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From: philip@Kermit.Stanford.EDU (Philip Machanick)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Developers conference
Message-ID: <1990Apr8.061315.23904@Neon.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 8 Apr 90 06:13:15 GMT
References: <52169@coherent.coherent.com> <4a7WTh_00WB25gdV1X@andrew.cmu.edu>
Sender: news@Neon.Stanford.EDU (USENET News System)
Reply-To: philip@pescadero.stanford.edu
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University
Lines: 31

In article <52169@coherent.coherent.com>, dplatt@coherent.com (Dave
Platt) writes:
> In article <4a7WTh_00WB25gdV1X@andrew.cmu.edu> es2q+@andrew.cmu.edu
(Erik Warren Selberg) writes:
> > maybe Apple only wants what it terms "High-quality" developers, but if it's
> > criteria is those able to pay gobs of money then they are, IMHO, completely
> > brain dead.
> 
> Have you checked out the going rate for private-sector tutorials,
> teach-ins, etc. recently?  I receive a lot of flyers from companies
> hawking "Introductory Excel", "Power Users' tricks in Word", technical
> seminars and conferences on electromagnetic interference, tutorials on
> OSI networking, ISDN, and so forth.  Most of these run at _least_
> $200/day;  many highly-technical conferences seem to run $800-$900 for a
> two-day session.
[Lots deleted]
Yes, but these guys are presumably out to make a buck - Apple claims they
run their conference at a loss as a service to serious developers.

How about a positive suggestion, for a change? If some people are REALLY so
keen to have a low-cost alternative, why don't they do some costing and see
if it's possible? Maybe there are low-cost venues where such an event could
be held (e.g., a university, which could offer premises at a low rate in
exchange for a few free places). What other costs are there that could be
cut? Could someone from Apple comment on what the big-expense items are?
The people who WANT this could do worse than think about how it could be
made possible. If Apple were offered a workable alternative, could they turn
it down? 

Philip Machanick
philip@pescadero.stanford.edu