<<Sunnyvale, CA -- Interex, the International Association of
Hewlett-Packard Computing Professionals, is pleased to announce its 1998
MPE Programmers Forum. Scheduled to be held near the Hewlett-Packard CSY
Cupertino, CA campus between March 19-21, 1998 at the Radisson Hotel,
this special event is designed to put users of the HP 3000 face-to-face
with the HP developers making enhancements to their systems.

This year Hewlett-Packard will co-sponsor the event along  with Interex.
 As in past years, the MPE Programmers Forum offers a  series of sessions
addressing languages, applications, connectivity,  and management issues.
 The forum format draws upon the expertise of  HP engineers and lab
managers, consultants, and Interex's highly  experienced members. Many
sessions place a special emphasis on  discussions involving future
product enhancements and direction. Computing professionals who work in
an MPE environment are encouraged  to attend.>>


I'm confused.

One of the recurring problem areas identified by IPROF attendees each
year is the SIG vs. SIG conflicts, caused by the short schedule, which
causes multiple activities to have to be held at the same time. As a
result, people who have a strong desire but limited ability to be in two
or three places at the same time have to forego one or more choices. In
fact, the "Preliminary IPROF '97" electronic mail that came out last
November mentioned the difficulty:
   "I did the best I could (with a couple helpful comments by Leah
Robertson) to give all SIG Leaders the time and "do not conflict with"
that they asked for... But since most Leaders had an even longer list
this year of other SIGs that they did not want to go against, it was not
possible to avoid all conflicts...  At least I didn't see any way to do
it."

IOW, "So many SIGs, so little time...."

So the solution is to make IPROF '98...a day *shorter*? Huh?

IPROF '97 had something like 65 "active" hours (67 if you count the
hp3000-l dinner)-which includes SIG meetings, round tables, receptions,
etc. but does not include meals-spread over about 42 "wall-clock" hours
(44 with the dinner). So the "competing time", which caused the conflicts
that Ken worked so hard to avoid, was about 13 hours. With IPROF '98
being scheduled for 3 days, and the third day being a Saturday, I can't
imagine that we'll get more than 30-33 "wall-clock" hours, and that's
assuming 12 hour days on Thursday and Friday. It seems unlikely that HP
is going to commit a large number of people to an 8-12 hour day on
Saturday, even assuming that a majority of the non-HP attendees are
willing to stick around until 6 or 8 PM on Saturday. If that's the case,
we're looking at an additional 12+ hours-an entire day's worth-of SIGs
that are conflicting where they were not in competition for attendees
last year.

Now there are clearly some scheduling efficiencies that can improve the
usage of the available time. Lars gave essentially the same presentation
on Samba/iX something like 4 times at IPROF '97. Many of us have
recommended that IPROF start with a half-day (or possibly longer)
"general session" where HP presentations, Interex topics, and other items
that are of interest to all or just about all attendees could be
presented once to the entire group. But I still think it's going to be
very tough to compress 3.5 days into 2.5; I certainly didn't spend a lot
of time sitting around this last time waiting for the next session of
interest to come along. In fact, in such a compressed schedule, a 4-hour
general session might actually make the conflict worse, producing a
schedule where every SIG-available hour is oversubscribed at least 2:1.


I'm concerned.

We've watched IPROF attendance drop steadily for three years, although
last year was (I hope) something of an anomaly due to the conflict
(there's that word again!) with other conferences elsewhere in the world.
But I'm concerned that continuing the trend of compressing IPROF further
each year will cause former attendees to decide that it's "too hard" or
"not worth it". I'm perfectly willing to put in three consecutive 12-14
hour days, but nobody has accused me lately of being too smart about
avoiding burn-out, and I suspect that many more-nearly-normal people
would balk at such a schedule. Even if it were an option which, as
mentioned, I don't think is the case.

Obviously, I could be brewing the proverbial teapot tempest, and we won't
know the true effect of this change until 21 March 1998. Without the
external conflict of last year, and with months more advance notice than
usual, maybe we'll reverse the trend with a vengeance. I'd be ecstatic to
be shown to be totally OTL, and have 200 paid attendees show up at the
Radisson (so, I suspect, would Interex). But I would very much like to
know something about the factors (cost? facility availability? internal
conflicts (HP representation)? external conflicts?) that led HP/Interex
to conclude that a 2.5 day IPROF is the way to go-especially with the
last day being on a Saturday.

Steve