For The Love Of Port

I have been debating this ... with myself.

Would participation be even greater if this feature only occurred quarterly or at most, every other month?

Having this every single month is no issue for me to organize, however, I have a strong suspicion that it would seem more ... special ... if the frequency was decreased slightly. Although I can make an easy decision out of this, I thought I'd seek your feedback and at least have that enter into the equation.

Doing it monthly might become routine ... kind of like what I noticed last year when the FTLOP Subscriber's Buying Opportunities came too close to one another. Of course, that could have been a bit of "wallet fatigue" too, but again, having special things too close in proximity creates lethargy or at least, lack of excitement. No longer does a big name like ... get folks excited, as it is just another in a long line of great names from the various aspects of Portism.

OK, now I am ready to sit back and await your pearls of wisdom.

I'd say two or three month intervals. They have all been enjoyable so far, but coming up with relevant questions will become difficult eventually.

I'd say once per quarter. I've already run out of good questions to ask, and while we could of course re-use questions that we have asked previous guests not all of them would be appropriate for re-use or appropriate for every guest.

I really like the feature, but once a month is just too often for me to be able to participate every time.

Once per quarter seems about right to me.

Of course, if all those lurking shippers out there would join in discussions elsewhere on the forum on a regular basis we wouldn't need the feature at all

I'll vote for quarterly as well. I've really enjoyed them thus far, but worry that you'll run out of people that seem interesting if you maintain the monthly frequency.

Once per quarter sounds good...

Quarterly . . . or every 3 months

Every month, but I feel you may run out of special guests quicker. I would not have them on an exact schedule, but rather when you can get the guest to do it and work on getting biggest names as guests. So far, it has been a good forum in that respect.

Of course getting well known names is great. 3 of our 4 have been huge names. But although most people beyond my introduction in the newsletter to Dan Carbon never would have known who he was ... I thought he was one fine Guest who provided great details and insight. So not always will I put forth names that are recognizable to the masses, when I know what some of the industry insiders can "bring to the table."

Only one person has turned me down so far and that was James Suckling. No, it had nothing to do with him crossing any border. It was strictly a matter of contractual agreement with WS that expressly prevented him from doing so.

As to frequency ... I appreciate the frank posts in this thread and will proceed on an approximately quarterly basis. I already have the next guest lined up but will more than likely wait until late February or early March to have him take part here. Yes, a name that easily fits in with the previous group.