Greg and I spent a couple of days at the excellent 10th Annual New England Conference on Child Sexual Abuse in Burlington, Vermont early this week. The conference was held at the Sheraton on Williston Road, which has really stepped up in style over the last several years. It is big and beautiful, with a really nice outdoor courtyard in the middle of the structure. The University of Vermont Conference Center is part of the overall building complex, near the large indoor pool.

We set up a booth in the exhibitors section and for two days talked to a LOT of people in the business of keeping kids safe and tracking down those who would have it otherwise. This was a little out of our usual comfort zone, so to speak. While there was a ton of detectives and police investigators, we also talked with and learned a lot from district attorneys, their investigators, Child Advocacy specialists, social workers and others who we still don't know exactly what they do! It's an involved and often depressing arena these guys choose to operate in, with stories that are tough to hear even through our longtime police ears. I recall from my detective supervisor days that you can't leave one person doing child abuse investigations too long without a break - it's a crushing emotional onslaught.

But we got a lot of insight, put some CaseBook and Sex Offender software out there, and learned a lot for the next round of revisions. It was a bit surprising that of the two products we were talking about, CaseBook seemed to ring more bells. I guess it's the overall investigative process that a lot of people in this field are really concerned with, and CaseBook plugged right in to several agencies, requirements or Wish lists.

Burlington - where I spent a colorful couple of years around my UVM experience, WAY back - has changed a lot, but is still recognizable. One thing I remembered pretty quick was that swirling, blasting wind in the mornings, coming up off the lake! At least for this trip it was unusually warm. I can well recall a lot of winter mornings heading off to class in the face of that wind, often with a nice six or seven inch snowfall as well.

The Church street pedestrian mall, which I understand was modeled after one in Boulder, Colorado, is a great enhancement to downtown. What they've done with the lakefront is remarkable. We had a very good trip, and we'll be attending next year as well.