Ok - I wrote all of the rest of this and then it occured to me. "I talk too much" There are hundreds of you on this list and it's the same ones talking all the time. Either you all agree with us, you are too scared to pipe up or you just don't care. In reality it's probably none of these. But do get some input. You can't come across any more crazy than Juha =) Anyway, I said I talked too much, I didn't say I was about to stop doing it. On Fri, Jan 11, 2002 at 10:03:47AM +1300, Donald Neal wrote:

1/ Do we wish to restrict this to one day, or are we looking for a residential conference? I think this is the most important of the decisions. It has implications for cost, obviously, but also for where we do this and what sort of organisational structure is needed. A residential conference should probably be outside (though within reach of) Auckland or Wellington to keep costs down and to reduce the temptation to go back to work. Conversely, that can be expected to make it harder for some people to attend. I'm assuming that we do want a national event rather than local meetings over drinks, but if that's not the case, now's the time to say so. I'm also assuming that multicasting is an add-on to a physical event, not a substitute for one.

Hmmmmm resisential, but I have some issues. One of the things that I want to see out of this conference is that it fosters interest in 'up-and-coming' network people. I never want this to turn into an old boys club, nor do I want it to be restricted to people from the few large companies. If you have a 3-4 day conference in Auckland, then a Wellington company will send one or two people if they are a large company, or zero if they are small. I want a conference where everyone can come along and not feel like they are not welcome there. I want the guy who works on the helpdesk but likes to play with networks at home to be as able to front up as the CTO of a major carrier. Lofty goals I know - but this is the time to start. How do we do this? well I don't really know. But the cost has to be low. I'd say ditch the overseas speakers if they want free airfair etc. There are enough inteligent people in NZ who can contribute to this. It would be great to see overseas people there, but which would you rather see. a) Room full of only the people who can fly to anywhere in the country and pay $400, all drooling over the latest International Guru? or b) Room full of anyone who wants to attend, all on an equal footing, all learning from what each other has to offer. Which one of these fits the culture of this list better? There have been times in the past where it has been mooted that the list be closed or a new one created that just allows "Major Network Operators" access. This is one of those times, and a direction needs to be chosen. Well that or Donald needs to tell me that it's not an "either/or" thing again and I get to sit down and shut up =)

2/ Are we happy to have a vendor provide a venue? There has been at least one quite feasible, as well as generous, offer from a vendor. Whether this is even an issue depends on the answer to the previous question.

Nope - Absolutely not. In no way, shape or form. At all, ever Well ok - but only if it's Juniper and no other vendors can have any logo's there. Well ok - small logo's but they are not allowed to give away any stuff, and the venue has to be called "Juniper Wonderland". Well alright, I'll ditch the name. And I spose that other vendors might be able to give away small things, as long as none of them is in any way cool or useful. And I have to be able to get up and make a huge speach about how good our gear is and what our corporate direction is. Alright, alright. I won't talk. You can have it at a Juniper facility. I'll let any other vendor give away whatever they want and advertise however they want. And make no demands on what they can and can't do. (This does not constitute an offer for a Juniper facility) But my point is made. *puts on vendor hat* I would not mind having it at a vendors venue. But it has to be a level playing field. I've been told before that I can't give stuff away at a vendor's venue. This goes against the spirit of the thing and will be unacceptable this time. Vendors can be strange beasts about branding and corporate image. Vendors making offers of venues should do so out of goodwill and not advertising. They should also be VERY open to the idea of allowing competeing vendors equal access to advertising/branding space *takes off hat* See the can of worms this opens? Do you see now? =) *takes pills, calms down*

3/ How often are we planning to do this? Should we be thinking big on the basis that this is a once-a-year thing, or are we trying to keep the scale down so that it will be repeatable more often? This is closely related to cost, in money and time to organise. See also question 1.

I'm torn. *one hand* A big one is really the way to go *other hand* IF we try to organise it and it ends up being too big for us, then it will just suck. Is there somewhere in the middle that we can start for the first year?

4/ How much emphasis do we want to place on construction of a laboratory/exhibition network as opposed to paper sessions? More hands-on fiddling means the option of having attendees have stuff explained to them as they do it, but requires a longer event.

Interesting thought. A large hands on component would be good. Don't want this to turn into a vendor bake-off though. Someone mentioned before that there would have to be a network there for people to use while they were there. Well having set up a Uniforum network one year can say that it was hard work. Nowdays that venue's have a bit more wiring it could be easier, but I think wireless is the go here. (What? Dean wanted to use wireless? He said it was insecure) Yeah yeah yeah. But so is any conference lan. So here's what I want. I want a vendor/company to come forward and offer to lend us some base stations. Offer to lease out cards to people who need them. And I also want a telco/ISP to cough up the free connection for the duration. There - thats not too much to ask is it? =) Dean - To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog