Had a awesome time, looking forward to some other events in the future! Many thanks to the planners and presenters.
I had a great time as well and met a lot of new people! Thank you!!! If there is one thing I may add, I felt there were 2 types of people at the Friday happy hour: 1) alums of previous FTUs catching up with friends and 2) newbies. It may help if there were signs with DELTA, AA, UNITED, NEWBIE, or something of that sort around the room so people who congregate in that area will have that in common (always a great icebreaker.) I had a great time though. Thank you for organizing this!
Agree, a great weekend in SEA, & thanks to Randy, Milepoint staff ( great to meet you all ), & the rest of the FTU team & presenters. Also, thanks everyone for your company
It was a good weekend. Lots of good presentations and helpful tips. The Marriott is a nice hotel. I would have liked to have a code to use internet in the conference rooms - it is helpful to be able to go through the websites presented. As a nice bonus, I got upgrades on my flights to/from Seattle: AUS-SEA on Alaska and SEA-DFW on American. I saw another passenger with the FTU luggage tag on my flight home. Hope to see some of you at the advanced FTU at Chicago in July.
The Marriott was a nice hotel, I only saw only one blogger, with a display table set up, the others kind of ignored the attendees. Nice to see some one who keep the table staffed. Strange way for some of the other bloggers not to show some appreciation to the attendees. Great show, and yes AA gave me an upgrade on the way home...
Definitely was a great weekend, but I would have liked to have seen course descriptions beforehand. I heard several others wanting the same information. There were several distinct communities there: Those living the status life and those of us acquiring points through other channels seeking award advice. What one group needed wasn't necessarily what the other group wanted. The Pizzaman did a great job on the AAdvantage presentation, but I would have skipped it had I known the vast majority of the class covered elite status. Seth's class on hotel loyalty was very well done. I ended up with a few new strategies which I was hoping for from Ben and Gary's presentations. Several of the classes could have been offered at an alternative time. The first breakout session had three really great options. The second day options weren't quite as good.
They did send an email out with the classes schedules, it was a few days before the event started. There was lots of seats in all the classes, the AA was nice, and in time ...many more will have status, After 50 years I still picked up many new things, and I have been to many seminars. This one was well run.
Thanks for your comments and feedback, we hope everyone enjoyed themselves. Attendees should have just received a survey from us asking for anonymous feedback on the event, presenters, hotel and ways to improve for next time.
Thanks to all the presenters for spending their time at the conference. I learned a lot from all of them, in a concentrated time frame. Sure you can get all of this by spending the same number of hours reading the blogs, comments, MP, and FT, but it is sometimes better to have the key points presented to you directly. All presentations were engaging and informative.
I'd also like to thank all of the organizers and presenters for putting on a great event. It's been a rather long time since I've met such an enthusiastic and genuinely welcoming group of people. I only wish I could have been in two rooms at once! And the conference continued on the flight home, as the first class cabin on the 7:00 UA flight from SEA to SFO seemed to be filled with conference attendees... Glad my upgrade cleared at T-24!
I assumed he paid for the table, at Chicago they had several tables, that I am sure were paid for. It shows support for the attendees, and adds to the event,
Any idea how much a sponsorship costs? I know that it isn't worth my investment. It must be for him. But I know we target very different groups and have very different monetization schemes with our content.
Send an email to Randy he will be glad to tell you. I know I used the guys Arrival link a few days ago, glad the guys are there...
I think that Wandering Aramean was implying the sponsorship cost outweighs the benefits for most bloggers. Million mile secrets is a different type of service. I am pretty sure that WA knows what it costs and he probably talks to Randy quite often... There are usually only one to two tables at any FTU and the bloggers that attend/present are always available to talk to in-between and before/after sessions (or by the pool, during lunch/dinner....)
This really depends on what you see as the value of the event. If you don't have the time to read the blogs and effectively want someone to sell you onto a credit card, sure. Otherwise, interesting conversations are far more valuable than any table.
In a Chicago there were several table, and it was nice to talk with each company that took the time to show how they valued each.subscriber. We always tried to support the people who made the investments in our trade shows, many of the guys I meet I invested in their companies, I still see them at CES, we all laugh about the old days..kaki pants and polo shirts. Seattle only one table was a shock for me, first MP event, will not be the last, well organized show, even though some of the guys ran around with their shirt tails out... It was a relaxed great show....
