ARRL Pacific Section Manager Joseph Speroni (AH0A) has some additional information about the Virtual Ham Expo.
Views expressed in this Amateur/Ham Radio News summary are those of the reporters and correspondents.
Content supplied by “QSO Today” and Joseph Speroni (AH0A).
Accessed on 23 July 2020, 0405 UTC, Post 1551.
Source (email message from Joseph Speroni-AH0A): https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/h/1l28fpxkcqfa8/?&th=1737936ea5446502&v=c
Please click link or scroll down to read the full message.
Aloha,
Some of you may have seen the announcement of the ARRL Sanctioned
Virtual Ham Expo. My initial reaction was “just another ZOOM” meeting.
Anyway, I took a look at the info on their web site,
https://www.qsotodayhamexpo.com/
Decided to call one of the promoters for clarification. One thing I
learned was it is not using a ZOOM meeting platform or any of the others
in common use. It is a proprietary one built for commercial exhibits,
not just for ham radio. Commercial exhibits with 50,000 attendees have
already used the platform. The best I could compare it to is a virtual
reality simulation of Dayton with vendor booths.
The event opens at 0500 HST on Saturday and Sunday. Vendors will have
staff that will interact one-on-one with attendees that “walk” into
their booth, just like at large hamventions. Large vendors with
distributors to help may have extended coverage. It is unclear how many
hours and days vendor representatives will be available; probably
depends on each vendor.
Hide your credit cards before attending. Just like normal hamventions,
vendors will take orders on-line. Or there may be deals you can not
pass up. No swap meet though.
The list of speakers is long (60 scheduled) and they will speak
according to a published schedule (available soon). If you miss getting
to the “room” on time or there are two topics of interest at the same
time you can still watch it at your leisure. The talks and vendor
presentations will be available “on-demand” for 30 days afterward.
Attendees can get tickets by registering on the web site. No cost!
Attendance is free. You do not need to install any software to attend.
The video platform operates on any browser with no special program or
browser add on. How neat is that?
Now if you have read down to here, I’d like to recommend that you buy
your free ticket now. At last count 13,000 attendees have signed up.
The event is filling up and they are considering putting a limit on
ticket sales for the promoter’s first virtual exhibit. The hope is
feedback will help plan future ones. Rumor is there may be a second
one in March 2021
I found looking at the YouTube video created for vendors has a lot of
information that would be of interest to attendees.
Should be interesting. A ham Expo that all Hawaii hams can attend!
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ARRL Pacific Section
Section Manager: Joseph Speroni, AH0A
ah0a@arrl.org