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From: bill@LOGICON.ARPA.UUCP
Newsgroups: mod.computers.vax
Subject: RE: DECUS Communication
Message-ID: <8607112106.AA16122@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: Thu, 10-Jul-86 11:22:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.8607112106.AA16122
Posted: Thu Jul 10 11:22:00 1986
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While I have no answer for your question on commercialism, I do have
some comments about the reduced attendance and so many first-timers.

I have attended a single symposium, the spring 1982 one in Atlanta,
I found it very useful and was able to get answers to most of
the questions that I had.  Unfortunately, it appears that our
management feels that attendance at these functions is too expensive
to be taken out of overhead.  So, if it isn't directly chargeable to
a contract we are unlikely to send anyone.  I suspect that a fair
number of companies take the same view.  The symposium which I attended
was in fact charged to a contract because the customer agreed that
the symposium was a good place to find answers to some questions which
we had at the time.  Also, some companies seem to view attendance at
a symposium as a kind of reward, and send different people each time
to avoid charges of favoritism.  Taking the rate of turnover in this
industry, in general, into account, it is not surprising that a large
number of attendees are first-timers and may not stay with the company
long enough to attend again.

I have transferred to a different department since I went to the 
Atlanta symposium, and now don't work with DEC operating systems
anymore.  We have four machines, with a fifth on the horizon, all
running different versions of UNIX.  So now I find myself in the
same boat with respect to UNIX conferences.  With the number of UNIX
machines we have we should send someone to at least one of the 
UNIX conferences each year, but we haven't sent anyone since I
attended the june 1985 USENIX conference in Portland.

In talking to people at other companies who are principally government
contractors, I have found a similar attitude.  That is, if it can't be
legitimately charged to the contract, no one is sent.  Some companies
send people who are more marketing oriented, and I suspect that if
you check you will find a fair number of repeat attendees who fall
into this category.

Lastly, the budgeting cycle of the company may affect the decision,
a couple of times in the past we have wanted to send people to 
symposium/conferences but it was too far into the quarter/year
and there weren't any funds available.

Hope this wasn't too long-winded, and that I wasn't just telling you
things you already knew.

				Bill D'Camp
				Logicon, Operating Systems Division
				San Diego, Ca

****Disclaimer: I am not an official spokesperson for Logicon and the 
opinions expressed above are strictly my own.