[vcf-midatlantic] VCF East 2021 wrap-up

[Jeffrey Brace]

Now that I have finished the cleanup and post mortem meetings for East and
am mostly rested up and decompressing from the show. I want to thank all of
the exhibitors for their great displays. The World of IBM was out of this
world. Thanks to Adam and Dean for organizing it! And to all of
the co-exhibitors that made a truly unique exhibit space when they took
over all of 9032-A.

I want to thank all the speakers (most of them not in this list) who were a
fantastic lineup and hard to beat in subsequent years.

All of the volunteers, especially the Sea Cadets who really filled in all
the gaps for support. Every year I lack enough volunteers and end up doing
a lot of the setup work and breakdown by myself along with a handful of
volunteers. There were more volunteers at the setup and breakdown. I want
to especially thank Bill Inderrieden, my right hand man who is there with
me starting setup on Tuesday through Thursday during the show for immediate
needs and the day after the show for breakdown and cleanup. Also Tony Bogan
who helped find an electrician to install new quad boxes and helped where
he could before, during and after the show even though he was busy with his
boating business and could only be there sporadically. Dean and others who
stayed afterwards with the cleanup. Everyone gave their best effort until
their bodies said "no more!".

The A/V was brought up to a whole new level with Ethan O’Toole, Andy Diller
and crew. Such a fantastic upgrade from the amateurish and crude days where
we had setup our personal cameras and just left them to record. These guys
truly look like professionals with the lighting, OBS setup with multiple
camera angles, slide view, etc. They even setup an overflow room in case we
got full in the main room.

Alex Jacocks did an awesome job in consignment which is a very tough job.
We had expanded space there and sales were very heavy. Thanks so much for
doing a great job there. You came days early to setup and really made
consignment a great experience for everyone.

Corey ran the front desk and did a great job of training all the new people
volunteering there. Lots of changes and improvements there this time.
Everyone seemed to notice how efficient and better the front desk was.

I thank Drew for the awesome new program book design. It is a superior
upgrade to previous years and people noticed.

I want to thank Jeff Jonas for making the signs and all the last minute
signs that I needed.

I love all the stories that I heard and plan to tell them for years to
come, especially how I somehow solved multiple emergencies in the days
before the show to avoid disaster. I also love the story of how Thomas
Cherryholmes solved his #Fujinet for Adam problem. That is a fun story!
There are vintage computer angels looking out for us!

And thank all those people who helped out in many ways behind the scenes
and in every corner of the show where the volunteers couldn't be. Together
we make this a festival where the vintage community comes together in
fellowship and fun to make us all the better!

Here's looking forward to VCF East 2022 which will be on April 22, 23, 24!