I completely agree with the other posts from people who have previously attended the Chicago PTO Today Conference in the past and was disappointed in the "Expo". I called and spoke my concerns to Nancy and she mentioned several times that they have had such a positive response from the Expo format. It's good to hear others feeling the same way as we did. We drove roundtrip 8 hours, spent $128 on hotel, and only stayed 2 hours. We walked away feeling like we had gained no new information. Last year when Tim talked to the group, he motivated us so much. We felt refreshed and ready to commit to another year as Co-Presidents. We were so looking forward to another great conference with the motivational speeches and networking with other PTOs. Unfortunately, if they do not go back to the previous conference set up we will not be attending in the future. It is not worth the money and time just to meet with vendors. We were looking for some leadership advice and ideas for next year's calendar.

This Expo was our first so we didn't know what to expect or what we missed. We really enjoyed all the vendors. Its great to compare them all in one place. Not sure if we would do this 2 years in a row or not. Would it be all or a lot of the same vendors?

We probably would have enjoyed the conference aspect of it if it was offered but like I said it was our first time and we got a lot out of it. We were there a few hours and enjoyed the vendor "shows". So as newbies its was a thumbs up!

Thanks for the feedback, guys. We'll definitely keep it in mind. Keep an eye out, too, for our formal surveying via email in the next few weeks. We'll look forward to your feedback there, as well.

Couple of other thoughts:

1. It's amazing how different the reactions are to the Expos from folks who've been to one of our full conferences before and folks for whom the Expo was their first. The newcomers by-and-large love it. The folks who've been to a conference model miss the content. That said, this was our 2nd year of our Expo model in Boston -- and the response was great. We also had a lot of really favorable feedback in Chicago yesterday.

2. One big factor for us is that the Expo model may well allow us to run significantly more of these events in future years. The conference model -- for a whole variety of reasons -- takes about 5X more long-term and short-term resources to run than the Expo model. So it may come down to us thinking, for example, about whether to do 2 conferences in 2 cities or 6 Expos in 6 cities. Being able to help more groups is important to us, so it's definitely a factor.

Thanks again,

Tim

Hi Amy G., Missymom3 Here,
Thank You For Singing In,i Hope That I Was Not To Negative. But I Did Talk To Alot Of Poeple And They And My Group Were Very Disappointed. It Is My Hope That More People Will Write. And The Format Can Go Back To What It Was Last Year. Our Group Has Been Going For Four Years .and If We Had To Take A Vote On It Today, We Would Not Be Going Next Year. Yes It Was Less Costly, I Will Pay More No Problem. It's The One Day Of The Year That We Get To Pamper Ourselves And Be Arould Crazys Just Like Us.we Also Get Real Feed Back In Real Time From People That Have (been There).

Missymom3

I attended the PTO event in Oak Brook last year and really loved it! I came away with alot of new ideas and really enjoyed networking with other PTO'rs. I have to admit that I was pretty disappointed with the expo yesterday. I realize that it was different than last year, but it did feel like there were fewer exhibitors and there was not the same level of excitement it the air. Since there were no sessions, it was harder to meet others and trade ideas. I drove 4 hours (was supposed to be less than 3, but Bad back up on I94) and I only stayed at the EXPO for 90 min. Given then same event, I will not be back next year.

I sincerely hope that PTO Today will consider bringing back the conference style event that was held in '06. I, and my board would certainly come back if that were the case.

Hope this was not too negative, just being honest

Amy G.

missymom3;129726 wrote: Were We At The Same Place!please!!i Love The Pto Expos,those In The Past.this One Was Not Very Good.there Was Nowere To Set.there Were Very Few Booths.and The Classes Were Reruns Of The Past,that Is If You Could Get A Set And You Did Not Have To Sit On The Ground.you Also Could Not Hear A Thing With All The People Walking And Talking, There Were No Hand Outs,no Welcome And It Started Late.we Got There On Time And We Had A 2 Hour Drive.i'm Sorry But If This Was My First Time To The Expo I To Might Have Loved It But They Have Done Much Better In The Past.

Hi Missy -

Glad you came; sorry it wasn't what you hoped.

A couple of details that may help put things in perspective:

1. This was a completely different model than in past years. We tried to make that really clear in the web pages and marketing materials (new name, much lower price, no mention of classes or content or speakers). Again -- sorry if that wasn't clear to you folks in advance. We haven't heard that confusion issue from others. We'll redouble those clarity efforts for next year.

2. There were actually more vendors there than we've ever had in Chicago before. Not sure why it seemed like fewer. Might have been an optical illusion, because we opened up a few more walls and the space -- despite the more vendors -- may have felt more open.

3. Sorry about the crowds at the speaker spots. Adding *some* speakers (right in the hall) was actually a late addition (see #1 above), and there are definitely some bugs to work out on that. Biggest issue there was that we had such a huge walk-up crowd yesterday -- the numbers got big. That was the largest crowd we've ever had. Which is great, but it added to the issues around the speakers and seats/sound.

We'll keep working on it......

Tim