I am! I will be in Las Vegas from January 3rd through the 9th for two different events.  From the 3rd to the 6th I will be attending the APCUG’s annual conference. Then, from the 6th to the 9th, I will be at CES. For the entire trip, I will be staying at the Riviera Hotel.

What’s APCUG?

APCUG, the Association of PC User Groups, is a group of user groups. The goal of the organization and the conference is to help the leaders of peer to peer user groups better meet the needs of their user groups. As the president of the Phoenix PC User Group, I am going to get ideas for my group. But, I am also a speaker at the conference.

The conference is put on by volunteers. Most of the speakers are volunteers, including me. The conference doesn’t cover expenses or pay presenters. I am going on my own dime, because I think it is important to share with others.

What am I sharing?

First, I will be the speaker on Saturday morning at a session called “Stump the PowerPoint Expert”. During this session, the attendees will be asking me questions about things that stump them in PowerPoint. I haven’t got a prize yet for stumping me… Maybe one of you will donate something… I expect to be able to answer almost everything directly. Those questions I can’t answer, I expect I will at least know where to find the answer.

Then, in the afternoon on Saturday, Betsy Weber and I are presenting together on “Moving from Online Contacts to Real-Life Friends”. Betsy and I are going to use ourselves as an example of how we use social media sites to stay connected, even though we live half a continent apart.

Both sessions have the same goal: To improve how User Group leaders communicate with their members, their friends, their families, and the rest of the world.

You can see the whole schedule for the conference on the APCUG site. I guarantee it will be a great time!

And then?

Then, I get to go to CES for a few days. This is a working trip. I am meeting up with people about a number of different projects. I will be at the http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/349569on Tuesday afternoon at Cheeseburger Las Vegas.  Tuesday evening, I will be at the “It Won’t Stay in Vegas” Blogger Party at the Atomic Testing Museum.  Really looking forward to both of these events.

I expect that I will also be meeting up with many others. If you want to meet up, drop me a line either in the comments or directly.

How am I going to afford this?

As a test of a new site I am trying out, I am asking for help covering the costs of the trip. (Hey - This blog doesn’t pay all the bills, you know!) The site is Fundable.com. This site is designed to help people raise money for projects with community help. My first project there is Help me speak at APCUG

I have a goal of raising US$550 to help cover expenses for the trip. One of the cool things about fundable is that if I don’t raise the full amount, no one pays anything. If I do raise the money, it goes into my PayPal account.

I am not sure I expect to be raising money for the APCUG/CES trip. I will find a way to cover the expenses one way or another. Oh, sure, I would love it if suddenly everyone decided to kick in and make it happen.

But this is really a test. The first full project that I will be using Fundable for will be my next tour of the Arizona Alliance of Computer Clubs, happening in February. During that tour, I will be speaking on OneNote to 39 different user groups in 23 days. Watch for details on that tour soon!