Letter from Conference chair

Bob Hablutzel

My friends -

MADACon 1993 has come and gone, but as we look back on the year I am convinced that it will be remembered as the place to be for first sneaks at upcoming technology. The show opened with a stunning presentation of SK8, a new ATG language project, continued with Newton, Pink and OLE sneaks, and didn't stop until our own Jeff Alger had laid out the path for the future.We also saw up and coming products such as Component Workshop, Bedrock, OOPC, and Beta. The conference may not have made our choices clear, but it did present a clear picture that the choices are improving rapidly.

Many of you have contacted me, as conference chair, and thanked me for the quality of the conference. This is greatly appreciated. However, please do not overlook the outstanding contributions of Steve Mann, MADA manager, who did a fantastic job of ensuring that the conference came together. Without his work, and the able assistance of Patricia McCauley, the conference would not have existed at all.

The keystone of MADA, to my mind, is the community spirit that exists in the organization. The people at the conference are not only peers, but also friends and family. Everyone from the newest neophyte to luminaries such as Mike Potel and Adele Goldberg are welcomed and treated with respect. Even Steve Sinofksy, a card carrying Microsoft representative, was received without the normal Microsoft bigotry. This is as it should be, as we are going to learn only by listening to each other.

Unfortunately there was one glaring lapse in this community feeling, as one vendor used totally inapproriate naked lady slides to illustrate, of all things, the concept of optional arguments. Please rest assured that we at MADA neither knew about, nor condoned, this action. We are taking steps to help ensure that nothing like this happens again. Our organization, and indeed our world, is too small to allow this sort of exploitation to continue.

Now is the time to turn to next year. As chairman of the board of MADA, and as next years conference chair, I look forward to your input on both the conference and on the organization in general. Please feel free to contact me at any time and let me know what is on your mind.

I can be reached at:

Bob Hablutzel
Hablutzel Consulting
606 Asbury
Evanston, IL 60202
Phone: 708 328 0130
Fax: 708 328 2417
AppleLink: B.HABLUTZEL