Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!mtxinu!ed
From: ed@mtxinu.COM (Ed Gould)
Newsgroups: comp.org.usenix
Subject: Re: conference refreshments
Message-ID: <759@mtxinu.UUCP>
Date: 21 Feb 89 22:58:34 GMT
References: <219@v7fs1.UUCP> <4429@hubcap.UUCP> <1220@cunixc.cc.columbia.edu> <3688@phri.UUCP> <2610@decuac.DEC.COM>
Reply-To: ed@mtxinu.COM (Ed Gould)
Organization: mt Xinu, Berkeley
Lines: 24

>I suggest that rather than reinvent the wheel -- there's an old cliche, eh? --
>the Usenix planning folks should talk to the DECUS Board and find out how all
>of this is handled at DECUS.  DECUS has been handling 4000 -- 7000 people at
>conferences for a while now.  The breaks work.  The coffee is even pretty
>good. :-) But the point is, it all seems to work well.

I have to disagree.  Having been to several DECUS incarnations, I haven't
found that the breaks really work any better than at Usenix.  From my
experience, they're worse:  I've *never* gotten to a coffee-between-
sessions break before the pastries were all gone.  I've only sometimes
made it to a "continental breakfast" before a tutorial - even when I
was teaching - before the interesting stuff was gone.

The real answer to the problem of vanishing pastries is politeness!  People
need to realize that there are a limited number of Danish available, and
that if the trays are full it's because the bulk of the attendees haven't
gotten out yet.  Use a bit of restraint:  take only one until others have had
their chance.

-- 
Ed Gould                    mt Xinu, 2560 Ninth St., Berkeley, CA  94710  USA
ed@mtxinu.COM		    +1 415 644 0146

"I'll fight them as a woman, not a lady.  I'll fight them as an engineer."