Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[Michael Winslow Czeiszperger <michael AT czeiszperger.org>]

On Saturday, September 28, 2002, at 06:39 PM, Linda Watson wrote:

> Did anybody go? Could it possibly be worth $20 for just the last day?

Its impossible to say how much you value $20 :-) I was able to walk 
through and see everything in about 40 minutes on Friday afternoon, and 
ended up getting my money back for the unused bag of peanuts. The heat 
on Friday was terrible, since the event isn't air conditioned but the 
weather was better on Saturday, so you never know. There were some 
mildly interesting things on the schedule, but not compelling enough 
for me personally to either pay for or attend. Do you really want to 
pay an extra $16 to hear a single lecture on PDAs, or see a vendor 
presentation?


The event had some bright spots like the local robotics group 
demonstrations and the LAN gaming, but overall it was pretty amateurish.

On the other hand, the descriptions of the "experiences" on the web 
site looked interesting-- its just there didn't seem to be anything 
happening when I was there on Friday. If you really want to go, see if 
you can find out if there's a talk you'd be interested in seeing before 
going, and bring your own food if you're going to be there at lunchtime.

Here's a glossary of terms that might help:

Experience - Circus speak for presentation that costs money. A typical 
vendor presentation is an extra $12-$16
Attractions - Events that don't cost money.
Peanuts - Tickets, $4 a pop. Theatre - Group of chairs

Here's some humble suggestions for the next time:

1. Train the workers. I went to the Maya "theatre" and the workers 
there couldn't tell me what Maya was. The response was "I think its 
software".  I had to boot up my laptop and use the wireless network to 
find out.  It was hard to pick up my tickets since I purchased them 
online.

2. Give out a schedule and map at the door so the customers can find 
their way around. The schedule should include not only times, but a 
couple of paragraph descriptions of the events, short speaker bios, and 
the cost.

3. Put up signs on each venue so that the customers can tell where they 
are. The signs should be large enough to see across the room, and 
mounted higher than 6 feet high so they can be seen even if there's a 
crowd around it.

4. CLIMATE CONTROL

5. Provide food

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michael at czeiszperger dot org
Chapel Hill, NC