COMMON Question Was: Congrads John Earl!

["John Earl" <john.earl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Larry,


> And John, while you're at it, see what you can do about the continued drop
> in 'content hours' at the conference.....

That's a great topic, and your post to the CET/SME list was thought
provoking as well.  For those who didn't see it, Larry made a persuasive
plea for not dropping content hours for quality technical sessions.
Stipulating that there are some sessions that should be dropped because of
chronically low attendance, poor evaluations, or just flat being off target,
there are some high quality technical content sessions that are being cut
for budgetary reasons.

The formula for calculating the number of sessions at a conference is
simple, if fewer people attend conferences, then COMMON can afford to
present fewer sessions.  At some point this can become a self perpetuating
cycle and spins out of control.  One obvious method of remediation is to
attract more people to the conference.  Attendance has dropped in recent
years, but I don't think that we have a clear idea as to why.  So allow me
to conduct a non-scientific poll.  Could you please take the time to answer
the brief questionnaire below?


True, False or Not-Applicable (T/F/N):  
I have attended at least one COMMON conference since January of 2002.


I thought that the COMMON conference was a good value for the money spent.


I thought that the COMMON conference was a good value for the time spent.


I would attend another COMMON conference.



Multiple Choice:
What is the biggest impediment to you attending COMMON conferences? (Feel
free to rank them if you like).
   A) Monetary Cost
   B) Time Cost
   C) Can't get management approval
   D) Traveling is a hassle
   E) I don't learn anything
   F) The sessions aren't relevant to what I do today 
   G) There is another conference I'd much rather attend (Name it?)
   H) Other _____________________________________________________


I appreciate any feedback that you can provide,

Thanks,

jte


--
John Earl | Chief Technology Officer
The PowerTech Group
19426 68th Ave. S
Seattle, WA 98032
(253) 872-7788 ext. 302
john.earl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.powertech.com 
--