Nick asks about IPROF:

> SOUNDS great, Wirt, but who would pay the freight?  Registration,
>  meals, etc.
>  cost.  HP has made it plain that it does not want it on its
>  campus.
>  Meeting space costs somebody.

Is that really true that HP doesn't want IPROF on its campus? IPROF benefits
HP at least as much as it does the attendees. If that's so, and not just the
opinion of one or two people within HP, then I would suggest revisiting the
issue with HP.

As to the other costs, I've always believed that people who are intelligent
enough to find their way to Cupertino are intelligent enough to find their way
to the cafeteria or offsite eateries. This allows these costs to become
completely external to the costs of the meeting.

Meetings simply don't have to be as expensive as Interex makes them out to be.
Indeed, I've gotten in the mode that if the registration expense for a meeting
is much over $25/day, I won't go.

In that regard, I just attended a meeting at the Univ. of Calif. San Diego
called CalPEG '98. You can see the registration costs at:

       http://www-biology.ucsd.edu/calpeg/fees.html

and the general nature of the talks at:

      http://www-biology.ucsd.edu/calpeg/schedule.html

For all practical purposes, CalPEG is the equivalent of IPROF in almost every
way, other than obviously the central topic -- and the costs involved.

Wirt Atmar