TI99ers registering at TI prior to the TI Experience
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1998
Saturday started off a bit chilly, but the sun held lots of promise as cars headed to the TI Facility. In addition, there was a Trolley provided by the Lubbock Convention and Tourism Bureau that was shuttling TI99ers from the hotel to the TI Facility. Shortly after 8:00 A.M., everyone was registering and then waiting to get into the cafeteria where the "TI Experience" was to take place.
TI99ers registering at TI prior to the TI Experience
After everyone had registered, they were escorted down a long hallway to the facility's cafeteria. As everyone arrived in the presentation area of the cafeteria, they were greeted by the TImeline. Prior to the actual event start, everyone looked over the array of TI-99/4A related hardware.
Finally, it was time to start. The TI Experience was opened by Rodney Cates of Texas Instruments. Rodney was the initial contact person for Tom Wills. Rodney later turned the chore of being the contact person over to Gabriel Flores, who was also present.
Rodney Cates (standing) opens the TI Experience of Fest West '98.
Gabriel Flores is seated next to the screen.
After a brief word or two of how Tom Wills had contacted him, and how FW98 came together, Rodney then introduced the first keynote speaker, Lee Kitchens . Lee had been a long time employee of TI, starting his career in Europe. Lee was the Manufacturing Engineering Manager of the Consumer Products Division of TI in Lubbock. This division was responsible for the many TI calculators produced by Texas Instruments over the years. Lee came to Lubbock in time for the advent of the TI-99/4.
After Rodney's introduction of Lee, Lee moved forward to speak. Lee, who is now retired and the mayor of a small community just outside of Lubbock called Ransom Canyon was warmly greeted. Lee was a very interesting speaker. During his talk, he explained why the TI-99/4A and the PE Box and other accessories were built as heavy as they were. The reason? To survive shipping and handling. The TI Monitor, built by Panasonic, in the beginning had a 5% failure rate when tested for durability. To TI this was not acceptable. There had to be a 0% failure rate. It was achieved.
When asked why the fuse in the PE Box's power supply was so difficult to get at (to change), Lee, with a straight face, turned to the person asking the question and stated "Dumb idea!" After the laughter died down and Lee qualified that statement. It was also to keep consumers from bypassing safety devices such as a blown fuse.
Lee Kitchens being thanked for his talk during the break
After Lee Kitchens finished his talk, many TI99ers thanked Lee for all he had done for the TI99 Community by producing such a quality product. He was also told by some attendees how the TI-99/4A was responsible for their learning about computers and from that experience, they are in their current jobs. Lee was amazed by the response to his talk and to the attendance at the morning session. He thought the TI-99/4A had basically disappeared from the face of the earth. It also made those attending happy to see Lee reaction to the numbers of people attending and to learn of the TI-99/4A's wide usage to this day.
During the break, some TI employees took all who wanted for a tour of the TI facility. Everyone went for the tour, including the driver of the shuttle. Also during this time period, TI served up refreshments for all who attended. And a very good job of it they did. Coffee, soda, fresh sliced fruit, rolls, bagels, and much more. TI had gone out of its way to make all attendees feel welcome.
The break was scheduled for 45 minutes. But, due to the number of questions the tour guides encountered from their groups, the tours lasted much longer than expected. However, no one objected as this was a once in a lifetime experience.
After the tours were completed. everyone gathered back into the meeting area to continue the morning session. It started off with Tom Wills presenting special Texas Instruments T-Shirts to the attendees from Europe, which included John Murphy (Wales), Gerd Weissmann and Michael Becker (Germany), and Berry Harmsen (The Netherlands). Their pictures are below. After this presentation, Bill Gaskill was introduced for his keynote address. However, due to the length of the tours, Bill had to cut his speech short.
In his abbreviated talk, Bill covered the Timeline 99 from 1978 through 1991. To aid in his talk, Bill handed out a printout of all he was going to discuss. As the turnout was so much more than Bill even expected, Texas Instruments had to run off additional copies for him to hand out. While waiting for the extra copies, Bill pasted around special pictures of TI products from the past. To cover all that Bill covered in his time would be quite extensive to do so here. To see what Bill covered, and much more, go to Bill Gaskill's web page at http://timeline.99er.net /.
Leaving the via the Visitor Center at the Texas Instruments facility
After Bill Gaskill finished his talk, everyone started leaving the facility realizing that this once in a lifetime experience was now over. The almost one year of planning for this event was over. Never again would TI99ers be inside the facility in which their beloved computer was made. While there was excitement in the air at having been in this very special site, there was also a sadness in realizing it was over.
