Aiden Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 I have the opportunity this year to attend one (but not both) homeschool convention. I can go to the Home Educators Association of Virginia (HEAV) convention in Richmond, VA, in June, or I can go to the Southeast Homeschool Expo in Atlanta, GA, in July. I've never been to a homeschool convention. I'm thinking I'll primarily be interested in the vendor hall, though if a workshop or two looks good, I'll do that as well. HEAV, as of now, seems to have a better list of exhibitors, but it looks like the Expo may not have all their exhibitors signed up yet. HEAV's keynote speaker is Ken Ham, which is a turnoff to me (I'm Christian, but not YEC, and while I'd be ok with some YEC speakers, Ken Ham is not one of them), but I'd simply not go to his talk. I'm not familiar with most of the speakers currently listed for either convention. Atlanta would be less expensive for us, but Richmond is doable if that convention is better. If you have any experience with either of these conventions, I'd love to hear about it! I need to decide quickly--our preferred hotels for HEAV already are filling up. It's bedtime where I am :sleep: , so I'm hoping to wake up to some responses tomorrow morning :D Thank you for any experiences you can share. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momofkhm Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 Looking at the lists - the speakers are better at HEAV. Well, I've heard of more of them. Boyers are good. Flylady. Dianne Craft. Greg Harris. Andrew Pudewa. Todd Wilson is hilarious! Hal and Melanie Young. I wish I'd know about the Boyers when mine were young. I've heard good things about Diane Craft. But I've only heard of one at SE - Jim Weiss. So if *I* were going for speakers, I'd go to HEAV. It looks like there are more exhibitors at HEAV than at SE. And there is a lot of overlap as well. When I went to HEAV many moons ago, they had a used book sale hall. I don't remember finding anything but it makes them unique. We stayed at the Richmond Crown Plaza. With 5 of us, we had to get 2 rooms. It was close enough that we walked. Uphill. To the convention center. And there was an Irish/ British? place that we passed so we ate dinner there one night. I have no experience with SE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeacefulChaos Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 I go to HEAV, so I can only speak from that experience. I am... very displeased with the choice of Ken Ham as the keynote speaker. However, like you said, I'm just not going to his talk. There tend to be a lot of 'Christian worldview' type workshops there that I'm not necessarily a fan of (despite being a Christian), but that isn't something that bothers me, as I still usually go to at least a few workshops over the course of the weekend. More importantly, I think they have a good exhibit hall, a good venue, and a good used curriculum sale. I buy a lot while I'm there. The UCS is excellent. I haven't necessarily found curriculum there used and cheap, but I've always bought lots and lots of books for supplemental and assigned reading. I am more likely to buy curriculum either at the publisher's booth or RR booth in the exhibit hall. But some people do find curriculum there for an amazing price - it all depends on what you're looking for. But I easily save at least a hundred dollars on books in the UCS. That said, I'm not like, 'oh, it's the best convention ever and you should totally go there.' If Atlanta is easier for you, I say try that one. It's all relative. For me, a lot of what I love about the HEAV convention is that weekend in it's entirety, which doesn't necessarily mean just the convention itself. If that makes sense. Lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aiden Posted January 15, 2015 Author Share Posted January 15, 2015 Thank you both! I kind of feel like the more responsible thing to do would be to go to Atlanta--it's only a few hours from where we'll be staying with our family, which makes the travel easier, and it would be less expensive overall, between the hotel being cheaper and not spending as much on gas. However, attending a convention may be a one-time thing for us, and definitely will be a "once this year and not at all next year" thing. We're not likely to be in the US during convention season next year, and even this year, we'll only be in the States from late May until hopefully no later than 1 August. I'm liking the looks of the vendor hall and some of the workshops at HEAV. The Southern Expo doesn't have topics for the workshops posted yet, and a couple of vendors I want to see aren't on their list. Plus I do like the timing of HEAV a little better--it would allow me to spend time with family, go to the convention, more time with family, a planned vacation, a last bit of time with family, then leave, rather than the expo's schedule, which would put me with a huge chunk of time with family, vacation, couple days with family, convention, couple days with family, then leave. Family is great, but I think smaller, spread out chunks of time will work out better for all of us. I'm thinking that since this will be a rare thing for us, and we can afford the one I really want to go to, even if it is a little more expensive, it will be worth it to do that one. All that to say ... HEAV, here I come! I'm so excited :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momofkhm Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 However, attending a convention may be a one-time thing for us, All that to say ... HEAV, here I come! I'm so excited :D Since you said "us" and "HEAV", make sure, doubly sure that your husband goes to see Todd Wilson. My dh went to a few conferences with me. Not many. But once he went to Todd Wilson, he went to every talk! And he laughed! The talk I went to, gosh the man is funny! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aiden Posted January 15, 2015 Author Share Posted January 15, 2015 Since you said "us" and "HEAV", make sure, doubly sure that your husband goes to see Todd Wilson. My dh went to a few conferences with me. Not many. But once he went to Todd Wilson, he went to every talk! And he laughed! The talk I went to, gosh the man is funny! Thanks! I'll see if I can get him to go to one. I think his ideas about this convention run along the lines of "The wife wants to do it and says it'll help, so we'll go. I'll keep our daughter out of the way and let the wife do her thing. And I guess I'll look at whatever she wants me to look at. Man, I'm glad it's only a couple of days!" (He is displaying a good attitude about it all, but it's still pretty obvious to me that this is *my* thing, and he's being supportive rather than actually wanting to go himself.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeacefulChaos Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 See you there! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aiden Posted January 16, 2015 Author Share Posted January 16, 2015 Since you said "us" and "HEAV", make sure, doubly sure that your husband goes to see Todd Wilson. My dh went to a few conferences with me. Not many. But once he went to Todd Wilson, he went to every talk! And he laughed! The talk I went to, gosh the man is funny! I told my husband about Todd Wilson's seminars, including one add-on where they eat donuts as part of the dads' seminar. Direct quote from my husband: "You had me at donuts." Now I'm off to email the registration lady and add that to our registration ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NavyMommy Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 I've been to HEAV twice, but one year I only went one evening. One thing to keep in mind is that IIRC last year the Expo Hall wasn't open yet during the morning Keynote on Saturday. I feel the same way about having Ken Ham as the keynote, so I will probably just plan on sleeping in that morning. They may change it this year though, who knows. I am making plans to go again this year, if only for the workshops. All but one of the ones I attended last year were wonderful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aiden Posted January 16, 2015 Author Share Posted January 16, 2015 I've been to HEAV twice, but one year I only went one evening. One thing to keep in mind is that IIRC last year the Expo Hall wasn't open yet during the morning Keynote on Saturday. I feel the same way about having Ken Ham as the keynote, so I will probably just plan on sleeping in that morning. They may change it this year though, who knows. I am making plans to go again this year, if only for the workshops. All but one of the ones I attended last year were wonderful. Thanks! I'll check the schedule before I set my alarm clock :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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