USENIX conferences

[Jerry J. Deroo]

<a magic cookie>
Reidar Bornholdt brings some interesting points forward in <151 at cucard.UUCP>

I am a bit concerned over the discussion on this group of late, and
where it is heading.

What are the problems in holding a joint conference?
Personally, I enjoy the mix of technical discussions and the
commercial side of things which was presented in Washington.
I ventured there, at my own expense, specifically to get a handle
on where the *NIX market place was going. (Being in Canada does have
some dis-advantages).

If there is such animosity between the two groups, where is it coming from?
Is it at the executive level? Or at the grass-roots level?
I find it hard to believe that even the most dyed-in-the-wool technical
person does not get a kick out of wandering about the vendor exhibits,
if only to see how many systems they can break.

I favour the type of joint conference that Washington was, where I could
choose which session I wanted to sit in on.
While *I* did not choose to partake in many of the /usr/group sessions,
I did enjoy the ones that I went to. Fortunately, the concurrent USENIX
seesions that I missed in this way were not that appealing to me.
Is this a point of contention, trying to schedule concurrent sessions such
that a minimum portion of the attendees don't have to make a real difficult
descision on which of two sessions to sit in on?

Acutally, I am wondering if three days are enough for the amount of
presentations people want to make.
The material presented at both Toronto and Washington was, on the whole,
worthwile.

I am against a separate conference in Dallas, unless my registration fee
can get me into either without a hassle.
-- 
   Jerry J. Deroo, U of Toronto Dentistry
 { utzoo utcsstat}!utteeth!jerry