Jeff, I think you are right about this when the conferences not only vary
east coast/west coast, but vary locations on the east and west coast.
However, the conferences that I've attended that have gone through one cycle
of this are usually pretty good. eg SANS always seem to alternate East/West
with East coast being in Baltimore's inner harbor and West Coast being
Monterey Bay.
I think the Usenix guys have a great deal of experience with alternating
coasts, and I never had a real problem with it (at least from an attendee
point of view). I would tend to think we could piggy back off of Usenix's
knowledge of alternate sites to take care of this (or another equally
qualified conference organization body).
But on the other hand, I've attended conferences that also switch sites a lot
in general and have found what you said to be true.
Later,
Gunther
"Jeff D. 'Spud (Zeppelin)' Almeida" wrote:
> On Fri, 31 Mar 2000, John D Groenveld wrote:
>
> > Site selection is never going to please everyone, that's
> > why varying it from year to year is the friendliest solution.
>
> Don't confuse "friendly" with "politically expedient". I've been to
> conferences that do it both ways, one static location and
> shaking-it-all-about, and I'd say the ones in a static location are
> generally more user-friendly, even if you have to travel quite a distance
> to attend. Why? The statically located conferences tend to simplify the
> amount of intellectual capital expended on minutiae:
>
> * Airport transportation: what's available, etc.
> * Parts of town to avoid.
> * Things to do after conference hours.
> * Availability and quality of restaurants.
> * Nearby miscellaneous amenities (mall, drugstore, etc.).
> * How to get from point A to point B. (general local geography)
>
> If you spend a week a year in Vegas over a couple of consecutive years,
> you'll rapidly become an expert at "How to attend a conference in Vegas."
> OTOH, if the conference hops from Vegas to Orlando to Kansas City,
> whatever experiential knowledge of the local area you picked up in the
> physical act of attending the conference has little transfer value.
>
> ************************************************************
> Jeff D. "Spud (Zeppelin)" Almeida
> Windsor, CT
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
