On Thursday, Jul 3, 2003, at 20:28 Canada/Eastern, Simon Lyall wrote:
I have got the impression back that a reasonable number of people are not going to go this year. I'd be interesting in knowing what reasons you have for not attending and what sort of event you would and could attend.
Feel free to send me private email and I can summarise to the list. I'm not in the business of organising these sort of things so I'll keep any feedback anonymous.
At other *NOG meetings I've been to, people seem to find it worth attending more or less regardless of the content being presented, or the cost (I know several people in the US who have been unemployed for a year or more, and yet still religiously attend the NANOG meetings, paying out of their own pockets). The presentation/workshop programme and/or opportunity to showcase products or services is the management justification for being there, but there's still a lot of personal and business benefit to just being cooped up with a bunch of other operators in a hotel with little else to do but talk and drink beer. It only takes a chance five-minute conversation with someone else which results in a new transit deal, some new cost-sharing strategy, a peerting session or even a new job, and suddenly the cost of the hotel bill and the conference fee look like pretty good value for money. Joe