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 I think they would be great , I just know what a wealth of knowledge I have received from this board in improving my PTO and myself in leading the PTO. And I am sure having improvement sessions on different topics at a conference would help us out even better.
I do see your point most of your patrons are going to be moms and its hard to say set aside one to two days rather than just say a couple hours. Also I know they are nut an easy thing to put together and we appreciate all you do.

Either way the board and the PTO Today are doing a great job.

my3strongtikes;130133 wrote: I would be more willing to pay more and get the info than have a lower price and just get vendor stuff and little info.

Thanks, 3strong, for the input. The evidence is pretty clear that quite a few more folks came out for the Expo model than came out for the conference model. 20%+ more. As the main speaker at these things, I can definitely see (I'm a bit biased ) the value of the content and sessions and sharing, but the fact that the Expo model allowed us to serve several hundred more attendees is interesting...

Thing is, I don't think it's a money thing. I think it's a flexibility thing. The conference model involves really making a commitment ahead of time to a complete day. If you live, say, an hour away -- then you're leaving home at 7:30 and getting back home at 5. As opposed to the expo model where you can come and go largely as you please and decide day-of-event if the schedule works for you. Lots of attendees got the kids on the bus, made their way over to Expo, and then were back home before school got out -- even if they lived 90 minutes away.

Now that this year's Expos are over (Philly was yesterday), we'll go into full review and then planning mode. Lots of moving pieces. Big factors = serving most PTOers, our own staffing levels and internal resources, exhibitor demand, facility availability and more.... Sounds fun, eh?

Tim

I have never been to either style but I have been on the board a couple of years. I just wanted to say also that I really wanted to go but I was looking for more of a conference style thant the expo. Our PTO talked about going but much of the info we can get online we really wanted to share ideas and get more info than vendor stuff.
What if the US was broke into regions so that someone was in charge of each area and to have conferences that way. Say having at least two conferences in each region, Northeast, southeast, midwest, northwest, etc. then maybe more areas could be covered. Just a thought.

I would be more willing to pay more and get the info than have a lower price and just get vendor stuff and little info.

It is great that you provide them though either way.

An interesting side note:

My business rented space at an expo in January. It's an annual expo that we attend every year as spectators but it was our first time to be there as a vendor. I thought it went extremely well, we had a lot of traffic through our booth and made some great contacts.

The hosts of the expo spent months touting the new larger space, more vendors than ever, more classes, greater attendance, the works. It was probably 20% - 25% larger than ever before.

Nearly everyone else talked about how disappointed they were with the turnout, the decrease in vendors (?), lack of classes to attend, etc. It seemed that the mere fact that folks weren't packed in like sardines, standing in line forever and herded through the place made them feel like it wasn't as big a deal. It was very interesting to me to see how perception can have a much greater impact than reality.

Hi threeboys --

Thanks for the support, but I don't mind the feedback at all. In fact, it's educational.

One thing that I think happens is that we here at PTO Today can think we're spreading the message about changes really, really broadly. We try to make it clear on the website, here on the boards, in the printed marketing materials that go out, etc.

But I think a fairly sizeable number of attendees (especially at schools that have sent attendees in the past) never see those messages. One leader may get the materials or see the website, and then -- whether that leader digests the changes or not -- she might just say: "who's up for going to the PTO Today event this year?". So the 3 or 5 other leaders from that group jump onboard without ever having seen the many notices about the changes.

So it's on us to make sure we try and spread the news as far as wide as possible. We'll keep working on it.

I can understand the disappointment if someone thought -- for whatever reason -- they were arriving for a full-blown conference with dozens of speakers, etc. We're always looking to get things just right, and we'll continue to do so.

Tim

I have been reading these message boards for a couple of years and have come away with so many great ideas that I have filled a binder!! I haven't gone to either an Expo or a Conference. I do, however, know the difference.

When Tim first discussed the Expo vs. the Conference I understood the differences. The conference lasted all day and had numerous guest speakers. The Expo was a half day and featured mostly advertisers and no speakers.

I understand that folks who have been to a Conference have been disappointed when they attended the Expo. But really ... the price was significantly lower, the time frame was much smaller, there were more Expos scheduled than Conferences ... all of this was explained time and again.

This is a message board and a forum for greivances, but I do hope that no one seriously feels misled. I think Tim and his team did a great jopb in explaining the differtences and making sure that people had all the necessary info.