HEAV's Homeschool Convention in Richmond

[Tess in the Burbs]

Tess are you going?

I'll be there Thurs and Friday for sure not sure about other days.

 

 

I am there the entire time. Will try to stop by Thursday to say hi when I check in!

[Tess in the Burbs]

Another question on an old thread... does anyone know if there might be a line to get into the exhibit hall? Thanks!

 

 

No, the vendor hall is large and only when it first opens is there a line but once it's open you just walk in.

[JNW]

OK, cool. Not into lines. Thanks!

[ZooRho]

Another question on an old thread... does anyone know if there might be a line to get into the exhibit hall? Thanks!

 

yes there will be a line at 5pm but it moves quickly.

[JNW]

I'm curious to know how the convention went. I went to the Thursday sessions for new homeschoolers and to the curriculum fair and that was it.

[LJPPKGFGSC]

I want to know too! Was it even more crowded than usual with the Duggars? What did we miss?

[LisaKinVA]

I'm still a bit grumpy...but I don't think there were more people there than normal. Granted, I haven't been there for a couple of years, and probably shouldn't have spent the money to attend this year ($29 for shopping only, plus $13 parking)...my family volunteered a total of 21 hours over Friday and Saturday. We went mainly for the UCS (volunteered to get into the UCS early, and volunteered for the UCS sort to get into the gleaning early...but that "perk" was revoked after we finished the sort 20 minutes early...yeah, like I said, I'm still a bit grumpy.)

 

I didn't attend any workshops. The vendor hall was busy, all of the normal people (although Breadbeckers weren't there this year). I think there was more diversity in SC WRT vendors. BJU and Abeka still have the largest booths. Sonlight, Rainbow and MFW had respectable booths...Miller's seemed smaller, but that might be due to placement. there were family businesses, and how to start family business booths, some colleges, Memoria Press, Apologia, Summit, Classical Academic Press, Circe, Lamplighter, Vision Forum, Teaching Textbooks, Saxon, various parenting, special needs, vision therapies, Tutor Soft, VideoText...Bill Gothard stuff) Not an exhaustive list, by any means.

 

ETA: Still enjoy the people, and the vendors. It gets tiring answering the same questions while spending all day on your feet.

[Mom2TheTeam]

This was my first year. It was busy. We had Duggar tickets, but we skipped it. There were other more interesting sessions for us. Plus, as it turns out, we had to drive around for 1.5hrs to find a parking space. We would not have made it into line in time to go anyway.

 

Personally, I felt it was not well organized. We were scheduled for the Duggar thing and the Used Curriculum Sale entrance at the same time. :( There were other issues too for us. We ended up only making it to one session though we wanted to get to more. (We tried to go to one during the Duggar's and the one we went to was awful! We left after only about 15 minutes. The speaker was having issues with the sound and she was being rude and abrasive to those trying to help her. I won't say who the speaker was though.)

 

The UCS was a bust for us. I found very little that would interest me now or in the future. Not sure if what I wanted was already gone or if it just isn't popular. :sad: We did go during our time slot which was earlier than the "general public" but not supper early.

 

Lisa gave a good run down of the venders. I did enjoy seeing and touching things, but also discovered that I really didn't need to actually see and hold things as much as I thought. I spend so much time on their websites (and this one) that I already know what I need to know.

 

As I said, this was our first....I'm not sure I'll go again. I felt like it had potential but was lacking a little organization and maybe I just needed to be better oriented at doing these things. (Though, I've been to many dental conferences, so....this shouldn't have been that hard for me.... :tongue_smilie: )

 

ETA - Lisa, why did they go back on letting you into the gleaning early?? Because you finished sorting early? That isn't right, IMO. I'm grumpy for you. Sorry that happened.

[G5052]

Yes, a friend of mine also mentioned that she was sad that Breadbeckers wasn't there. Apparently they're not doing any conventions now (or so I was told). The same friend also said that she thought that it was actually better organized than previous years, and she's been going for some 15+ years.

 

Not my thing (I haven't been in over a decade now), but the friends I knew who went were happy.

[LisaKinVA]

 

Personally, I felt it was not well organized. We were scheduled for the Duggar thing and the Used Curriculum Sale entrance at the same time. :( There were other issues too for us.

 

The UCS was a bust for us. I found very little that would interest me now or in the future. Not sure if what I wanted was already gone or if it just isn't popular. :sad: We did go during our time slot which was earlier than the "general public" but not supper early.

 

ETA - Lisa, why did they go back on letting you into the gleaning early?? Because you finished sorting early? That isn't right, IMO. I'm grumpy for you. Sorry that happened.

 

 

I snipped your quote a little :D

 

As far as organization goes, it's one of the better organized homeschool conferences I've attended (for the most part). I haven't gone to the VA Homeschooler's one, but I've been to conferences in SC, ATL and FL...parking was a problem this year (on Friday), because VCU's graduation rehearsal (I believe) was Friday as well...I arrived at 7:20, and the garage was already full (I've never had that happen). While working registration, people had been looking for parking for 2 hours (wow...just wow!).

 

The political inner-workings of HEAV have given me pause for the last decade. I know another good (right-kind of Christian, even) vendor who wasn't allowed to participate this year due to the politics. But, for finding what I need...it's usually one of the easiest for me to get to. I do believe it's smaller, though...the exhibit hall used to take more space and the children's convention didn't exist. I don't pay to be a member of HEAV because of the politics (and I mean politics of the "Christian" type...not Democrat/Republican type...they won't even allow voter registration on-site).

 

The tablets at registration got a bit glitchy, and the teeny-tiny keyboards aren't made for adult hands to type (slowing us down). I was so happy when my screen froze, so I could skip the data entry part ;) IMO, they should have people double check the information, process the payments and then pass the form to data entry (behind the curtain, even), to keep the lines moving faster. My kids could have done the data entry, and our lines would have moved much, much faster for the convention attendees.

 

The UCS can be hit or miss. All of it depends upon (1) how people organized their stuff to sell (2) how the volunteers arranged it, and (3) if people carted it off and then took it out of their carts/boxes and left it somewhere else.

 

For example, you can find Apologia elementary science from K-6 grade, Saxon Pre-Algebra from 6th-high school, and TE with the student editions and at a completely separate table in the back. At some points...your eyes glaze over, and you miss tons of stuff. If you are looking for Abeka, BJU, Saxon, or Apologia you will do pretty well. Sonlight and MFW, you *may* get lucky.

 

But, for many things it is hit or miss...and the pricing is all over the map. There were beautiful sets of OE teacher guides/keys that someone marked 1/2 of current retail. The problem with that pricing model is that it is incredibly difficult to find USEABLE workbooks to go with the keys...which makes the set next to worthless. Now, if you find a set with useable workbooks, keys, etc. -- and even if it IS an OE, you can sell it for a decent price. I say this as someone who has complete OE of 8th, 10th and 11th grade Abeka English sitting on my shelves right now...and I'm trying to figure out how to make them stretch beyond one child ;) I'm always blown away by what people think they can sell...and what they think is not worth donating (an Abeka art project book with 90% of the pages missing, for example...ugh).

 

As for why we weren't allowed to glean early...many of us were told *several times* that if we finished early we would get to sort through the donated items with the extra time. The three groups I worked with *all* were working with that in mind. The young teens were moving fast, we worked hard and as quickly as we could. When we were done, we asked and were told "No." The reason we were given was because of "last year" (according to the young man, they let the volunteers in first, and that caused confusion and everyone else there for the gleaning started coming in, too.) I've been to this gleaning now 3x...and all I can say is that you put the words "free books" and people go nuts. I told people that "someone" would inadvertently make a "hole" in the "fence line" and that before you knew it, people would swarm in...and they did. So, we stood and waited. They did let a small group in first, because they had a ministry. They gleaned for nearly an hour by themselves.

 

But yeah, after working so hard moving, lifting, sorting roughly 20,000 books...a lot of us were rather frustrated, with less than charitable attitudes. My kids (who volunteer for everything they can...food bank, church clean-up, special events, etc.) do not want to volunteer for HEAV again. I can't blame them. They were lied to...several times. If we had been told from the start that was the deal, that would have been different...but that is *not* what we were told.

[ZooRho]

I snipped your quote a little :D

I may snip yours and answer in separate post.

 

As far as organization goes, it's one of the better organized homeschool conferences I've attended (for the most part). I haven't gone to the VA Homeschooler's one, but I've been to conferences in SC, ATL and FL...parking was a problem this year (on Friday), because VCU's graduation rehearsal (I believe) was Friday as well...I arrived at 7:20, and the garage was already full (I've never had that happen). While working registration, people had been looking for parking for 2 hours (wow...just wow!).

I have only gone to one other conference in TX. And yes I thought the HEAV one was better even then.

 

Parking is always an issue on Friday. HEAV did tons of work to get the word out to be prepared for the parking issue. In the download there was a map for parking. There isn't anything else they could have done about that if you ask me. and add to that the rain it had to have been messy out there. I did ask about it, and planned to be there by 6:30 am, ended up waking up earlier and got there a little after 6 am. CRAZY time but I was awake.

 

I started working in the Information booth where I volunteer as soon as I got in, and worked there until 8:45 -in time to get to the UCS. I stopped back by several times during the day to help more.

 

I do believe it's smaller, though...the exhibit hall used to take more space and the children's convention didn't exist.

I do feel they use to have more vendors and I miss some of the vendors that use to be there. I've been going since 1994. I can't remember if they had a kid's program back then. I do know they had one at least the 2000 time frame because we used it.

 

The tablets at registration got a bit glitchy, and the teeny-tiny keyboards aren't made for adult hands to type (slowing us down). I was so happy when my screen froze, so I could skip the data entry part ;) IMO, they should have people double check the information, process the payments and then pass the form to data entry (behind the curtain, even), to keep the lines moving faster. My kids could have done the data entry, and our lines would have moved much, much faster for the convention attendees.

I was so busy giving directions I didn't even see if the lines were bad.

[ZooRho]

The UCS can be hit or miss. All of it depends upon (1) how people organized their stuff to sell (2) how the volunteers arranged it, and (3) if people carted it off and then took it out of their carts/boxes and left it somewhere else.

this is so true. I didn't see much in the high school level. I didn't get anything in that level that I was looking for. I did find a few other things but mostly it was some books to read. and yes just dumping or moving books from one area to the next is huge. I think that there are probably people that also just put them where they feel like it.

 

And then add to the fact that seriously I don't get how some people label their stuff at all. it can be crazy. i have moved things at times to more appropriate levels.

 

 

For example, you can find Apologia elementary science from K-6 grade, Saxon Pre-Algebra from 6th-high school, and TE with the student editions and at a completely separate table in the back. At some points...your eyes glaze over, and you miss tons of stuff. If you are looking for Abeka, BJU, Saxon, or Apologia you will do pretty well. Sonlight and MFW, you *may* get lucky.

).

 

THAT CRACKED ME UP. yeah I looked at someone once and said I'm DONE, too bad I'm not finished. and yeah glazed over definately happens. It does help to go with a plan, and a friend or 2 who are also helping you look as you look for their stuff too.

 

and I usually grab the things I want to take more time to look at and throw them in my cart and then sit and look carefully. I DID PUT THINGS BACK THOUGH.

 

 

As for why we weren't allowed to glean early...many of us were told *several times* that if we finished early we would get to sort through the donated items with the extra time. The three groups I worked with *all* were working with that in mind. The young teens were moving fast, we worked hard and as quickly as we could. When we were done, we asked and were told "No." The reason we were given was because of "last year" (according to the young man, they let the volunteers in first, and that caused confusion and everyone else there for the gleaning started coming in, too.) I've been to this gleaning now 3x...and all I can say is that you put the words "free books" and people go nuts. I told people that "someone" would inadvertently make a "hole" in the "fence line" and that before you knew it, people would swarm in...and they did. So, we stood and waited. They did let a small group in first, because they had a ministry. They gleaned for nearly an hour by themselves.

 

But yeah, after working so hard moving, lifting, sorting roughly 20,000 books...a lot of us were rather frustrated, with less than charitable attitudes. If we had been told from the start that was the deal, that would have been different...but that is *not* what we were told.

 

I'm so sorry that you feel they weren't fair and honest. There were definitely some breakdowns in communications this year. I think the Duggers really stretched many people some too far. It was just overwhelming for the volunteers.

 

 

I had a friend who helped me with the info booth on Friday. we had a speaker come up and just BLAST her it was sort of wild. I felt so bad, I've worked there 17 years, I get that, but I was helping someone else when he blew. (he did come back and apologize which was nice)

 

I do plan on writing a short note to the convention people with some suggestions for my area. I hope you will give some feedback too.

[ZooRho]

 

I didn't attend any workshops. The vendor hall was busy, all of the normal people (although Breadbeckers weren't there this year). I think there was more diversity in SC WRT vendors. BJU and Abeka still have the largest booths. Sonlight, Rainbow and MFW had respectable booths...Miller's seemed smaller, but that might be due to placement. there were family businesses, and how to start family business booths, some colleges, Memoria Press, Apologia, Summit, Classical Academic Press, Circe, Lamplighter, Vision Forum, Teaching Textbooks, Saxon, various parenting, special needs, vision therapies, Tutor Soft, VideoText...Bill Gothard stuff) Not an exhaustive list, by any means.

 

ETA: Still enjoy the people, and the vendors. It gets tiring answering the same questions while spending all day on your feet.

 

I wondered if Miller's was smaller since they had the death in the family if there was some issue or not,

 

I work the information and security booth. I answered the same question all weekend. I worked all 3 days to some extent.

 

I have almost lost my voice from talking so much

[ZooRho]

I want to know too! Was it even more crowded than usual with the Duggars? What did we miss?

 

I know Thurs looked more like a Friday to me it was surprising.

 

I know that the parking was bad. There were things that seemed more crowded but I have no idea about the numbers.

[ZooRho]

I know Thurs looked more like a Friday to me it was surprising.

 

I know that the parking was bad. There were things that seemed more crowded but I have no idea about the numbers.

 

 

They said they were expecting 14,000

 

http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/local/home-schoolers-gather-for-training-graduation/article_33acc37b-7a79-5a4f-a251-4b5afb7e7248.html

[ZooRho]

This was my first year. It was busy. We had Duggar tickets, but we skipped it. There were other more interesting sessions for us. Plus, as it turns out, we had to drive around for 1.5hrs to find a parking space. We would not have made it into line in time to go anyway.

 

 

I didn't go to the Duggers either. I had early tickets but wanted to go to the UCS and I had the Leadership luncheon at lunch so I was just out of luck.

 

on finding parking. Did you get the message that parking would be difficult on Friday? It is a regular work day on Friday so that makes things tough on a regular HEAV day. But add in the Duggers and the horrible rain and it was a perfect storm. Did you see the parking map that HEAV sent out with the packets? I had stuck it in my car just in case I needed to search. but since I was there by 6;10 and we were about the 10th car in .

 

 

 

Personally, I felt it was not well organized. We were scheduled for the Duggar thing and the Used Curriculum Sale entrance at the same time. :( There were other issues too for us. We ended up only making it to one session though we wanted to get to more. (We tried to go to one during the Duggar's and the one we went to was awful! We left after only about 15 minutes. The speaker was having issues with the sound and she was being rude and abrasive to those trying to help her. I won't say who the speaker was though.)

 

Did you see that they had ways to swap tickets? We were helping to swap tickets at the Information booth. And we actually had UCS tickets that people had dropped off so we swapped those too. The best deal for the UCS is to volunteer and then you can get in early, but yeah that interfered with me going to the Duggers too.

 

 

 

 

The UCS was a bust for us. I found very little that would interest me now or in the future. Not sure if what I wanted was already gone or if it just isn't popular. :sad: We did go during our time slot which was earlier than the "general public" but not supper early.

 

I didn't have much for me at the ucs either. I did go and get some books more for me but not the couple of things I was looking for. My friend did get quite a bit for her though. In years past I have found lots of things I was looking for though.

 

Did you volunteer? That gets you in first. It is a great deal. They have all sorts of opportunities to volunteer.

 

As I said, this was our first....I'm not sure I'll go again. I felt like it had potential but was lacking a little organization and maybe I just needed to be better oriented at doing these things.

 

I do think HEAV is fairly organized, but this year the Dugger thing really stretched everyone. As I said I work the information booth. The coordinators were hardly there on Friday morning they were dealing with the Duggers or other issues most of the morning. I think it is amazing to think that it is run by so many volunteers, most if not all the coordinators are just volunteers who get very little compensation for all they do.

 

 

I am already planning to go back, it will be my 20th, my youngest will graduate next year, although I doubt he'll do it at HEAV, he is just not that kind of guy.

[ZooRho]

If folks are heading to HEAV, make sure you check out my sil's talks: Kathy Kuhl! SOME DAY I'm going to be able to be there!

 

I did go to one of her talks. I don't need it for my grown boys, but I have done tutoring so wanted some information. it was good.

 

I also shared with her some websites I've used and I need to get a few more that I told her I had for information of stuff I used with my tutoring kids.

 

I told her you said to look her up.

[Mom2TheTeam]

I don't think they can help the parking. It's Richmond...it is what it is. But, I didn't see anywhere anyone trying to get any word out about how difficult parking might be. I did have a map of parking areas. We drove through all of them many, many times before finally finding one not on the list and being able to park there...fairly far away about 1.5hrs after arriving. Because of that, even if we'd wanted to see the Duggars, we would probably not have made it and definitely would not if we wanted lunch or if I wanted to nurse my baby anywhere but in line. Yes, we did arrive a little later than most, but I live 2 hrs away and I had a 7 month old with me (making the trip take longer ;)) Plus, I have 5 other young kids. Leaving the house at 6am (or even earlier) is really, really hard for me. Saturday, the parking was much easier. Again, I know they can't do anything about the parking. It's Richmond But, it would have been nice for it to be somewhere obvious in one of the emails. Maybe I missed it, but I didn't see it anywhere. I figured we wouldn't be able to park in their garage, but assumed there would be parking somewhere.

 

I also understand the UCS is going to be hit or miss. It's all dependent on what people have for sale. I was looking for Apologia and Singapore Standards, specifically, and whatever else I found at random. ;) I didn't care for how the tables where set up because like you said, Apologia can be anywhere from K - 6th for what I was looking for and that is true for many things. I found only one or two Apologia books even though I thought it would be easy to find. Of course, those were way overpriced, IMO. There just wasn't any Singapore Standards at all that I saw, though I did see a few US Edition books, not as many as I'd have thought on that either. Again, I know they can't control what is there or the price and that is fine. But, it wasn't organized in a way I would have preferred. Can't please all the people all the time....the line to pay moved quickly. :) Oh and I wasn't happy that they scheduled my UCS time at the same time as my Duggar tickets. I know I didn't end up going to the Duggar things and ended up going to the UCS during my time slot, but I would have had to miss my time if I'd made it to the Duggars. That would have really bummed me out. Maybe that just couldn't be helped based on my date of registration, but it was a bummer.

 

Part of where I think it was lacking organization was actually before the convention. I found it difficult to find some information on the website. Like, I had to call to ask about my mom coming only to find out that if I registered it would have given me the option to add grandparents. There should have been something about that somewhere other than on the actual registration form because I was waiting to register till I could find out about that (but I have a hard time making phone calls during business hours with 6 kids 7 and under ;)) I also found it hard to find info on the children's program online. Maybe these things were there, but I'm not inept at finding info websites...so, it needed to be more obvious if it was there somewhere. I also found it frustrating that they couldn't tell me when my Duggar time slot was when I called to ask a few weeks out. I was trying to schedule our conference plans and it really did make a difference. We may have stayed in town if it was at 8am, but definitely not if it wasn't. When I got off the phone with her, I knew if we happened to get 8am, we'd have to just skip it. I felt they should have had each person register for a time slot when they registered and when all the slots from one time slot was gone, people had to choose the other. (Of course I did get my assignment like 2wks out, but if I'd wanted a hotel room, that may have been too late. And, it was moot because my time slot was 1pm and we didn't even go, but it was frustrating before because originally, I did want to go.)

 

I also know I'm not the only mom who thought it could have been organized slightly better because I spoke to some in the nursing room (and I didn't initiate the conversation).

 

I'm sure I come across like I think it was rotten. That truly isn't the case and I'm leaning toward going again next year. So, it can't have been that bad of an experience. Now that I know these things, I can better navigate the event. I did go to one session that I enjoyed and I bought a couple that I've listened to and enjoyed. (Oh, I did think the CD's were too expensive and I didn't buy everything I wanted because of it.) I'm sure they did a great job. I honestly can't imagine the amount of work that goes into something like this. I commend everyone willing/able to help.

 

There are several other things that happened (having nothing to do with HEAV) that are probably coloring my experience too, only one of which being that I'm sick. So, I apologize if I come across negative. We just need to get better at navigating the convention if we go again. :)

[ZooRho]

Oh don't feel like I was picking on you. I was curious since I didn't talk to some that had struggles with some of that, other struggles yes. So I was curious about your experience. as I said I'll probably write a quick note to them with some suggestions from what I experienced. mine will be more specific to my volunteer spot.

 

 

I don't think they can help the parking. It's Richmond...it is what it is. But, I didn't see anywhere anyone trying to get any word out about how difficult parking might be. I did have a map of parking areas. We drove through all of them many, many times before finally finding one not on the list and being able to park there...fairly far away about 1.5hrs after arriving. Because of that, even if we'd wanted to see the Duggars, we would probably not have made it and definitely would not if we wanted lunch or if I wanted to nurse my baby anywhere but in line. Yes, we did arrive a little later than most, but I live 2 hrs away and I had a 7 month old with me (making the trip take longer ;)) Plus, I have 5 other young kids. Leaving the house at 6am (or even earlier) is really, really hard for me. Saturday, the parking was much easier. Again, I know they can't do anything about the parking. It's Richmond But, it would have been nice for it to be somewhere obvious in one of the emails. Maybe I missed it, but I didn't see it anywhere. I figured we wouldn't be able to park in their garage, but assumed there would be parking somewhere.

 

I don't know where they had parking info for sure. I do know it was mentioned several times on the Facebook page. and I thought the blog post they had. They did have it in the package letter to be there early. I did feel bad for all those that did struggle with finding parking. I know I mentioned it any time I talked about it.

 

 

And I totally get the leaving early part. I am not a morning person that I was there at 6 am is still cracking me up. I was able to stay with my son so that was easier.

 

I also understand the UCS is going to be hit or miss. It's all dependent on what people have for sale. I was looking for Apologia and Singapore Standards, specifically, and whatever else I found at random. But, it wasn't organized in a way I would have preferred. Can't please all the people all the time....the line to pay moved quickly. :) Oh and I wasn't happy that they scheduled my UCS time at the same time as my Duggar tickets. I know I didn't end up going to the Duggar things and ended up going to the UCS during my time slot, but I would have had to miss my time if I'd made it to the Duggars. That would have really bummed me out. Maybe that just couldn't be helped based on my date of registration, but it was a bummer.

Well this was the first time they had to set the times for the keynotes. somewhere I think FB they talked about the struggle with how to do those time. I know there were certain groups that they did do certain times. I went to the leadership luncheon so I got the 8 am, but I wanted to get to the UCS first so that didn't work for me.

 

I do think they have the UCS set up as best they can. there are specific tables for each grade and then subject areas. The problem comes when something is in a grey area or would fit on more than one table.

 

If you volunteer you get in first to the UCS. I love that perk. The information booth did have both Dugger tickets and UCS tickets to exchange. I know that wasn't hugely advertised and I think a last minute decision.

 

Part of where I think it was lacking organization was actually before the convention. I found it difficult to find some information on the website. Like, I had to call to ask about my mom coming only to find out that if I registered it would have given me the option to add grandparents. There should have been something about that somewhere other than on the actual registration form because I was waiting to register till I could find out about that (but I have a hard time making phone calls during business hours with 6 kids 7 and under ;)) I also found it hard to find info on the children's program online. Maybe these things were there, but I'm not inept at finding info websites...so, it needed to be more obvious if it was there somewhere. I also found it frustrating that they couldn't tell me when my Duggar time slot was when I called to ask a few weeks out. I was trying to schedule our conference plans and it really did make a difference. We may have stayed in town if it was at 8am, but definitely not if it wasn't. When I got off the phone with her, I knew if we happened to get 8am, we'd have to just skip it. I felt they should have had each person register for a time slot when they registered and when all the slots from one time slot was gone, people had to choose the other. (Of course I did get my assignment like 2wks out, but if I'd wanted a hotel room, that may have been too late. And, it was moot because my time slot was 1pm and we didn't even go, but it was frustrating before because originally, I did want to go.)

 

I am at a disadvantage to knowing what was on the website. I have been for so many years I know so much of that stuff as my common knowledge of the convention. yes hsing grandparents are free.

 

I also know I'm not the only mom who thought it could have been organized slightly better because I spoke to some in the nursing room (and I didn't initiate the conversation).

I do hope you will write this stuff out for HEAV. trying to be specific with what was difficult for you to find on the website.

 

I'm sure I come across like I think it was rotten. That truly isn't the case and I'm leaning toward going again next year. So, it can't have been that bad of an experience. Now that I know these things, I can better navigate the event. I did go to one session that I enjoyed and I bought a couple that I've listened to and enjoyed. (Oh, I did think the CD's were too expensive and I didn't buy everything I wanted because of it.) I'm sure they did a great job. I honestly can't imagine the amount of work that goes into something like this. I commend everyone willing/able to help.

no you don't sound like you are thinking that.

 

You can get the Mp3's as downloads and those were cheaper than the CDs. I may buy a couple of those. I got one free since the class was full.

 

And yes going to it once/twice, gives you a better understanding of things.

 

I know I'm amazed at the amount of work that must go in ahead of time and then at the convention itself. I know the coordinators where I work were constantly moving.

 

There are several other things that happened (having nothing to do with HEAV) that are probably coloring my experience too, only one of which being that I'm sick. So, I apologize if I come across negative. We just need to get better at navigating the convention if we go again. :)

 

I'm sorry you aren't feeling well. AND next year start a thread here and others will help you figure things out.

 

here is the link to the survey

http://heav.org/2013-convention-survey/