Report Card From Fred Myers

Fred Myers has been an AAEA member since 1962. On his Web site, www.ForAgJournalists.com, he wrote about his experiences at AMS this year, and included this report card.

The City: (A+) Fort Worth is authentic, friendly and engaging. You feel it in the air and it sort of seeps out of the sidewalks. You get the idea maybe it's always been that way.

The Hotel: (B) The people were just great. So was the food and accommodations. But whoever designed the place must have done it during a hangover after an all-nighter. Up always seemed to be down and down, up. You could see it but you couldn't figure out how to get there. Answering nature's call required advanced strategic planning. But for all that, I would go back in a New York minute.

Organization and Logistics: (A+) So how do you define smooth?

The Program: (A+) Because the IFAJ joined us this year, the event benefited from three years of planning by a hard working committee. Result? In my opinion, this AMS was the best since it began 11 years ago in Denver.

The Presenters: (B+) Some were better than others. But we raised the bar higher, too. Not content with having just the good to give us guidance and council, this time we seemed to have more of the better of the best.

The Mechanicals: (B) A techie gremlin was loose in the building. Power Point presentations were unpredictable. One cursor disappeared and may be lost forever. Yep, someone really did smilingly remind those close by that a burned out bulb was the only thing that ever went wrong with those old Kodak slide projectors.

What could be improved: The time slid by so fast and I was having such a fine time, I really didn't notice.