Hi all,
A few wrapup comments about the 1995 Interex conference in Toronto: the bad,
followed by the good, and then by some suggestions.
Negative aspects of conference (besides the smoking):
1) my registration was lost. I just checked our records, and
found that we faxed it to Interex on 7/26, two days before the
early bird deadline of 7/28. ... but no record of it was in Toronto.
2) the "Interex Housing Bureau" didn't bother reserving a non-smoking
hotel room for me, despite the clear request on my faxed in reservation
request form. And, naturally, I was stuck in a smoking room for the
first night :(
Note: I should have noticed this, since the confirmation they
eventually sent back lacked any mention of non-smoking.
NOTE: The "Interex Housing Bureau" form lacked a means of
indicating "non-smoking" ... I had to write it in. This is a
*minimal* requirement for taking reservations, folks ... not simply
a new-fangled California idea!
3) People whose last names begin with "S" are apparently real bad about
picking up their messages from the message board. I kept seeing
the same 8 messages every time I checked "S" for messages. :)
4) Hot and muggy. I'd like to go to Toronto again, but perhaps in
a different month?
5) Guards in vendor area warning vendors that things might disappear
from their booths at night. While I appreciated their candor,
I don't appreciate the implications: theft problems.
6) Homeless people in the vendors area. One settled down in a vendors
chair, and wouldn't leave until security was about to be called.
7) Why *did* HP invite all of Toronto, allegedly for free, to come to
the vendors show? (Note: this is second hand... I was told that HP
took out a full page newspaper ad, inviting people to the vendor
show.)
8) Info Builders (IBI), and their darn barker yelling "free stuff"
(and more) every 15 minutes or so ... in clear violation of vendor
show rules, as I understand them.
This is a vendor show, not a carney show!
9) Old friends who didn't make it. Unison, SRN, and others.
10) Copy center that closed at 5pm. (Also, some attendees reported
minor problems with the copy center employees.)
11) Talk/Tutorial scheduling ... many attendees complained that
talks with similar interests were scheduled at the same time.
I once counted 13 talks/etc. taking place at the same time.
(I can't find the schedule now, so I hope I didn't err.)
12) Having to leave on Thursday ... I was disappointed to miss
the Managment Round Table (HP Support is glad I did!) and
SIGIMAGE, and the talks on Friday. But, this was partially
caused by the next item.
13) Starting on Tuesday. I flew in on Saturday, to get the "Saturday
night" break on the airfare.
I'd rather have the conference run Mon-Thur, and the extra
seminar stuff be on Friday.
14) Toronto airport ... there's little to do once you get past
U.S. Immigration. The snack bar has grossly overpriced soft drinks.
(C$2.95, if I remember, for a root beer)
---
Positive aspects
1) The on-site registration people nicely handled my registration.
(Thanks, Iris!)
2) Toronto ... I enjoyed the city!
3) Interex booth, particularly the CSL part, was fun and informative.
4) Guards were generally quite friendly.
5) Computer book store on site
6) Internet access
7) Easy to locate booths by vendor (map at entrance, and clear
numbering of aisles)
8) The friendly snack bar people, who told me: you don't have to pay
us for a soft drink, look over there...free ones (from Interex)!
9) Seeing Nick Demos again
10) The helpful convention center nurse, who insisted on showing me how to
get to a room I couldn't find.
11) Copy Center...it was nice to have one!
12) Lockers available in the vendor show area ($0.75/day)
13) Jeff Vance being surprised at getting the Marc Hoff award.
14) Hot dog stands *everywhere* in downtown Toronto!
15) I brought an umbrella!
Of course, it was back in the hotel the night the heavens broke loose
with the deluge, and I was 6 blocks from the hotel :)
16) the "TV" show with HP 3000s, showing in the hotel!
Maybe Interex/HP can now give those tapes to the Computer Chronicles,
or someone, so people outside the 3000 community can see them?
17) Sitting next to an HP-UX lab manager on the flight back to
San Francisco. (And getting to comment about various problems,
enhancements, etc.)
Suggestions (other than obvious ones to correct the "negatives" above):
1) provide BNC and/or 10-Base-T taps (with labelled IP addresses) at
otherwise empty stations in the Internet access area, so that
attendees with laptops & ethernet connectors can connect directly
to the net (after entering the correct IP address).
2) A "relax" room, with a lot of chairs, couches, (maybe refreshments)
where attendees can simply sit down and rest, or talk.
(or play Magic! I only managed to get in 4 games!)
3) On-line entry of Management Round Table questions, like we used to
have. (Maybe I missed this?)
4) Post the "ATT Dial Direct USA" (?) instructions at the pay phones
in the convention center. Hint: 1-800-575-2222, then area-code and
phone number desired, then the billing code.
5) Mail proceedings several weeks early, so we can peruse them ahead of
time. I almost never have a chance to read them BEFORE the talks
are given.
6) Put the papers in the Proceedings into some order!
Preferably by computer system? At the absolute minimum, by author's
name, perhaps?
7) Instruct the "room hosts" (who introduce the speaker, and collect
the reviews) in methods of helping with materials (e.g., getting
more copies of a handout), and in how to pronounce names.
I remember filling out a "how to introduce me" sheet, but it wasn't
there for the "room host" to use...
and I was looking forward to hearing it read, since I said
"Stan's worked on lots of stuff" at one point :)
Stan Sieler [log in to unmask]
http://www.allegro.com/sieler.html
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