Convention news and notes - FINAL THOUGHTS

Here are my final thoughts regarding the 11th Annual At Home Dad Convention. Have your voice heard too at the Forums section of www.athomedadconvention.com:

SOCIAL ACTIVITIES. They were unique to Kansas City which made the trip very exciting to all the visiting Dads. Next year should be even better, especially the BBQ!

LOCATION. Absolutely perfect. Lots to see and do on the Plaza. More to do at Westport which was only a few blocks away. UMKC was only a 5 minute drive from the hotel and the auditorium at UMKC was the perfect set up.

THE MEDIA. When 10% of the participants are media, you know you are doing something unique and interesting that will land you more great sponsors. This will make the convention grow considerably and be even better.

CHARITY. Donating $200 to UMKC Women's Center. That has to be one the classiest things a group of men has ever done. I hope we can do more next year.

CONVENTION PLANNING COMMITTEE. Just having a convention at all was amazing since it was moving from Chicago for the first time in 10 years. The fact that it was the best one ever was outstanding!

BREAK OUT SESSIONS. Some were good (Digital Photography), some were not so good (Kids, Nutrition & Behavior), some were great (Open Forum about our kids), some were not well informed about their audience (Child Safety) and some were better than expected (Depression & Isolation). Overall the breakout sessions were informative and entertaining; worth the money for sure.

501 3C STATUS. It has been needed for awhile and now it appears we are officially a national non-profit organization. Unfortunately, we didn't appear to be acting like one. The ink apparently was still wet on all the legal documents setting up our non-profit status so I am hopeful the details will filter out in the coming months.

SPONSORS. We had incredible sponsors this year, most notably UMKC as host and SOR for the Boulevard Brewery Meet & Greet, but with the aforementioned 501 3C status, even more sponsors will be coming. And with more sponsors comes better educational opportunities and more fun. I think we've earned that!

NEXT YEAR'S LOCATION - KANSAS CITY. Most Dads wanted to move the convention around in following years which I agree with, but having it in KC next year makes the most sense for now. I wouldn't mind it being in KC EVERY YEAR. Sure, I'm biased, but if you were here, you would have to admit a lot of things made KC the best option - from it's central location in the U.S. to the location of the facilities and the realitively low cost. The city chosen for 2008 will have a lot to live up to.

Hope to see more of you at the 12th Annual At Home Dad Convention right here in Kansas City Nov. 2007!

Convention news and notes - Arthur Bryant's

For our final get together, we boarded a bus to Arthur Bryant's. The KCDADs spent most of the ride there debating who had the best BBQ in town; frankly a never-ending debate with so many great options in the city. Unfortunately the banquet room there was WAY too small for 50 men and it was so hot and stuffy I began to wonder if I was going to be on the pit soon (someone said it was 87 in there!). Fortunately the Convention staff bought us several pitchers of beer that really hit the spot. The food was good, and there was lots of great praise from the out-of-towners. Too bad they don't know how good BBQ can be in Kansas City because there is much better out there. I really enjoyed talking to more guys I hadn't met yet - it is strange in such a small group to have not yet met everyone.

We needed a giant shoe horn to get out of there and it couldn't have come any sooner. Did I say I was baking in there! On the return trip a couple of us KCDADs decided we will lobby for Gates (another old-time KC BBQ tradition) or Oklahoma Joe's for next year. Back at the hotel some of us went to watch Texas-K-State or do more bar-hoping on the Plaza while the rest of us went back to the Hospitality Suite to drink more beer and discuss the convention some more.

CHEER: Dinner at a BBQ restaraunt - a requirement for any visit to KC
JEER: Gates or Oklahoma Joes or Smokin' Gun are better

Convention news and notes - Final Session

The Final Session of the day brought an exciting announcement and great discussion. Clearly, Kansas City was a HUGE hit as a location and as an educational experience.

Mike from the D.C. Dads group made the big announcement that we now had 501 C3 status as a non-profit organization which will make it easier to have more sponsors for future conventions. However, several things were left up in the air. For example, what is our name? The At-home Dad Convention is not officially a part of this 501 C3 nor is the new website www.athomedad.org. Hopefully this will all get sorted out in the coming months.

After this exciting news, we discussed the good and the not-so-good of the convention. There was only praise for the location. Everyone loved the short 5 minute commute from the hotel to the convention at UMKC as opposed to Chicago where the commute was an hour one way and 2 hours the other. Everyone loved the Meet & Greet at the Boulevard Brewery as well as the BBQ at Arthur Bryant's. UMKC was the perfect size for the convention and all the amenities were perfect. The only real concern was that more people from the midwest rather than the coasts were represented at this convention and that it made sense to move the convention to different locations from year to year. I agreed with that, however, I felt we should decide to have it in KC next year (which we did) and also decide, right then, where to have it next year or at least put the word out for "bids" from other At Home Dad groups. While Kansas City is centrally located, it is clear that it is better to have it closer to other Dads in other locations in future years so they have more of an opportunity to attend. That being said, any other location MUST have hotel and convention facilities that are close together with low travel and hotel fees along with a strong, active At Home Dad group. The location must also be decided as far in advance as possible - most conventions have these booked 3 and 4 years out.

After deciding that the convention would be in Kansas City next November (see more at www.athomedadconvention.com), we moved on to other details. Some felt that we all should have gone to dinner together after the Meet & Greet at Boulevard and that we should do that next year. I didn't agree with that because Friday night would be the only time to search out your own "taste of Kansas City" but I was in the minority. Definitely we need to have TWO sessions of Open Forum Discussion about our kids next year. Also, most felt that some presenters did not understand us, their audience, very well and would be helped by a more thorough explanation of what we are all about.

After introducing all the media representatives in attendance (which, as I said before, should have been at the beginning of the day) there was a little time for sharing hilarious anecdotes about our kids before we all caught rides back to the hotel to relax before Arthur Bryant's.

CHEER: We are now officially a national non-profit organization
JEER: My wife was right (and that is never good to admit) - men aren't that organized (but we manage don't we!)

Convention news and notes - Breakout Session 5

For Breakout Session 5, the final breakout session for the day, I chose the Financial Planning session presented by Waddell & Reed. It was a hard decision on which presentation to attend because there was one on Kids and Nutrition as well as Growing Your At-home Dad Group that I would have liked to attend. According to a couple other Dads I talked to, the Kids and Nutrition presentation was focused to narrowly on organic foods, but the Growing Your At-home Dad Group was informative. But the one presentation I was not interested in turned out to be the best in this breakout session according to the guys that went to it. It was the presentation on Depression and Isolation giving by a psychologist with UMKC. There was a lot of laughter and great information.

I did not get too much out of the Financial Planning session since there was not a lot of new information, but there were several new things I did learn, such as the difference between Long Term Care Insurance (pays medical bills) and Long Term Disability (replaces income when you're ill or injured). The best quote was "Financial Planning is an art, not a science." I hope there is a more advanced session next year.

CHEER: Having a financial planning session
JEER: Too much information I already knew - hopefully there will be a more advanced session next year

Convention news and notes - Breakout Session 4

Instead of sneaking away for a nap, I decided to drag my dreary bones over to the Breakout Session 4 on Blogging presented by Caleb of http://www.hailtopitt.org/. The funny thing about his presentation is that there was so much information (and I know so little to begin with) that it took me about 24 hours to process everything he was talking about. Maybe I was groggy after lunch I don't know. Kace from KCDADs came with me and I think we both (even though I have a blog) wanted to understand why some one has a blog in the first place. Perhaps that is sociology question rather than a technical one, but Caleb gave some great reasons why to have a blog. I believe his answer is that it is the new way to communicate with mass audiences without the filter required when you have to be supported by advertising. Of course, a lot of it is junk that needs to be scrutinized (except this blog obviously) but some of it is good stuff. One of the last things he said probably summed up the answer I was looking for - you need to credit your sources. That sounds like journalism to me.

I got the most out of this session for me personally because it helped me understand whether or not I should even have a blog and what I want to do with it. I'll provide my conclusions on that in a future posting.

CHEER: A techy who was really a 21st century journalist - impressive
JEER: More technical detail was needed (did I just contradict myself?!)

Convention news and notes - Lunch

Lunch was next. A simple spread of sandwich fixings and the like. Good stuff. I spent most of my time talking to a dad from Omaha that will be moving somewhere else soon. He is a big Chicago sports fan and although I am not a Chicago sports fan, I am all about sports. Certainly not too many moms out there who could keep up in that conversation.

CHEER: Simple lunch - a dad's dream
JEER: Keynote motivational speaker was needed here to energize us - after lunch we were all wondering when nap time was...

Convention news and notes - Breakout Session 3

Breakout Session 3 was BY FAR the most popular of the convention. In fact, we all agreed it needed to be held twice next year. And no, it wasn't the session on how do I get my wife to do the dishes while I'm at the convention. It was the open forum discussions about our kids broken down by age groups. I was in the 2-5 age group forum which was broken down further into 2-3 and 4-5 because there were so many of us in the room. One of us would throw out a problem he was having with his child and we would all chime in on solutions that worked for us. Lots of great ideas were passed around including the Sunday box which is where toys go when they are not picked up (the child gets them back each Sunday), the "No Thank You Bite" where your child has to take a bite of food she doesn't like, and creating a CD of Grandma telling stories as a special treasure for the children. Next year there will definately be TWO sessions dedicated to this open forum discussion since it was clearly everyone's favorite part of the convention.

CHEER: Grandma's stories on CD and the Sunday box were AWESOME ideas I will be doing
JEER: More sessions like this are needed

Convention news and notes - Breakout Session 2

For Breakout Session 2 I went to the Guide to Basic Digital Photography presented by Brian. There was standing room only, which just goes to prove that men LOVE gadgets. Brian did an excellent job explaining the basics of how to take good pictures. He also showed us how software such as Photo Shop or Gimp can help improve a picture by removing red eye or by adjusting the brightness or contrast. I was most impressed with his tripod which was so small it could fit in your pocket - I had never seen that before! I think we all could have been in there for another hour but the show had to move along.

CHEER: Mini tripod - simple, cool and useful
JEER: More specifics on how to use photo editing tools were needed

Convention news and notes - Breakout Session 1

For Breakout Session 1 I decided to attend the talk on At Home Dad Resources presented by Dayv. With my new duties for KCDADs as a membership coordinator, I was interested in finding other at home dad websites and resources to pass along to our group. For the most part, I found that I knew about all the websites Dayv discussed but there were a couple of books, Libby Gill's Stay-At-Home Dads and Dr. Kyle Pruett's Father Need, that I didn't know about and thought would be interesting. I think the session on child safety may have been a better one to attend until I heard from other guys that it wasn't that great because the Police Officer didn't seem to relate to her audience well. Hopefully that session will be improved for next year.

CHEER: Dayv - great presenter and moderator
JEER: There just aren't many at home dad websites

Convention news and notes - Welcome Session

After a quick breakfast and lots of "Dude, you made it!" (Friday night was a late one for many), Dayv and Andy began the convention. Nearly 50 dads from all over the country were there including several members of the media which was awesome. I have been to other much larger "social" conventions and never seen such interest from the outside world. There was a newspaper reporter for England, a magazine reporter from Japan, an author of an upcoming book, a columnist from a south Chicago suburban newspaper, a reporter from the Kansas City Star, a photographer and a PhD student. At the end of Andy's welcoming comments, the staff of the convention presented a $200 donation to the host of the convention, the UMKC Women's Center which I felt was a real class act. Andy made a great comment that while we are men, we are a women's issue because our success at managing the kids and the home allows our wives a better opportunity to succeed in their careers.

CHEER: Donation to UMKC Women's Center
JEER: Introductions of the media representatives should have been in the welcome session not the final session