On Dec 2,  6:17pm, Wirt Atmar wrote:
> 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.

I think that many people in CSY see IPROF as being valuable to us.  I have
talked to Harry on this issue and, at that time, he indicated that these
are some of the problems of hosting IPROF at Cupertino campus:

  - room sizes: IPROF was growning in number of attendees and number of
    tracks.  We were increasingly having problems getting rooms large
    enough to hold the attendees.  I remember a SIGMPE meeting and an
    Opening Metting held in the cafeteria.  We do have the Oak Rm in
    building 48, which is very large; however, it would be nice to have
    smaller rooms nearby, and we don't.

  - room priorities: the rooms used by IPROF are generally reserved for
    customer visits, and customers having bumping rights.

  - security: escorting the attendees in and out, or paying for extra
    security guards to do the same was a problem.

IPROF grew and it became too difficult to hold it in CSY.  If the
attendance was restricted to some magic number then there may be the
possibility of hosting it in CSY again.  This would still not solve
the security issue I cited above.

I personally prefer it to be in CSY and I see advantages to the attendees,
especially when engineers can come down for an hour here and there; but
they don't when its held in the Radisson. Also, sometimes customer
questions are answered immediately and directly by the engineer expert,
rather than having to say "we will get back to you on that".

> 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.

I think this is fine, except using our cafeteria might be a problem -- I
don't know.  It would be best if we could use our cafeteria so that attendees
would not have to be escorted in and out for lunch.  "Remote" lunches
generally take longer than lunch held at the event.

> Meetings simply don't have to be as expensive as Interex makes them out to
> be...

I tend to agree.  I think a lighter weight model for IPROF is needed.

Just my personal opinions,

Jeff Vance, CSY

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