We attended the Chicago event in 2005 and 2006 and came away with soooo many new ideas and so much energy for continuing to grow and enhance our PTO programs and events.
We were very disappointed to learn that it would be Expo-only this year. The Expo portion is almost completely about fundraising. While fundraising is important, of course, it's not the heart and soul of who we are. Fundraising merely provides the money to support our programs and events. During the conference events, we came away with encouragement, new ideas and new energy for our PTO programs and events for the upcoming year.
While I'm sure that more local schools (Chicago and its suburbs) attended the event because it was easy for them to squeeze in a couple hours there without disrupting their normal day, the Expo-only format was not enough to lure us to drive 2.5-3 hours and get hotel rooms.
We had a local offsite meeting instead to plan for next year. We hope that the conference format returns in some capacity (perhaps rotating throughout the country so cities like Chicago get a conference at least every other year?). If it stays Expo-only, we will continue to get ideas from the web site and forums, but we won't be attending the event.
(Side note: we thought the information from PTO Today was very clear on this point. We felt very "forwarned" of the changes.)
jurijeka;130194 wrote: Anybody at the Expo happen to remember the name of the Back-To-School supply vendor that offered the Target Cards and the Scholastic Book Fair coupon??? We've heard from all the others but not this one and this is the that grabbed our interest. Of course, I don't have any paper on them. Can anyone help this scatter-brained mom??
I believe you're talking about:
Primary School Supplies (www.schooltoolbox.com/
) has a deal with Target. Please don't be afraid to remind them where you found them (our expo) and where you refound them (our Web site) .
Anybody at the Expo happen to remember the name of the Back-To-School supply vendor that offered the Target Cards and the Scholastic Book Fair coupon??? We've heard from all the others but not this one and this is the that grabbed our interest. Of course, I don't have any paper on them. Can anyone help this scatter-brained mom??
my3strongtikes;130180 wrote: Just another suggestion. Sorry!! Maybe offer both you can cover many cities having the expos, but maybe offer just a few conferences.
I do not want to come off as sounding ungrateful....
Not ungrateful at all. We really do appreciate all the feedback.
Your suggestion is a possibility. It's on the list. We've at times considered doing one larger full-blown conference (thinking that would be a good outlet for the folks that are so into this they'd fly across the country for a conference).
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