On Mon, 9 Jan 2012, Doug Hughes wrote:
Given that LISA moves from city to city each year, does it really need to
pick the city more than a year in advance? You do want to be able to say at
LISA one year where the next one will be, but do you really need to know 3+
years ahead?
yes, because there's usually only one hotel in that city that meets all of
the criteria during a particular time, and because Usenix runs a lot of
conferences, not just one, and because Usenix can only run more one big
conference at a time, and because arranging for all of the tutorial
instructors, registrants, paper presenters, keynote requires a defined date
many months in advance. Keynotes sometimes require a year.
the point was that you negotiate with several cities and pick the one with
the best terms 'just over' a year in advance.
In the past it may have been the case that there was only one hotel in
each city that could hold LISA, but with the drop in attendence in recent
years I don't think that is the case any longer.
SCALE (now about a 1800 person conference with similar meeting requirements
to LISA) is limited to one metropoliton area (Los Angeles area) and is
booking hotels between one and two years out. This year it did end up with
the date shifting a bit more than normal, but LISA has moved around as much
as well. SCALE doesn't get hotel rates that are a lot better than LISA (but
they do seem a bit better), but it is charging far less for the conference
(and therefor buying fewer hotel services to go with the room block). A
couple of years ago SCALE did fail to meet the room block but that was in
the depths of the resession and the hotel was happy enough for the
increased business that they waived the penalty.
scale is a bunch of people running only 1 thing. How similar? Are we
quibbling about 2 years vs 3?
It's hard to understand how volunteer run conferences are able to do so
much more with so much less money, the full year's salary of the staff does
not account for the difference (and shouldn't be charged against one event
in any case)
I think, if you tally up the spaces (in terms of number of rooms) and number
of attendees that you'll find you aren't making an equal comparison, and if
that is true, then the conclusion is somewhat lacking a basis. Some of the
scale organizers are on this list. Maybe they will add some data.
on friday there are 11 tracks going at once, on the other two days there
are 9 tracks plus the expo floor
it may not be quite the same, but it's in the same ballpark
Do you really think that Usenix hasn't thought about all of this? Have you
ever talked to them? (I think if you were to answer yes to the first question
you would have to have answered no to the second)
This entire thread reminds me of the people in coach arguing about the
pilot's choice of runway (when really it's not much of a choice once you know
what airport you are going to)
Yes, this is people venting frustration. I actually have discussed the
issue of costs with Usenix people, and gotten the same answers that
everyone else has gotten. they sounded plausable to me when I was first
tole them, but as I've been learning more about how other conferences are
run, i'm questioning it more.
Other people who have posted in this thread have claimed the same
experiences.
This may just be a matter of "it used to be this way" and Usenix has been
around long enough that it has the instatutinal knowledge and training to
keep doing it this way, but the best option may have shifted. The fact
that other conferences are using the same hotels for better prices is at
least as compelling as my picking scale as an example.
David Lang
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