(This is tagged on Norman's post because I was on it when I deicded to add my $20.00 worth.)
There are way too many posts on this subject for me to try and get all the right information and separate out the wrong information. The problem begins with attendees believing the handout was paid for as part of the conference fee. I have all sort of answers to the whining and complaining, not everyone will like the answers, nor do I like them all. But this is a conference put on by a USER GROUP. As was mentioned, SHARE stopped providing free copies to speakers, a small percentage of the speakers. They can choose from: pay for their own handouts, provide no handout, or stop speaking. If they do hand something out they can: provide a full color copy bound in a nice leather jacket or a single page with instructions how to download it from www.share.org. And there are a lot of choices inbetween. The FOUR up does get bad-mouthed, as does TWO up. If a particular speaker has not heard, good for them. There are also comments lots of speakers notes should be provided. I once paid, out of my pocket, more for handouts for the three sessions I presented than the conference fee. I also once printed all of my copies at home, expensing paper and ink to the job, and it was less than staples. This time around I handed out FOUR up duplex (two pages total) sample REXX code with a pointer to www.share.org for the presentation and my own website for downloading code samples and of the 40 attendees, none of them complained on the session evaluation. The online proceedings get copied to the DVD you can buy. Sadly, not every speaker believes in submitting their presentation. So you can buy the DVD, but that does not mean you get ALL of the sessions. And even worse, some speakers only upload a page directing you to their website so ty can harvest your email address before you can get a copy. Do speakers over-estimate how popular their session will be? NO! Handout hogs still roam from room to room grabbing handouts, making it hard to have enough for the people who actually stay and listen. Why? Either they are too lazy to download a pdf (or thee won't be one). I spoke to one attendee at the handout buffet table and she was grabbing things of interest to write her conference report. If you didn't go to the session, why not download as many pdfs as you want, visit local attractions, and write your report anyway. Some attendees still need two handouts, one for a friend back at work. The friend can't use a copy of the attendees handout because it has notes on it. Talk about not sharing. Some speakers have no idea how many people will show up. If any of you can provide a number to them, do so six weeks before the conference. I schedule and I have no idea. We do not force attendees to pre- register for sessions. My crystal ball has never provided a number, so I make my best guess-estimate and send it to the speaker. Room size is not an indicator of how many floaters will grab and go. Don't even suggest waiting until five minutes before the session begins to hand them out is an answer. I have watched people sit up front where there is a greater certainty of getting a handout, receive one, and dash out to another room. There are many styles of writing notes. One really does not NEED to write on the handout, one WANTS to do so. I stopped taking handouts three years ago. I figured out I can take a piece of paper (SHARE used to provide a pad) and write down the session number, the foil number, and my note. As long as the presentation is uploaded, I can refer back to it. My notes get typed up and the paper gets thrown away after the conference. For thse with laptops and long battery life, there are PDF viewers that let you take notes on the PDF!!! IT people are the worst at accepting change. Ridiculous for a group of people who keep changing things other people work with. I was working in IT during the 1980's when the paper-less office trend started. Paper sales are going strong. I do encourage people who are collecting handouts to consider downloading them. Those who need two copies can make a copy when they get it back to the office, or either download it and print two copies or download it twice. I don't know the best answer, certainly making attendees realize this is a USER group conference and handouts are not part of the conference fee is part of it. Your scheduler may try to spread your sessions out, only to have things adjusted at a higher level, and not so many free days end up helping you attend the entire week for free. There is a balance for free days and paid days at which point the full-week speaker fee is the better choice. Increase your odds by presenting for many projects. There are a very few attendees who claim if there is no handout that they will not attend a SHARE Conference. I hear (rumors) that there are other major conferences that do not have handouts. So these few attendees won't be going there either. Others counter that those presentations all have to be uploaded in advance of the conference. The z10 sessions could well have gone that route. (Under MVS SCP all but one were uploaded during the conference.) The answer to HOW is to present them six months later! So watch out for what you demand. If the material must be uploaded a month before, then the material will be presented up to six months later. Like I said earlier, I don't like all of the answers either, but there are answers. Even if they are all uploaded ahead of time, are these attendees who want to write on the paper going to preselect, print, and ship handouts to the conference? Not likely. If they are all uploaded early, are yu going to come to the conference? And if you aren't, why should they be uploaded? These struggles will continue as SHARE, a USER group, continues to maintain its roots of USERS sharing their EXPERIENCES with EACH other. Commenting/complaining to SHARE is worthwhile. I encourage the non- complainers to write too. Surveys of only bad-mouthing responses does not show how many happy people are out there. If 95% of the attendees have a problem with no handouts then something needs o be done. If .001% are not happy, the solution is very different. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
