On Thu, 24 Aug 2006, Jamie Baddeley wrote:
I may be a wee voice in the crowd, but I'd like to complain about the date selection. I realise that there's NANOG timing conflicts and Uni space is cheap at that time of year etc etc, and there's a vast array of circus ponies to corral, but of the 12 months in the year why does it need to be January/February?
Uni space being available and cheap is actually a big factor. Just about any other venue will want to charge us a lot more for the venue *and* they will require us to use them for catering and the like ( At least $40 per head per day for coffee, snacks and lunch). Having University halls available also means that people can (if they want) stay close to the venue for ~$50 per day rather than at least twice that in hotels. Also little things like Universities have fatish Internet links ( NGN might even be live in Massey by then? ) and staff who are used to "informal" student types rather than suits. Have a look at http://ws.edu.isoc.org/calendar/index.php for some background on the exact date. Early January is holidays, mid January clashes with SANOG. Early February is NANOG. Mid-February (before APRICOT) might have been an option but it depends a bit on exactly when the University starts going live for the year. Any later than that and we start squeezing into University Holidays (and Halls are not an option). Please remember that NZNOG *is* a fairly low cost conference and we recognise that price is an important factor for many participants. NZNOG 2006 it wasn't in January/February so it doesn't happen then every time. Seriously though it *is* a bit late to post this now since everything is booked and announced. As Joe suggests could you expand your argument a little so it can be taken into account in future. However other than the date and venue things are still pretty open if people have opinions on the event and what they would/would not like to see. Personally I'm going for lightning talks at a time other than first thing in the morning after the conference dinner. Disclaimer: Speaking for myself (ignore the "we" word) as somebody who has been on the org lists for a couple of years. YMMV, IMHO, IANAL etc. If another organiser says something different they are probably correct. -- Simon J. Lyall | Very Busy | Web: http://www.darkmere.gen.nz/ "To stay awake all night adds a day to your life" - Stilgar | eMT.