suggestions for future conferences

[George W. Leach]

In article <8902090223.AA01916 at decwrl.dec.com> devine at cookie.dec.com (Bob Devine) writes:

>  I just got home from the San Diego conference (and was greeted
>by below-zero temps and lotsa snow).  First I want to thank the
>organisers for a well-run conference.  Handling ~2000 people and
>dozens of sessions is not an easy job.


    I second that!  In fact, one rarely gets to appreciate all of the
work and effort put into planning the event itself.  Peter, Judy, and
the rest of the USENIX staff should be thanked for all of the legwork
involved in setting up the environment in which the technical presentations
were made.


>The only complaints I
>have are that speakers were hard to locate after they finished
>their session (perhaps a room devoted to after-session questions?)
>and the mid-morning danish always dissappeared too soon ;-)


    I had little problem in locating them.  They are right up front and
can be assaulted at the break.  The *real* problem is due to the limited
amount of time between sessions and the number of people who want to talk
to the speakers.  It is extremely difficult to just happen to bumb into
people in a crowd of 2000!  Would contacting a speaker via their hotel
room phone be considered appropriate?


>  Other suggestions are:


>1. Multiple tracks for the main session.


    I don't like this suggestion


>   I was at the first part of the discussion of this issue at the
>   Board of Directors BOF, but I couldn't stay around long enough
>   to give my opinion.  It seems silly that there are multiple,
>   parallel tutorials and multiple BOFs but only a single
>   thread for the main session.  I would prefer 2-hour blocks
>   where there are 3 speakers of 1/2 hour per block.  The
>   scheduling of attendees is by self-selection at the breaks.
>   There could be system administrator thread, a new features
>   thread, a potpourri thread, etc.


    There is a problem with both approaches.  At the Winter 1986 Conference
in Denver there were three technical sessions, one each day.  The first was
great, in my opinion, it was devoted to Windowing Systems.  However, the
last two were not of great interest to me: UNIX on the Big Iron and then
ADA and the UNIX System.  So for me, two days were a waste.  However, the
San Diego Conference has smaller sessions on various topics.  I was able
to attend those of interest and not attend others.  The Winter 1988 Conference
in Dallas utilized the multiple technical session approach.  I either missed
certain talks due to overlap or I jumped back and forth between sessions to
catch parts of various talks.  It was not a lot of fun.



    I see no problem with the format as it was utilized at the San Diego
Conference.  As long as we don't have one, day long session on the same
topic I think it is fine.  When there is a block of talks that I am not
intersted in, I can find plenty of other things to do.



>  - Get a "pulse of the crowd" by doing a poll on what
>   is needed in computing.  Or a poll on what would be a
>   really neat application to have.  Any information gathered
>   is valuable for its own sake and can be used as a news item.
>   The American Bar Assoc, for example, gets national attention
>   for its conference when it releases opinion surveys.


      A much wider sample could be obtained over the net.  Brian
Reid has experience with conducting surveys over the net.  But it
may be worthwhile to check the USENIX attendees, many of which 
probably don't even belong to the Association.


>  - Allow people to bring along and demo their work in progress.
>   A description of a user interface is boring without the
>   actual thing to see/play with.  Granted, applications that
>   run on a Cray could be difficult to demo...


     How about films of the system instead?  I saw such a film
at the Winter 1986 Denver Conference on GLO (I believe).  It certainly
would be less costly.  Vendors can afford to do such a thing for
products because they will hopefully recoupe the money spent in any
sales that are generated by the demo.  However, the cost of setting
up such a demo for a research prototype may not be worthwhile.  Perhaps
those who attend SIGGRAPH Conferences can shed some light on this area.
There is certainly lots there that is better seen than heard about.



>  - Use the conference as a way of telling people about Unix.
>   What is in the weekly computer newpapers is a lot of vendor
>   press releases.  Usenix could be publicized by press releases
>   that highlight interesting papers.


     Isn't that the /usr/group crowd does with the UniForum Circus :-)


>3. Add more features.

>  - Add some contests.  Something like having a computer
>   trivia quiz as described in this month's ACM magazine
>   would be fun.


     Am I the only person on the planet that thought that trivia
contest was a waste of printed space in CACM (a magazine????)?
Frankly, I find such contests just as boring as the TV gameshows.


>  - Have an equipment demo room.  A computer conference without
>   computer is sort of like a automobile show without cars.


     Demos take place in hotel suites.  This past week DEC was
showing a new product and NCD was showing their X Terminal.  At
the Summer Conferences there are far more vendors at USENIX.  This
time of year they are gearing up for UniForum.


>  - More panel discussions.  There are many areas where there
>   is One True Way.  Opinions matter!  Put several knowledgable
>   folks together to see if heat or light can be generated.


     I have seen some panel sessions at other conferences produce some
truly useful information, while others are a total waste of time.  But
it should be looked into as something that could be set up.


>4. Open up the conferences to more than Unix.  This might be a
>   heretical statement.  But, many sites have quite a mixture of
>   systems.  Topics could be on how to manage mixed-computer sites.
>   Or on how run different OSs on the same network.  The point is
>   that there can be a fruitful exchange of information for this
>   area.  If Usenix doesn't do it, who will?


     Quick, take away this man's source license :-)  May you be condemned
to a life of assembly programming on an IBM 370 in the hell of MISland!!!


     I think that any topic that is somewhat related to UNIX is fair game
for the conference, eg. ADA and UNIX session at the Denver Conference in 86.






     What I would like to see is a wider availability of the Tutorial Notes.
I know that limited quantities are sold after the tutorial sessions are over
with.  However, they sell out fast.  If you don't get there in time, you will
have to wait until you get to go to another conference.  Perhaps USENIX could
sell them as they do the proceedings, from the office in Berkeley.



-- 
George W. Leach					Paradyne Corporation
..!uunet!pdn!reggie				Mail stop LG-129
reggie at pdn.nm.paradyne.com			P.O. Box 2826
Phone: (813) 530-2376				Largo, FL  USA  34649-2826