Getting to Malta (was Re: Monterey Summit - kudos to Dan and Chipp)

[Dan Shafer]

My bad, guys and gals.

I made the mistake of checking flights from Monterey, which is our 
local airport. Generally, when I travel I insist on leaving from there 
because I hate the long lines at SFO and SJC. And as a rule, leaving 
from Monterey has a relatively minor impact on my domestic air fares, 
so I made the faulty assumption that I would see the same result for a 
trip to Malta.

I was wrong. I apologize to everyone, but particularly to the hosts of 
the Malta conference, for making such an inaccurate observation. Chalk 
it up to fatigue after running the two-day Monterey summit or just to 
not paying attention.

In any case, it appears now that I *can* in fact arrange reasonable air 
fare to Malta in November. My wife and I are now discussing the idea of 
combining the trip with a chance to see another city or two in Europe 
while we're there. So while I'm not yet committing to being at the 
Malta gathering, I will certainly continue to entertain the idea and 
consider it more likely than I rudely dismissed in my earlier post.

Let me add that I think it's vital to the long-term success of RunRev 
and the Transcript language that we who are already knowledgeable about 
it spread the word. Conferences like the just-concluded Masters Summit 
and this European conference are really important to that effort. How 
many independently hosted and managed user conferences did RealBASIC 
have this year? You can count them on the fingers of no hands.

So to the extent that my flippant remark about air fare caused anyone 
to decide to stop even thinking about going to the conference, please 
don't take my word for it. I am hardly a seasoned international 
traveler. Investigate for yourself.

One of the highlights of the Masters Summit was the once-in-a-lifetime 
chance for all of us to meet our new hilarious friend from Brazil, 
Andre Garzia. He's made huge contributions to the community and getting 
to know him in person was invaluable. I was particularly blessed 
because he arrived in Monterey three days before the conference, so he 
and I got to hang out a bit outside the meetings. That wouldn't have 
happened if he'd dismissed out of hand the idea of flying to the U.S. 
for a two-day conference.

So again, I apologize. I retract my inaccurate statement. I will now be 
considering the enticing prospect of going to Malta in November. I hope 
you will, too.