This years conference was a success and we are looking forward to next year's event in Portland with excitement. On behalf of the VPCUS, we thank our sponsors and attendees for making this event possible.

Raincoast History

Six years ago, several user groups from Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest decided to host an annual event for user group officers in the  region. This conference was patterned after the highly popular international conferences hosted by the Association of PC User Groups, of which the founding Raincoast groups are members.

The Raincoast conference provides an opportunity for computer user group leaders to meet, collaborate and exchange ideas about making our organizations more successful. This event also provides participating vendors an opportunity to demonstrate their support for user groups and to show off new products and technologies.

The first Raincoast conference was held in Seattle in 1994. The following year, VPCUS hosted one in Vancouver. In 1996, the conference moved to Portland, then to Victoria in 1997, Olympia in 1998 and Seattle in 1999.

VPCUS has the honour of being chosen to host Raincoast 2000. We look forward to seeing our colleagues in Vancouver from October 6 to 8, 2000. With the new millennium, we plan to reach out to extend this opportunity to the many, specialized computer user groups in the region.