[Conferences-discuss] shh....

[Andrew Dalke]

Paul:
>Those of you who have never taken part in running a conference have
>absolutely no idea how much is involved. Even the "small" conference at
>LLNL was a significant amount of work for us.

I've helped run several conferences in the 15 to 150 people range,
and saw some of the organization for a 300 people conference.
I didn't think it was all that hard, but they were decidedly low-tech.

Eg, the largest one was held on a university campus, with a single
track.  Food was only breaks (coffee and cookies, handled by the
schools' services) and a box lunch.  No reception, but there was
a poster session.  Only materials handed out were nametags and a folder
with a photocopied list of attendees and the schedule.  No useless
tote bag, no T-shirt (which would have added about $10-$15 to the fee.)
It did help that it was a satellite of a larger conference, so many
people decided to come a couple days early.

Let me say again, I find tote bags one of the most worthless tchotchkes
I get at conferences.  I would not be sad if we did not get one next
year.

I've been more involved with conferences in the 100 range.  In
one case, the biggest problem was we wanted to set up our own
servers locally, and provided computers for people to log in.  (This
was before a lot of people had laptops.)  At the others, the venues
could handle more people than we had, so was readily able to provide
the food and A/V needs.

On the other hand, there were things at this conference that I
haven't managed, like a press room.  I also haven't managed multiple
tracks - everyone was in the same room, and there was no need to
break the room up, move seats around, etc.  There were rooms for BoFs,
but they didn't have projectors.  Like I said, low-tech.

>The lightening talks were fantastic. Anybody can stand even a horrible
>talk if it stops soon, so ref'ing these is not needed IMHO. I got a lot
>of info in a short time. This needs to be part of the main conference.

Agreed!  (Except I haven't been to them for a couple years.)  I even
introduced lightnings talks to one of the conferences I help run.  :)

                    Andrew
                    dalke@dalkescientific.com