Summary: Luc Van Bogaert gives us an insiders view of Warpstock '99.

So, how was Warpstock 99? Was it successful ...was it fun? What were the highlights? What about a new OS/2 client ...did IBM say anything about that? What was IBM doing at Warpstock anyway? How many people came to Atlanta? Will there be a Warpstock next year ...and where will it be?

When I got home from the event, dozens of people kept asking me all these and many more questions about Warpstock. I won't be answering these questions here ...at least not all of them. I'd rather share some of my thoughts on the past event and Warpstock in general. So many people asking me about it, indicates to me that in only three years Warpstock has become very well known amongst the international OS/2 community. What's more, Warpstock has become an event that people seem to care about.

Oh yes, people do care about Warpstock a lot. What else makes people from Holland, Germany or some other European country decide to travel thousands of miles to Atlanta to visit a two day OS/2 convention? Why else would a company like Sundial Systems spend countless of expensive hours to create something like "Warped Jeopardy" and then turn it into one of the absolute highlights of the convention? Why would an attendee step up to the registration desk on Friday, offering to spend his whole weekend to help out wherever help is needed?

There's only one answer to these questions that I can think of : over the past three years Warpstock has become so important to those people that to them, their actions just seem the natural thing to do. To put it in the words of Event Chair Gordon T. Roland : "Let's never underestimate the importance of an event such as Warpstock 99". I've heard him repeat these words a few times over the weekend. His thoughts were initially triggered by a couple of coincidental bystanders who had noticed the enormous "OS/2 Warp, Gateway to the Future" banner behind the registration desk. It turned out that these people had actually heard about OS/2, but they didn't realize that it was still around! In fact, they seemed stunned that they had landed in the middle of what looked like an international OS/2 convention. Gordon had a short chat with those people, explaining to them what it was that they were witnessing. I'm pretty sure he left them a very interesting story to take back home to their relatives, friends and colleagues.

Over the years, Warpstock might indeed become more meaningful to people who are not directly involved with OS/2. Moreover, time has come for the OS/2 community, and thus Warpstock to combine forces, reach out and claim its well deserved place in a diverse world of both mainstream and alternative operating systems and software solutions. By no means am I alone in this conviction. Many new initiatives such as Lynn's Warpicity, VOICE's Warp Doctor, OS/2 NetLabs and Warp Expo West to name only of few of them, have emerged during the past years and are here to prove that it's time for the OS/2 community to empower itself by getting more organized.

However, in our effort to let the general public know that we're still here, let's not forget something else. Not only is Warpstock important to inform the general public about OS/2, but even more so is it important to those many OS/2 users that are still out there. There's a quiet but large group of OS/2 users that will never have the opportunity to attend, but do care about the event nonetheless. Those people have begun to depend on Warpstock. As the event continues to grow, it will become even more important to these people and it will raise ever higher expectations with the OS/2 community in general. Making the event happen just won't cut it anymore. No, Warpstock will have to start preparing for OS/2 users expecting nothing less than a bigger and better show each consecutive year.

In this respect, the Atlanta 99 event was crucial. After the spontaneity of Warpstock 97 and the confirmation that came with Chicago 98, it was Atlanta 99 brought maturity to the event. Right from the start, the Event Team was determined to make Atlanta 99 "the next logical step" for the convention. In my opinion this was exactly the approach that the event needed. I won't expand on the amount of work that went into the making of Warpstock 99, neither will I list the many difficulties that had to be overcome during the process. All that won't matter much to those who where in Atlanta on October 16-17 to witness the results of the Team's efforts. However, I would like to discuss some of the things that helped making Atlanta 99 "the next step" for Warpstock.

So, what was it that made Atlanta 99 stand out more mature as an event than the two preceding editions? Naturally, it did help to have some members on the Board being well trained from the previous events. Having selected a perfectly suited convention site with the Sheraton Gateway Hotel and the Georgia International Convention Center did help as well. No leaking hotel roof this time, which would have been hard to notice anyway because of the nice Atlanta weather.

A fully packed event schedule, with up to four concurrent sessions running most part of both days certainly lifted the event to a higher level. Very high quality presentations most of the time. I've named Warped Jeopardy one of the absolute event highlights, but Warpstock offered attendees more, much more....

Event Chair Gordon T. Roland and David Moskowitz both addressed the assembled crowd during the Welcome Session. Sharing with the audience some of their most intimate and personal experiences from the past year brought silence over the room and deeply moved everyone who was present that morning. By the time Gordon was getting ready to conclude his speech, many people with me realized that we were up for an unforgettable event. We were right...

Saturday brought more highlights with both Peter Coffee's keynote address and a round table discussion on the future of OS/2 and desktop computing, featuring again Mr. Coffee, David Moskowitz and two prominent IBM'ers. Many more sessions throughout both days offering a well balanced variety of topics kept everyone happy, but ultimately lead to one often heard "complaint" about attendees not being able to choose which sessions to attend, or the Exhibit Hall being left empty while all conference rooms were packed.

Warpstock has always been about bringing people closer together. Its mission couldn't have been better illustrated then with "Magic Moments", the Saturday night social. Sponsored by VOICE and Mensys, and created by Board member Judy McDermott, "Magic Moments" is yet another example of what made this Warpstock edition stand out. A beautiful ballroom, delicious Italian cuisine, a truly great show by the Comedy Magician and the company of hundreds of OS/2 enthusiasts.... need I say more?

The above just describes some of the things that every attendee was able to experience at Warpstock. Of course, everyone will treasure some of his own personal memories of the event. So do I. The single most important memory for me, is the rewarding experience I got from working with the Board members, the Event Team and the of course the Warpstock team of volunteers. I want to thank everyone of them for the work they've done. It was the dedication and motivation of each and every single team member that made Atlanta 99 Warpstock's "next step".

PS : the Warpstock Board of Directors has already started working towards Warpstock 2000. Feel free to visit the Warpstock web site (www.warpstock.org) for more information and an up-to-date status report.

Luc Van Bogaert
Warpstock, Vice-President,