VCFMW 2026 Should Be Sweet!

iantm

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Sep 8, 2025
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How do people generally get their stuff there? Ship them? Drive to the location with them in your trunk?
I will get out to it some year… but probably not with a bunch of gear to start.
 
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phunguss

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Dec 24, 2023
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How do people generally get their stuff there? Ship them? Drive to the location with them in your trunk?
I will get out to it some year… but probably not with a bunch of gear to start.
This was my first year, so I was just scoping it out to see what I could possibly do for a display/sale. Next year, possibly a van or trailer to haul stuff out there. 6 hour drive for me.
 

geerlingguy

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Mar 21, 2024
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www.jeffgeerling.com
How do people generally get their stuff there? Ship them? Drive to the location with them in your trunk?
I will get out to it some year… but probably not with a bunch of gear to start.
I was driving my in-laws up to northern IL so I rented a minivan so they would be comfortable, and so I could have enough cargo space to bring four old machines and a few boxes of stuff for the free pile. Otherwise I would've jammed up every nook and cranny of my Leaf for the drive! Most people who loaded stuff in had either a truck, a van, a packed-to-the-gills car, or a trailer. A few people rented u-hauls.
 

Scott

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Sep 30, 2021
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It all depends on how much you are bringing to the show. The tables are provided when you register.

I've always just used my Acura ILX. It holds the computers to exhibit plus I usually leave space for anything that I might be giving to someone or might pick up from the show. Yes, the ILX is about the size of a Civic. Efficiency matters more than size with packing it.

Sorry I wasn't around for most of the show this year. As many of you know, circumstances dictated an emergency flight back to Pittsburgh on Saturday morning, a flight back after that, and a drive home on Sunday. Here's hoping for a better year next year...and that Katie joins up in 2027 for her first VCF!!

(Also, due to uncertainty with everything, I am likely skipping East and Southeast next year, but that's not a foregone conclusion yet).
 
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iantm

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Sep 8, 2025
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Thanks for all of the insight! I wondered if people carpooled, or hired a service or whatnot. Sounds mostly individual which is fine.

I would love to bring some of my stuff. I heard there are possibly "fix it" tables where you can either get advice or even do ad hoc repairs. That would be worth the drive alone. I've learned to do a lot of things in s relatively short time, but I'd love to lean on someone else's expertise whenever possible!
 

eric

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Sep 2, 2021
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I probably talked to 1,000 people about BlueSCSI (or what felt like it, in a good way!) - there was 5 museums who came up to me and chatted telling me about how they use BlueSCSI to power their exhibits and we came up with some interesting ideas which would make their lives easier. Kids coming up who'd never heard of what SCSI is and we just chatted about it. People coming up and telling me how BlueSCSI saved their vintage computers. Joe/Jay sold a ton (I decided to not directly sell earlier this year, more time for cool features!)

I picked up mostly stuff from friends instead of any new shopping around (as I hardly left my table) - Mac II case, Mac II SCSI Terminator (free pile!), RS/6000, 9600, traded some NeXT HW with a museum so they/I could have both fully vintage setups, and a few Nintendo games.

My booth was (left to right): NeXT mono slab showing off the new NeXT BlueSCSI Toolbox apps, my dev board + SCSI analyzer, and lastly SCSI Video (PowerView) emulation.

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iantm

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Sep 8, 2025
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I love that you showed the kids a messy desktop — somehow, it always made sense. I've lately turned off OS X's sorting in favor of just putting icons where I want them.