since last year. In part, it’s due to the price of the conference facilities going up from year to year, and in part, it’s due to the additional programming we are offering on Thursday. I still believe it is an incredible bargain given the quality of the conference and the experience you receive. I hope you agree.

As with last year, we are going to stagger the pricing to reward folks who act early, and a special price for last year’s attendees (as a thank you for helping launch):

$450 – 2009 Attendee Appreciation Pricing (good through July 31, 2010)

$500 – Early Bird Pricing (good through July 31, 2010)

$550 – General Admission (good through September 30, 2010)

$600 – Last Chance Pricing (good through day of event)

To register for the event, follow the instructions on the EventBrite registration page or on the badge alongside the MILOfest webpage. To avoid the processing fees, you can call Tiffany Lauritsen, my Client Services Director, at 609.818.0068 and arrange to pay by check. Do not attempt to pay by check on the EventBrite site, or you’ll have to pay the processing fees. I’m a reasonable person – if you are registering within a few days of the expiration of a pricing tier, call with a promise to send a check in 3 days and I’ll honor the lower price.

Conclusion

I hope that last year’s attendees will decide to come back and that some of you will come for the first time. We’ll be sharing more news about the event on MILOfest’s Facebook page, Twitter and the MILOfest website. Any questions – please email me at info [at] milofest [dawt] com

Thank you in advance for your interest. See you there!

Victor Medina

I am really excited to announce that BeeDocs Timeline has confirmed that they will be speaking at MILOfest in November. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Timeline, it is THE software for creating visually stunning timelines (which you can export to Keynote, QT, etc.).

As I’ve said all along, I’m not big on a lot of vendor demonstrations, but these guys offer some so unique, so useful to the practice of law that I thought it was important to set aside some time for this unique product.

BeeDocs is sending Elise Hunt to come and present for use. Not to steal her thunder but Timelines is AWESOME. You can export in HD and seamlessly integrate it with any presentation you want. BeeDocs just pushed out an update which lets you export your timelines with a transparent background. Look at the gorgeous results you can get. (That’s the same Elise who is going to come and present for us. Wave hello to Elise!)

And here is the video they posted when they first announced Timeline 3D -

Folks who signed up early are really seeing their confidence in the conference pay off. The rest of you – what are you waiting for?

Victor Medina -
MILOfest Organizer

[P.S. - I think the Internets are getting a little tired of me promoting MILOfest. I do it just because I think this is going to be an awesome conference. If you think so too, can you spread the word around? Thanks!]