BI > APRIL 2003

Go East!

Oct. 31-Nov. 2, 2003, in Norfolk, Va.

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Nautical Norfolk. NAIC will hold its Better Investing National Convention Oct. 31-Nov. 2 in Norfolk, Va., home of a naval station and the National Maritime Center. Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown Island are also nearby. The Convention will include educational seminars, corporate exhibits and featured speakers.

We've got a lot for you to "go East" for. Beyond our usual class track dedicated to beginners, we introduced one last year for those just a little beyond the beginner stage. It's aimed at people who can fill out a Stock Selection Guide but haven't mastered all the concepts behind it.

And this year we're introducing yet another new multihour workshop: an "advanced survey" that covers the gamut of analysis techniques NAIC offers. In total there are eight class tracks (not counting the youth program), with each track composed of nine one-hour classes.

As always, we'll offer a lot of NAIC personalities for you to listen to and rub elbows with, including the association's headquarters staff; popular speakers such as Phil Keating, Gary Ball and Hugh McManus; a large contingent of chapter directors from around the country; many investors just like you; and of course, investor relations representatives from about a hundred publicly traded companies.

That large pool of investor relations representatives is a unique feature of the BI National Convention. We'll try to leverage this feature even more this year by focusing on a couple of industries and getting the appropriate IR representatives involved in roundtable discussions.

So what does the Convention consist of? It includes educational seminars, a large number of corporate exhibits, featured speakers and Software Central, at which NAIC software tools are presented by the software developers. For your convenience the official hotel is also the site of the event, so once you've checked in there's no travel required.

But you may want to travel anyway, since there's a ton of things to do in the Norfolk area. NAIC will offer two optional tours on the Monday after the event: a full-day tour of Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown Island and a half-day "Norfolk Highlights" tour, including the Norfolk Naval Air Base.

The hotel facility is wonderful. The Norfolk Waterside Marriott, located in the heart of downtown Norfolk, adjoins the Norfolk Waterside Convention Center. It's only 15 minutes from Norfolk International Airport; within two blocks of Waterside Marketplace, Nauticus (the National Maritime Center) and the USS Wisconsin; and four blocks from the MacArthur Center Mall.

More information will be provided in each issue of Better Investing leading up to the Convention.