My Report of the T/S Fest ’87

My wife Heddy and І arrived in Indianapolis at 5:30PM local time on Friday May ist after an uneventful USAir flight from Los Angeles. The Holiday Inn North’s airport bus arrived in about 25 minutes to take us to the hotel. The accommodations seemed to be very nice. The pre-festival banquet began at 8:00PM and was a good indication of things to come.

There were over 100 persons present at the banquet many of whom had traveled (from as far away as London) some distance to be there. After a few short statements by the organizers of the FEST, the assembled Timexers introduced themselves one by one. It was here that I began to feel the excitement and energy that was to be part of this weekend. For the first time I could begin to put faces on people who up until now had been only names and voices. Many of the familiar names of the T/S community were there, in person. Representatives of the User Groups from across the country were there also. Needless to say, all of the major Timex/Sinclair Dealers were also present. The Holiday Inn staff did an excellent job with the buffet. The food was VERY good, my compliments to the chef.

After the dinner many of the dealers, myself included, began to set up our tables for the following morning. Saturday started at 6:30AM, then down to the cafeteria for breakfast and then to the meeting room to continue preparations at 7:30. There were 5 rooms and a comfortable waiting/resting area set aside for the 1987 edition of the Т/S FEST. Two rooms for the dealers to display their products, two rooms for concurrent seminars and 1 room for the “swap meet” where T/S users could swap or sell their own excess equipment.

The doors were opened at 9:00AM, the scheduled hours were 9-6 on Saturday and 9-5 on Sunday. The aisles filled immediately with Timex and Sinclair computer users. Approximately 450-500 Timex users from all corners of the U.S. filed past the 40-50 displays during the 2 days of the FEST. The names on the ID tags read like a who’s who of Timex world. John Oliger, David Hill, Tom and Tim Woods, Pete Fischer, Sysops Dave and Patrick (of CompuServe), Tom Bent all were in attendance. There were door prizes galore, several every hour. Grey and Clifford COMPUTER PRODUCTS’ own drawing winners were Don Walterman (MI) and John Kemeny (MA) who both won Z-SI/O cards. John Coffey (IN) and “Computin іп the Country” author Oscar Sensabaugh (TX) were the winners of the SPECTERM-64 terminal software. Congratulations to them all.

Frank Davis (FEST Producer) and Paul Holmgren (FEST Executive Director) were masterful in putting the the 1987 Midwest Timex/Sinclair Computer Fest together. What a job it must be. The members of the Indiana Sinclair Timex User Group (ISTUG) were ever present and always helpful. Many thanks to all of them that worked to make the T/S FEST ’87, the success that it was.

Some of the deals and contacts made at the FEST will surely influence the directions that T/S computer products will take in the future. As long as our computers can generate the enthusiasm that was evident in Indianapolis, there will continue to be new software and hardware for our T/S1000, ZХ81, Т/S1500), T/S2068 апd QLs. I don’t know where the FEST will be next year, but I will certainly try to be there. I will never feel isolated with my T/S2068 again. See you next year at T/S FEST ‘ 88.