atldlff

I have recently gotten several e-mails asking me about the next Delta DO event. The purpose of this post is to address some of those questions as well as provide a current status. Yes, there will absolutely be a next event. Canarsie and I are working on the preliminary planning now, and we will formally kick-off the planning effort in the next few weeks (after the Thanksgiving Holiday).

Dates
We don’t have a formal date at this point, but we will pick a date shortly. We will be certain to let everyone know as soon as we get a date finalized so you can plan in advance – this year's event will be in the fall when the Atlanta weather is a little on the cooler side.

Event Format
We are evaluating the format this year. Our goal is to really keep this event to a reasonable size. We felt one of the major benefits of the event last year was having a group size that allowed good interaction among the participants and the Delta employees. Many of these venues are capacity controlled, so if there is enough interest, we may extend the event longer with repeat options/venues to be able to accommodate everyone that wants to attend.

Venues/Options
As far as what we are planning for the event – we are working on those details now. We are working on some new and pretty exciting venues/options, and we are even planning on a new Advanced Road Warrior Training (RWT II) with Delta. For those of you who attended RWT I, if there is something you would really like to see added to the new training, let us know, as we are still in the early planning stages. As far as other options, let’s just say, if we get even half of the new ideas implemented, you will be simply blown away with some of the choices.

For those of you who will be new this year, you will get the opportunity to visit for the first time all of the venues from last year – including the Delta/Northwest Heritage Museum, Delta’s - Operations Control Center, Technical Operations Center, Atlanta Airport Fire Station, and RWT I training.

Registration
We will be utilizing some new web-based technology for the registration of the venues, volunteers, and the payment process – which will include – PayPal, Visa, MC, AMEX and Discover. This technology will also have the ability to waitlist individuals once we have reached capacity for a specific venue/event. We will also have the ability to have a dedicated web-site to provide the latest details and information on the event, as well as send e-mail updates to those that are registered.

Registration will be on a first come, first serve basis. We are actively encouraging Delta employees to also participate in this program, and hope to have many of them along side FT members.

Costs
As with last year, most of the venues are provided at no cost to the participants. We will be working on soliciting some select sponsors for the evening events to help keep costs to a minimum. If you know of a corporate sponsor that would like to participate, please let us know. There is a cost for RWT, and possibly some of the new options. We will be asking everyone to register on-line and there will be a non-refundable deposit fee for signing up for this event. (A portion of this fee will also cover transportation, printing, signs, badges, etc.) We will be getting a group rate at the host hotel.

We are looking to also provide some “give-aways” as a part of this year’s program. We are considering a random drawing for a few free RWT slots, and other items. More details coming on that soon.

Volunteers
Most of the volunteers from last year are returning to help out again, and it is greatly appreciated. The volunteers helped to make the last event run so smoothly. We will also need new volunteers to help with everything from on-site registration, group leaders, transportation logistics, etc. If you are interested in volunteering to help, you will be able to sign up for that during the registration process.

One of our volunteers from the last event, WesNSpace, came up with the great idea of having a fund raiser for the Delta Heritage Museum. This is a non-profit organization that hosts much of the rich history or Delta and now Northwest Airlines. I hope you will support his efforts for this worthwhile cause.

In the meantime, please feel free to post your comments, suggestions or questions, or you can send e-mail to [email protected]

Stay tuned for more details to follow soon….

For those of you who didn’t get the chance to attend the event last year, and want some more information, you can visit www.easyvictor.org thanks to MikeMpls. This site has links to posts, pictures and videos from the last event.

Canarsie recently created a video slide show here from the June 2009 event, for those who would like to view it, as well as pictures from the Delta Employee Thank You Luncheon here .

Canarsie

As I am currently in Europe, I have not been able to work on much within the past week or so. However, atldlff and I have been working behind the scenes, meeting with various Delta Air Lines personnel and meeting with each other working to make this event at least as successful as last year but with improvements and many surprises with which we cannot reveal just yet as they are not definite.

Here is the original thread for the event that occurred this year.

Please keep monitoring this thread for further details, and thank you for your patience.
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FlyerTalk members who expressed interest in attending this event, expected to occur sometime in September or October 2010:

1. Cholula
2. Mrs. Cholula
3. Easy Victor
4. Guest of Easy Victor
5. Gargoyle
6. Mrs. Gargoyle
7. DLNYC
8. Possible guest of DLNYC
9. BamaGirl
   
10. mersk862*
11. DP-340
12. Possible guest of WesNSpace
13. RobOnLI
14. MikeMpls
15. WifeMpls
16. batdude
17. planecrazy63
18. pbjag
19. skoker
20. Possible guest of skoker
21. domcharles
22. DevilDog438
23. Elmitchbo
24. me4yankees
25. Stripe
26. Burj
27. Possible guest of Burj
28. Dovster — but not if the event is during the weekend of September 17 through 19
29. nub2travel
30. Possible guest of nub2travel
31. KarlJ
32. GBadger
    
33. WBurcham*
34. Guest of WBurcham
    
35. fgirard*
36. Exiled in Express*
37. dgxoxo
38. gplates
    
39. ecaarch*
40. Possible guest of bennos
    
41. jackplum*
42. BER Flyer
43. MsEverywhere
44. ULDB65
    
45. underpressure*
46. g50
47. Guest of g50
48. SkyTeam777
49. cfischer
50. localady
51. Guest of localady
52. Watchful
53. ffI
54. Pharaoh
55. Pharaoha
56. pitbrian
57. Guest of pitbrian
    
58. DiverDave* Accommodations
59. Lehava*
60. zsmith2*
61. BondAir007
62. jb831
    
63. DLroads*
64. keepdeltaflying
    
65. MachOne*
66. ADLFO*
67. Guest of ADLFO
68. AirlineDeregulation
    
69. MM/PM widget*
70. longing4piedmont
71. Cellisttoo
    
72. bwc175* Signs, Badges, Printing logistics
    
73. cliburn*
74. stealthmidget
    
75. US1@ORF*
76. flyersky1
    
77. ScottinMEM*
78. AJDelvarno
79. StayingHomeIsBetter
80. itsaboutthejourney
81. BOS2LHR
82. Guest of BOS2LHR
83. gatorbluedevil
84. Scotty66
    
85. MemphisQueen*
86. ftv*
87. BobRoss
88. pmaddock
    
89. bdnyc*
90. Guest of bdnyc
91. bluegrass flyer
92. Guest of bluegrass flyer
93. DD_NoVA
94. bowdenj
95. Tom Williams
96. bworrell
97. Guest of bworrell
98. MSPeconomist
99. DLGrkItalNY
100. Guest of DLGrkItalNY
101. ceieoc
102. Guest of ceieoc
103. HRS
104. halifaxflyer
105. Buster CT1K
106. 23TOPOS12
107. Guest of 23TOPOS12
     
108. socrates*
109. Guest of socrates
110. ngalliance
111. Guest of ngalliance
     
112. EasternTraveler*
113. Guest #1 of EasternTraveler
114. Guest #2 of EasternTraveler
     
115. IrishEyes*
116. Guest of IrishEyes
117. SomeGuy
118. tkey75
     
119. ifette*
120. xanthuos
121. Crazyhotelguy
122. Guest of Crazyhotelguy
     
123. thezipper*
124. sc flier*
125. Guest of sc flier
126. rubesl
127. peteropny
128. Guest of peteropny
     
129. Robert Leach*
130. secretsea18
131. rwsatl
132. GrizShel
133. z003y
     
134. Tomphot*
135. langleyoaker
136. Mileage Lover
137. adammarcw
138. oldtirednbusy
139. dedehans
140. iCorpRoadie
141. Getiton
142. jeff30189
143. Guest of jeff30189
144. jjglaze77
145. Guest of jjglaze77

* Offered to volunteer this year.

This is by no means the final list, as we are preparing to assemble an Internet web site dedicated to this event, something we did not have last year. We are hoping that it will make registration, confirmations and payments much easier and more accurate for us this year than last year.

Functionality we plan on including in the Internet web site is the ability to choose the events you want to attend. This will help make it possible for more Delta forum FlyerTalk members to attend and enjoy this event, as not everyone who attends this event is going to want to participate in all of the venues.

At the event last year, not everybody attended all of the events on all three days. For example, there were some FlyerTalk members who only wanted to attend the Road Warrior Training. Other FlyerTalk members only showed up for the first day or the first couple of days.

As the dates and the schedule become definite, and as some FlyerTalk members may cancel before committing to the event, time slots should open up for those on the wait list.

Volunteers from the event last year who have volunteered again this year and will automatically be at the 2010 event unless indicated otherwise before then:

1. scoow On-Site Registration
2. Flyin'Mom On-Site Registration
3. WesNSpace Tour Group Leader and Technology
4. bennos Tour Group Leader
5. ShopAround Tour Group Leader
6. davakkar Tour Group Leader
7. atl runner Transportation
8. flyzabit T-shirts and utility volunteer
9. atldlff
10. Canarsie

Unless any of our veteran volunteers proclaim otherwise, the On-site registration, Tour group leader, Technology, Transportation and Accommodations volunteer positions are now filled. The remaining open positions are as follows:

• Sponsorships Needed for meals, transportation, and virtually anything else that incurs an expense. Ideally, the most successful solicitation of sponsorships will ultimately eliminate the need for FlyerTalk members to pay for the event.
• Individual venue planning For example, planning and coordination is needed for tours of the Operations Control Center, Technical Operations Center, Delta Heritage Museum, Atlanta airport fire stations, Road Warrior Training, etc.
• Dinner logistics and planning Prime is one venue where dinner will be on one of the event nights, but meals still need to be planned for the rest of the event, including menu planning and transportation to each venue.
• Signs, Badges, Printing logistics

Burj

For people in college, with children in college, or who work for colleges...the end of May is a little tricky because of graduation, end of semester exams, moving, etc...

In general the earlier in May the better...

Gargoyle

Count us in, we'll work our schedule around it. RWT/DO I was a great experience.

me4yankees

Actually it depends on which area of the country you are. Here in the south where I am, college graduations are usually the first two weeks in May. I teach at a community college in VA and our exams end May 10 and my teaching contract ends May 15.

However, I would caution against Memorial Day weekend, May 28-31, 2010.

And count me in as well! I loved the first DO!

Pharaoh

Count us in, too. I'll work my vacation around the DO!

Will be interesting if one of us is in RWT I and one in RWT II.....

mersk862

Myself, skoker and WBurcham were talking about this tonight when we met up and all three of us were pretty excited...we had a flight attendant on our flight asking us about it (he saw the backpack that we got at RWT).

MikeMpls

We're definitely interested but probably will have to be limited to the weekend & maybe Friday this time. Even just Sat. works for us. RWT II sounds cool.

Wasn't there a room full of fire-extinguishing equipment in the training center?

From experience w/ CO DO's, I'd strong suggest having the most important Q&A's & events later Saturday to maximize participation.

N830MH

Me, too. I want go there. I want to be on the tours at DL headquarters, tech Ops, Flight Attendant School and etc. So please PM me or any response email me by my profile.

gpscuba2000

I'm in for RWII - I had a great time last year and am looking forward to trying new things. Simulators would be great if that's an option.

WBurcham

I'll be there again.

fgirard

With the announcement this early, I can certainly plan for it....

...in other works, I'll try to block out that time period for the RWT/DO

zsmith2

Count me in for next year!

jb831

Wouldn't miss it!

icurhere2

Very interested (pending final date selection and my teaching schedule).