[Conferences-discuss] What happened?

[Laura Creighton]

I don't understand this part of  Kevin Altis' post:

> I'm a bit concerned about both conferences being around the same
> time of year, but since it is the summer maybe it doesn't matter? 

If you anticipate people travelling from far distances, then you
either schedule one conference directly on the heels of another, and
perferably a short train/bus ride apart, so people can plan on coming
to both with a minimum of disruption in their lives, or you 
schedule them far enough apart that people have pleanty of time to
recover from one before they have to make plans for the other.

I know many people in Europe who attend OSCON whenever possible.  They
might attend IPC if they could do it in one trip (though Pittsburg/
San Diego is not close). Spending all July going to and from Python
conferences is not an option.  

You are going to want papers at both conferences, no?  Then you will
either have to accept the same papers at both conventions -- or you 
will set up a double standard -- 'if the paper is any good, I will
submit it to OSCON, if they reject it I can always submit it to
IPC'.

Students and others who cannot ask for time off like conferences in
the summer because that is when they can be sure to attend.  But
people who can ask for time off to attend conferences, or whose
companies pay for them to attend conferences dislike summer 
conferences because they conflict with their vacation time.  (To
be sure, they can ask for vacation time sometime else -- but their
families often cannot).  I don't know the demographics of the
potential IPC attendees, but it would be a good question for the
poll.  I suspect a question 'Summer conference : strongly like,
like, makes no difference, dislike, strongly dislike' will produce a
V shaped graph with most entires on either end -- but it might be a
check-mark, or a check-mark-made-by-a-left-handed-person.

Laura Creighton