RE: Recovered Yet ??

I was disappointed in the conference.

Not a lot of sessions that I wanted to go to.  In the past, I've usually had
more than one session during each hour that I wanted to attend.  This time,
I found myself looking for something interesting.

Room sizes were horrible.  By Monday afternoon, I had been shut out of 3
blowouts.  A total of 9 blowouts for me.  I started going to every other
class or leaving some early to get to the next one early.

On Thursday morning, I skipped the 8am session (not too hard) to attend the
next session on distributing spool files to the internet.  It was a blowout,
but I had a seat.  Too bad the speaker never showed.

90 minutes for lunch was too long.  30-45 minutes would be better.  I would
prefer they eliminate it all together.  I thought I remember reading that
lunch was created to increase traffic at the expo.

The expo seemed boring.  A lot of salespeople were jumping into the aisles
to drag you into their booth.  That bothers me.  They didn't really want to
talk to you as much as get your business card or fill out a form to win a
free Palm Pilot.  Boring!

A contact of mine who had a booth at the show said traffic was very light.
I thought so too.

I did not attend CUDS because it was always so boring.  I will do that next
time.

San Francisco was not much of a city.  Very expensive.  Everytime we sat
down for lunch or drinks at the hotel, it was $40 or $50 bucks.  (There were
4 of us).  One of our co-workers ordered juice and coffee at the hotel and
it was $5.  I actually went to tourist central Fisherman's Wharf and ate at
"Bubba Gump's Shrimp Co" and it was cheaper than downtown.

I hated flying 3000 miles to go to Common.  Why do they favor the west coast
for their conferences?  Anaheim, San Fran, etc.  East coast conferences are
few and far between.  They were in Boston 3 years ago.  Baltimore next year.
Why can't they always alternate east coast/west coast, or east/west/central?

We're putting off Common until New Orleans 2001?  We're going to try an IBM
Tech conference or something next.

Personally, I would love it if they could have it in New Orleans every year,
that would suit me.  :-)

Art Tostaine, Jr.
CCA, Inc.
Parlin, NJ  08859


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-midrange-l@midrange.com
> [mailto:owner-midrange-l@midrange.com]On Behalf Of Bob Randall
> Sent: Monday, March 15, 1999 10:09 AM
> To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
> Subject: RE: Recovered Yet ??
>
>
> Before I rant and rave a little, I want to go on record as
> having learned a
> little and basically enjoyed the conference. Some of the
> presenters were
> very approachable, and I feel like I made some good contacts.
>
> This was my first COMMON, and I felt a little "out of place".
> I did not
> really feel I got into the group, but being off-site from the main
> facilities stymied my desires to walk back to CUDS and other
> late events.
> The split between facilities for events was also a problem. I
> did not find
> some of the Marriott things like the communications center,
> book store, and
> B-O-F postings until Wednesday! A little late for a couple
> B-O-Fs I would
> like to have attended.
>
> I thought the mentor program sounded interesting, but I have
> not heard any
> about how it went. I did not realize how much was happening
> on Sunday, my
> mistake, I wish I had flown in a day earlier. I felt like I
> was catching up
> all week after arriving late Sunday night at the hotel.
>
> I will echo other comments about "expensive" and "dirty" and
> say I do not
> plan to re-visit San Francisco for a long time to come. I
> have attended
> other conferences there, and frankly do not have much
> appreciation for the
> site. But enough about that.
>
> My bad/sad comments boil down to I did not like the location,
> and I did not
> do my homework to get started the day I should have. As I started this
> message, I still garnered some help for my situation. There were a few
> sessions I would like to have seen that I didn't. I especially was
> interested in the webmaster session that got cancelled on Friday. Oh
> well,,,,,
>
> I will likely attend again, but maybe after trying out the
> IBM Technical
> Conference. I will register earlier next time so I can be
> closer to the
> facilities, and get in a day earlier to get settled.
>
> Bob
>
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-midrange-l@midrange.com
> > [mailto:owner-midrange-l@midrange.com]On Behalf Of Jeffrey
> Silberberg
> > Sent: Saturday, March 13, 1999 11:41 AM
> > To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
> > Subject: Recovered Yet ??
> >
> >
> > Hey,
> >
> >         If any of you COMMON attendees have recovered from your
> > travels how
> > about a dissertation on the conference, Mom, and CUDS.
> >
> >         :-)   JMS....
> >
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