Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!sequent!mntgfx!rreed
From: rreed@mntgfx.mentor.com (Robert Reed)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: Impressions of Siggraph 88 (booth scum)
Message-ID: <1988Aug22.155858.364@mntgfx.mentor.com>
Date: 22 Aug 88 22:58:51 GMT
References: <1079@ucsd.EDU> <14349@hc.DSPO.GOV> <1051@imagine.PAWL.RPI.EDU>
Reply-To: rreed@mntgfx.UUCP (Robert Reed)
Organization: Mentor Graphics Corp., Beaverton OR
Lines: 23

In <1051@imagine.PAWL.RPI.EDU> franklin@turing.cs.rpi.edu 
  (W. Randolph Franklin WRF) writes:

    This year's technical reception was much worse than earlier years
    when they occurred in museums.
    
Though this year's reception was not the best I can recall, it
certainly was less crowded than last year in Anaheim.  I do agree
with you on the museum angle, though.  The best I've been fortunate
enough to attend was in Boston at the Museum of Science, followed 
by the reception at San Francisco's Museum of Natural History.
Detroit, Dallas and Minneapolis were all in either hotels or
business centers, and all suffered from severe overcrowding. Dallas
was probably the worst (remember the Infomart?), followed by the
"dessert and Irish coffee" sardine session at the Detroit Ren Center.

    Has SIGGRAPH's attendee size peaked?  

I sure hope so.  I don't know what the numbers were, but it seems
that we've stabilized around 25-30K or so.  I heard a rumor that a
lot of people avoided this year because it was Atlanta.  We'll
find out next year in Boston.  I have noticed that we don't seem
to be swamping convention facilities anymore.