Tag: cocofest!

CoCoFEST! 2022 Update, Time is Running Out

Posted on | by Grant Leighty

I hope everyone is having a great start to Spring this year. It’s nice to enjoy longer days and warmer weather. This also means that CoCoFEST! is getting closer. 2022 marks our 30th anniversary for the Annual “Last” Chicago CoCoFEST! If you have not made your travel plans or booked your vendor/exhibitor table, time is running out.

FREE ADMISSION

This is the first year that admission to CoCoFEST! will be FREE to attend. We’re hopeful this will both encourage more local folks to visit our event and potentially join Glenside. As always, if you would like to become a member of the Glenside Color Computer Club, we will be collecting membership dues at the Fest. Vendors and Exhibitors, note that your fees include a 2022 club membership. If you have any questions, or you would like to pay for the membership before CoCoFEST!, please contact Glenside Treasurer Eric Canales for assistance.

HOTEL

CoCoFEST! Will be held at the same location as last year. This is a larger venue from year’s past and it will provide us plenty of room to grow. If you have not booked your room yet, please do so as soon as possible. The cutoff date for the special rate of $99 a night plus tax will end at midnight (CDT) on April 29th. Please remember to use the group code “COF” when making your reservation.

COVID-19 Update

I have received a few emails about the vaccine and masks mandates in order to attend the event. I am happy to announce that there are NO masks or vaccine mandates at the hotel or to attend CoCoFEST!. Cook county lifted the health orders back on February 28th. If anything changes, I will post an update on the Glenside website and I will send an email to all registered vendors and attendees. I do NOT see this changing in the near future.

Dinners

There is still time to register for dinner on Saturday night. The dinner will be catered by the hotel and it will be served as a buffet. There will be plenty of food for everyone to enjoy, but you MUST pre-register to ensure we have an accurate head count.  The dinner is only $20 a person, and dinner for kids 12 or younger is free. I must provide the head count to the hotel on May 6th, so we will end preregistration for the dinner on May 5th.

The Preliminary Menu

  • Two options from the following list:
    • Meatloaf
    • Chicken
    • Pork Loin
    • London Broil
    • Broiled Tilapia
  • One side from the following list:
    • Garlic Mashed Potatoes
    • Wild Rice
  • Seasonal Vegetables
  • Dinner Rolls
  • Dessert
  • Freshly brewed Coffee and Tea

Like last year, I will be sending an email to everyone who has preregistered for the dinner to provide feedback for which items that we want to be served. We need to choose two items for the main entrees. Also, if you need to request vegetarian/vegan meals, please contact Grant Leighty.

Speakers

This year we had no problems finding people who wanted to give a presentation. I actually had to turn people down and offer them a spot in next year’s CoCoFEST!  This is a great problem to have, and I will be looking for ways to accommodate more speakers at future Fests. This year we will have seven speakers that will provide new products, new games, technical presentations, and podcasts. There will be something for everyone to enjoy.  Please check out the speakers bio and information.

2022 Speakers

  • CoCoCrew Podcast
  • D. Bruce Moore (New Game Announcement)
  • John Linville (De Re CoCo)
  • John Strong (New Product Announcements)
  • Ken Waters and L. Curtis Boyle (BASIC09 and GFX2 enhancements in NitrOS-9/EOU)
  • Kevin Phillipson (Turbo9 Project)
  • Paul Thayer (Developing Retro Games in the Modern Era)

Vendors/Exhibitors

Our new venue offers space for 62 sales or exhibit tables, and 34 vendors/exhibitors have reserved all but NINE (9) tables currently. If you’re considering showing off a project or offer items for sale, do not delay in visiting TandyList for your table(s) today. The first table is $20, and each additional table is $15.

Auction

We will have an auction again this year. Since we just had a CoCoFEST! just a few months ago, we are looking for donations. Please look around your house and see if you have any items that you may want to donate to the auction. If you are not able to attend this year’s CoCoFEST!, but you have items that you want to donate, please contact Grant Leighty. We are willing to pay for reasonable shipping fees.

We look forward to seeing everyone at this year’s 30th Anniversary of the “Last” Chicago CoCoFEST! We would still like to have everyone preregister at TandyList so we can keep the lines short at the registration tables. If you have any questions about CoCoFEST!, please contact Grant Leighty, CoCoFEST! Coordinator.  

 

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CoCoFEST! now open for registration!

Posted on | by Grant Leighty

Hello everyone. We’re happy to announce we have opened up registration for CoCoFEST! 2022 in Elk Grove Village, IL. You can register now at TandyList.com.

This year admission will be completely FREE for all guests! There is a small cost for vendors, which also includes a years membership with our club. For those who wish to attend and also be a contributing member to our club, you will have the option to both register to attend and pay your yearly dues if you wish online. In order to minimize lines at the door, we ask all attendees to register even if you are only attending. We’re excited to have you and can’t wait to see you all!

If you have any questions, concerns, or trouble with registration, please reach out to Randy Weaver for technical support, or Grant Leighty (CoCoFEST! coordinator) for anything else.

More information about CoCoFEST! 2022 can be found here.

Registration for CoCoFEST! 2022 vendors and attendees can be found here.

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Now Signing Up For CoCoFest Presentations

Posted on | by Grant Leighty

If you would like to give a presentation at the 30th Annual “Last” Chicago CoCoFest, please contact the CoCoFest Organizer, Grant Leighty. We will try to accommodate everyone that wants to give a presentation this year. Please send an email to Grant Leighty at cocofest@glensideccc.com. So we can finalize the schedule for CoCoFest, please send an email as soon as possible.

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CoCoFest 2022 is FREE to Attend

Posted on | by Grant Leighty

I am happy to announce that CoCoFest 2022 will be free to attend next year. You will still need to pay the $15 in club dues if you wish to be a member of the Glenside Color Computer Club. This will allow you vote in the meetings, and for the club officers. The cost of tables will be the same as last year, $20 for the first table and $15 for each additional table. When you purchase tables, it will include the membership to the club for 2022 for the person that purchased the tables. The price for the Saturday dinner will also be $20. Preregistration is strongly encouraged and, it will be available next month around January 15th.

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2021 29th Annual “Last” CoCoFEST! Alternate Event Date

Posted on | by Jim Brain

With all the votes cast, it became obvious folks took a cautious view of the months ahead, with September 25/26 and November 6/7 becoming early frontrunners. As of March 1, 2021, November 6/7 edged out September as a preferred date.

Along the way, I became aware that November 5-7 is also the 2021 date for the Midwest Gaming Classic. The hugely popular pinball/arcade exhibition event in Milwaukee, WI also contains “The Computing and Gaming Museum” exhibit, where Tandy Color Computers are shown along with other 80’s era home computers and videogame systems. It’s never ideal when conflicts like this arise, doubly so since MGC draws quite a bit from the Chicago area given the location, and I know this will affect some of our attendees. That said, the event offered the least conflicts from vote responses, seemed far enough in the year to hopefully sidestep current travel/attendance issues, and was favored significantly over any other option.

Thus, I confirmed the November 6/7 date with our venue and freed up the other dates. I hope those that find a conflict might consider spending one day at MGC and the other with us. I often attend MGC but it’s something that can be adequately enjoyed over a single day.

The new date does pose a unique challenge concerning our 2022 event, though. Normally, events such as ours don’t book the following year’s venue date until after the current event concludes. This is common, and since everyone typically runs the same play, the same date in the following year is often available. Yet, this year will be different, in that the 2021 show will (hopefully) occur in November, followed by the 2022 show in its regular April timeframe, a mere 5 months later. If that’s the preference, it’d be best to decide soon, to ensure the requisite 2022 date is available and reserved. But, if the community would prefer to see a bit more space between show dates, I could see the show potentially moving back 3-4 months (splitting the 17 month distance between the 2021 November show and the 2023 April show) to early August.

For what it is worth, I prefer scheduling the 2022 show in April, both because I don’t think two shows within 6 months is a significant concern (some folks have already noted they try to attend both CocoFEST and Tandy Assembly in a given year, and those shows are normally scheduled 6 months apart) and also because I think reserving that date is prudent in case circumstances prevent a 2021 in person event (possibly due to weather concerns). Feel free to add your thoughts, as we’ll need to discuss at some point before the May meeting.

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The 29th Annual “Last” Chicago CoCoFEST! is MOVING!

Posted on | by Jim Brain | 1 Comment on The 29th Annual “Last” Chicago CoCoFEST! is MOVING!

Calm down, it’s just a temporary 2021 thing 🙂

As some are no doubt aware, the country is still grappling with travel and attendance restrictions, and the club would like to make sure everyone has an opportunity to come together in person for our annual color computer (and MC-10, Dragon, and the occasional MM/1) celebration event. Our original April 24/25th date appears too early in the year to offer that opportunity, so we’ve made the decision to delay until later in 2021.

While we know no date is perfect, we have a few options to consider, and we’re asking for help. We’ve created a special polling system on TandyList.com that you can access to provide your preferences:

https://www.tandylist.com/votecocofestdate.aspx

Glenside Color Computer Club members should already have a login, and others I believe can register to obtain one. I’d encourage folks to vote early to ensure your voice is heard, even if you’re unsure on some dates. You can update your vote anytime until the poll closes.

We’ll leave the poll open until 12:00AM Central March 1, 2021, as we need to let the venue know our selection by then. I’ll call them that morning and select the first date available based on the poll results (at current time, all of the dates listed in the poll are available, but that might change as the week progresses)

We’re working on a way to show the various results in real time, so folks can see which dates appear most likely and adjust their vote if desired.

A few notes on the various dates:

  • June 25/26
    • Few things conflict with this date, though it’s unclear if restrictions will be relaxed enough and confidence level boosted enough to select this date.
  • September 10/11
    • The Vintage Computer Festival – Midwest (VCF-MW), a large multi-platform classic computer show often held in Chicago every year, typically holds their show during this weekend, and there’s a possibility 2021 would offer enough space their the VCF-MW venue to also contain CoCoFEST!. That said, this is probably the least confirmed options in the list. If VCF-MW decides to forego an in-person show in 2021, CoCoFEST! would be left without a venue. Additionally, there is no guarantee space would be available. I spoke with Jason Timmons, who organizes the event, and he does not want to make any concrete plans until July or so.
  • September 25/26
    • In December, when I inquired with the venue on alternate dates, this was one of the few available, so I locked it in. Thus, I can guarantee this date is available. That said, this date is also just 1 week prior to Tandy Assembly, and I know we have a number of exhibitors and attendees who frequent that show and would find it hard to attend two shows back to back.
  • October 9/10
    • This date suffers from a few concerns. In addition to occurring 1 week AFTER Tandy Assembly (similar concern as with September 25/26), this is also the same date as Vintage Computer Festival East (VCF-E). Some folks may attend both in a normally scheduled year.
  • November 6/7
    • This one probably offers the most safety, though travel could be hindered by early Winter weather. It’s also the closest show date to the normal 2022 CoCoFEST! date (later April).

If a Q3/Q4 option is selected. we might later discuss sliding the 2022 April date back a few months, but we have not considered the matter as yet.

Again, please consider voting your preferences and feel free to send myself or any of the officers any additional thoughts you might have.

Jim

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