MILOfest 2012 Announcement

Hello Mac-Lovin’ Lawyers! It's time for another MILOfest conference.

First, here's the stuff you want to know:

MILOfest 2012 in a Nutshell

Dates: November 8-10, 2012 (Thursday-Saturday)

Programming: Thursday – Intro Topics beginning at 10am (so if you're past the "101 Level" you can plan to fly in sometime Thursday)

                        Thursday Evening – Social Event (optional, but great fun - at your own expense)

                        Friday – General Programming/Advanced Topics – 8:30am to 4pm

                        Saturday – General Programming/Advanced Topics – 8:30am to 4pm

Venue: Disney's Yacht Club Resort, Lake Buena Vista, FL

Hotel: $180/night – the rate is good for 3 days prior to and after the event (or more if you're sweet to the reservation person and there are rooms available at that price).

Price:

$525 2011 Attendee Appreciation Rate

$575 Early Bird Pricing

$625 General Admission Pricing

$675 Last Chance Pricing (See the tickets above for details.)

Theme Park Tickets: Discount pricing for part-day tickets to the Disney Theme Parks

Dates

November 8-10, 2012. 'Nuff said.

Venue

Time for a new place. The Coronado was a little tired — I heard that clearly from some of you and felt it myself. In truth, when MILOfest grows to a conference of a few thousand, we'll have to move back there...maybe. But for now, we deserve a fresh start in a better facility. That means Disney's Yacht & Beach Club Resort.

Additional benefits of the new place is that you can walk to EPCOT from the resort in the evenings, which is a huge benefit during the International Food & Wine Festival. It also means we (you) can walk to a number of great restaurants at each of the Yacht Club, Beach Club and Boardwalk Inn. So, really, it's all about the food. 

The Yacht Club is also smaller, so we'll all be closer to the room for the event (and weather permitting, the Yacht Club has the best pool area for those of you bringing children, or those of you who want to play pirate in your spare time).

Finally, you are getting to stay at the Yacht Club at a tremendous savings. For this time of year, the rooms are about $345/night. It's really a classy joint and I've negotiated a great rate (only a few bucks more than the Coronado's 2012 rates).

What You Get

In addition to the space rental, your registration fee covers breakfast on Friday and Saturday, snacks on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Room Rates & Theme Park

The conference rate for the hotel is $180/night and that’s good for up to 3 nights before and three nights after the event. As I said above, this is a big savings off the retail price of these rooms, which is about $345/night. In addition, for those of you looking to turn this into a Disney vacation, there are special discounts on part-day tickets for conference attendees – these will let you get into the parks at 2pm or 4pm for dinner, fun, and more.

I negotiated the hell out of this for you. That means we only have about 70 rooms at this rate. That's a lot of rooms and more attendees that we had last year, but it's a hard cap. So, I encourage you to register and book rooms early. 

Programming

As many of you know, I hand-pick the speakers every year as well as the topics. It's ruthlessly egotistical of me (I know), but it also means there's some consistency from year to year to the topics and the speakers. I have about half of the sessions planned already, and you can plan on hearing from Brett Burney, Mark Metzger, Amin Rahmani, as well as some fresh faces. We're going to cover topics like Kreating Killer Keynotes, TextExpander Snippet Orgy, and the Zen of Dealing With Idiots. We'll also have some dedicated iPad/iPhone time, which I perceived was needed last year. Excited yet?

This year will also offer a chance for MILOfest-ers to show how they Roll Their Own. So you (yes, YOU!) will be able to show off to the rest of the group a tip or trick that's guaranteed to amaze and delight. This is by prior submission/audition only and limited to 5 minutes, so you'll have to send me what you want to show-off and we'll assemble the best of those for the time we have available. 

We are still having an Intro or Basics day on Thursday. And we are still building in breaks for people to enjoy each other's company, visit with our sponsors, and eat the fun snacks.

I know it sounds weird, but I'm really excited for this year - and I hope you'll join us.

Price

The price to attend is going up this year. Between the new facility and Disney increasing their food prices, I can't afford to keep the prices the same (as I did for the past two years). So, the price has to go up, but I want to leave you with two thoughts on price. First, I think this is still the least expensive 3-day conference on tech for lawyers in the country. Second, one of the reasons I've raised the prices (talk about burying the lead) is that I intend to give some of the money in Finis Price's memory to his wife Heather. Until I know the final count, I don't know what the exact number is going to be, but I'm aiming to give 10% of the money I take in to Heather as soon after the conference as I can settle the bill with Disney. So, some of your money is going to a good cause.

This is still the best Mac/tech conference in the country. I'm confident it's worth your investment.

The price breakdown goes like this:

$525 – 2011 Attendee Appreciation Pricing (good through August 1, 2012)

$575 – Early Bird Pricing (good through August 1, 2012)

$625 – General Admission (good through October 8, 2012)

$675 – Last Chance Pricing (good through day of event)

To register for the event, follow the instructions on the EventBrite registration page or on the badge alongside the MILOfest webpage. To avoid the processing fees, you can call Jocelyn Stark, my Client Services Director, at 609.818.0068 and arrange to pay by check. Do not attempt to pay by check on the EventBrite site, or you’ll have to pay the processing fees.

I’m a reasonable person – if you are registering within a few days of the expiration of a pricing tier, call with a promise to send a check in 3 days and I’ll honor the lower price.

Conclusion

If this is your first experience with MILOfest, let me welcome you and let you know, you’re in for a treat. This conference is outstanding, by all measure, and it's due almost entirely to the superb speakers and programming. (The other part is how warm and collegial the attendees are. Honestly, these are the nicest attorneys I know, and the only conference where I can sit down with any of you and enjoy a drink.)

I hope that prior year’s attendees will decide to come back. We’ll be sharing more news about the event on MILOfest’s Facebook page, Twitter and the MILOfest website. Any questions – please email me at info [at] milofest [dawt] com

Thank you in advance for your interest. See you there!

Victor