On 1/04/2013, at 10:23 PM, Ian Batterbee <ibatterb@gmail.com>
wrote:


On 1/04/2013 10:14 p.m., Daniel Richards wrote:
I guess the question would be WHY don't the major ISP's take part? What needs to change for them to do so? (Either at said ISPs/teleco's or outside them) 

Throwing in my $0.02, bearing in mind i've sadly not made it to the last couple of conferences;

It's got to come down to buy in. We have to educate the Telcos/ISPs as to the benefits of both sending their staff to the conference, and encouraging their staff to present quality programs. One of the issues I see is that in many organisations who gets to go is decided at the last minute, resulting in many of us being in a position where while we'd like to put together a really decent presentation, we're unable/unwilling to commit to it early enough. We don't have a lack of talented/clueful people in NZ, and hearing the interesting things our peers have been up to / learning new things is always a win. 

Additionally, from an employer's perspective, compared to any course that you can send network staff on it's really really cheap.

Content isn't the only benefit though. As much as we may jest about the nights out together, it's valuable time to catch up and maintain those lines of communication that can be invaluable once in a while when you need to get hold of that clueful person at **that organisation** when the normal channels aren't working.

Cheers,
Tim