Donald Neal wrote:

In July of last year I posted to this list asking people to express their preferences between one of two different formats for an NZNOG gathering for this year. As I described them then, the options were:

2/ The University of Waikato

Personally I prefer above option. I want to stay away from domain name registration and internet governance talkfests which we can now expect to be a major thrust given the recent change of leadership in Uniforum. Technical stuff + Beer = Good regards -- Peter Mott Chief Enthusiast 2DAY INTERNET LIMITED http://www.2day.com "Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something!" Thomas A Edison - To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog

HI all Attendees - the story. Firstly there was a question about how many people who were out of auckland and how many are within. David Mill, are you asking about nznog attendees or people within the mailing list (who are the target audience of nznog). I mention nznog attendees as most of the time there was a core group who were active in the nznog mailing list and attended the nznog streams. There were groups of attendees. For example the U of Waikato contingent was strong (10 - 15). They drove up to Auckland. There were seemed like quite a few but perhaps it was their larger than life (or high profile). After all without them we'd have been without that wonderful wireless network. [1] South Islanders were very few within nznog. IIRC they were from Nelson, Queenstown (or thereabouts), Chch and Dunedin. I am sure people are going to send me email saying they were left out of the list etc. I am not trying too hard to recall everything. In terms of companies people worked for the following industry players were represented: Telecom, TelstraClear, Citylink, 2day.com, Iconz, Intel, Erricsson, Allied Teltsyn, Esphion, Cisco No one (that I can recall) from Auckland based ISPs like Orcon, Attica/Callplus, Web Internet/Maxnet, Walker Wireless, Zip, Tangent or Xtra. I am quite happy to be corrected if I am wrong. No I am not trying to make people uncomfortable but I wonder if the groups attending and those not attending tell a story in themselves. It would be nice to hear from those who didn't make it the reasons why they couldn't or decided not to attend. What factors made you decide not to attend or were a barrier to your attending? content of programme? Was it of no interest? Or too basic? Or too advanced? Or did you have not enough information about it to decide whether or not you were interested? date and time? location? cost? work? (eg project coming due etc) Was it because it wasn't the type of conference the decision maker would understand about? Was it because it was in NZ? Don't laugh but I have had views expressed to me often that some people don't think they can learn anything from a conference in NZ and would happily pay thousands to go to a conference overseas. This is prevalant both within academia and commercial sector. Would you consider paying for yourself to attend if your employer declined to cover the cost? I think knowing these things would help the organisers of nznog and/or uniforum. Perhaps if it was lack of information, someone could get together with the nznog organiser and put together a glossy flyer so you have something to show the manager when asking for funding? What sort of info do you need in it to convince the decision maker? Would going to Waikato reduce the likelihood (ie the fact it was on a lower budget scale and so didn't look as credible? The no frills way is quite nice for people like me who end up paying for myself to attend as I go for substance rather than rah rah rah and gloss.[2] However it could affect how the decision makers decide on whether to fund their staff going. Waikato consideration I actually quite like this option but I think one has to be realistic about the costs and what is involved. While cost is very low in terms of registrations, if certain things aren't included, they will still be added costs (but just not seen upfront in the registration fee). What I am trying to say is there were frills that we could have easily done without (eg satchel, pen and paper) and yet others that we couldn't. Let's take meals as an example. In the Uniforum option, you know that what you pay covers all meals. The Waikato option requires you to factor in your own costs. However since you still have to eat and that you are likely to be buying your food (whether directly or indirectly). Firstly for something as intense as NZNOG was, self catering for meals doesn't seem practical (unless everyone brings their own packed sandwich or filled roll in the morning). The discussions at lunch and other breaks are often very useful. Self-catering means people will go out to buy something from the fastfood place nearby, a possible queue at the microwave (if there's one), etc. That may mean making it harder to re-gather the group after a break. Anyway I think setting it up so everyone eats together for lunch (ie catered meal or cafeteria) is a practical option. However the meal and other food costs doesn't have to be as expensive as a hotel provided meal. So tea breaks could be easily catered for by someone going to the supermarket before the conference starts each day to pick out tea stuff (eg muffins, scones, pull apart breads etc) and even bags of cookies and biscuits. electric kettle for hot water, disposable cups, tea, coffee, sugar, milk and stirrers. The other thing I would have is fresh fruit (apples, mandarins, bananas, etc). You definitely need a watercooler or two. If it is one of those that needs refilling(as opposed to the ones connected to a water supply) , then perhaps some refills too. There were many bottles of water at the back of the nznog room last year. They were refilled often. Having bottles(or jugs) of water were not ideal as the need to be refilled more often. The bowl of mints were popular. Not hard to provide. What I am trying to say is if this is held in Waikato, you should seriously consider providing the morning and afternoon teas and factor it in as part of the cost. If the Uni cafeteria isn't open then I also suggest looking at catering options. They don't have to be expensive. Lunch at $10 per head is easily found. I am sure the cost could be driven to down as low as $6 - 7 per head. It won't be elaborate. Just edible and filling. Suggestions for either Waikato or Waipuna Conference website I think we should consider asking all presenters to allow their papers or presentations to be put online. That will negate the need to worry about proceedings being printed (or CDs being compiled and written). If organisers are worried that that would detract people from attending because they will prefer to get it online rather than attending the conference, then ways should be found to overcome this problem. Most conference proceedings can be purchased by non attendees for a fraction of the price of the conference. That hasn't stopped people from attending those conferences. Universities put their courseware online still have students enrolled and paying fees (probably because they want the qualifications). What about having a site where logins can be issued to attendees and people who purchase a login? Similar to a non attendee buying the proceeding. Obviously not all presenters will want their papers put online. For example Paul Vixie came with a whole lot of presentations and did his workshop based on what the audience wanted him to cover. He has declined to have any of those presentations put on the CD. The CAIDA presenter had something similar to his presentation on the caida website (well it was where when I looked after the conference - not looked at it recently). Presentations not available: In fact the organisers should find out before the conference who will be giving their presentations to be put in the proceedings (book, CD or website) and who won't. The ones not going to be in the proceedings should be tagged as such in the programme so attendees know they'll need to take notes rather than assume it will be available in the proceedings. Seating - I think we were a bit cramped in that room that the NZNOG was in. Chairs were eventually spaced out a bit more. Perhaps have a section for people who didn't have laptops as I know one or two was annoyed about the tapping of keys on a laptop. It wasn't that bad once the people were made aware of how loud their key tapping was and the ones who were distracted by it moved to sit elsewhere. That is easily engineered as the people with laptops often need a power point when their batteries run low and so having multi plug powerboards only in certain areas would solve the problem. It would be ideal if there was a big fridge or vending machine where we can get coke (diet or normal), V, and other popular drinks. That is one thing both Centra and Waipuna will be lacking unless the organisers organise this as well (don't forget that oasis is just about across the road from Waipuna. Perhaps they can come to the game). I am sure waikato uni will have heaps of vending machines around. Like there's jukeboxes, portaloos etc for rental, there's probably someone out there who installs vending machines at special events. IIRC coke was either from the bar or restaurant at Centra and people wanting V/Redbull/favourite non alcoholic softdrink of the time etc had to walk to the shop next to where we had our thursdaynightcurry meal (only a short walk if you knew the shop existed) regards Lin [1] I am not going to start listing all of those who donated time and things to the conference. I am sure the conference organisers would have thanked them for their help and pitching in even at last minute (as is the case of the wireless network and the packeteer) [2] In fact I would very much rather avoid the conferences that are very corporate, advertorial, and wishy washy. Lucky for them there's people who are wililng to shell out thousands to go to those. - To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog