lou@fortune.UUCP (Lou Katz) (12/10/83)
I have met with Mike Florio, President of /usr/group regarding a number of details on the upcoming conference. There is a real problem with the space for technical sessions at the confer- ence hotel: the space is an oval shaped room seating about 3000, which can be subdivided into a center space holding under 2000, and two end pieces holding about 700 each. The conference coordinating company (PEMCO) is attempting to find out in advance what the EXPECTED attendance at the sessions is, so that proper setups can be arranged. However, at conferences they have run in the past, they have used some sort of ticked dodge to administer attendance. This procedure is NOT satisfactory for EITHER group, and Mike Florio is just as opposed to it as we and you are! He is contacting PEMCO to tell them that such a policy will not be allowed, and I think you can all expect to attend any mix of papers you wish ... However - there may be a REAL space problem (we don't know yet the size of the audience nor its mix) which may mean that you can't hear a paper you'ld like to because you just physically can't get into the room! Those talks for which the consent of the speaker is obtained will also be taped by some commercial taping company, and casettes will probably be available at the conference for talks you wanted to hear but didn't. Please let us know if you continue to get hassled, as that is NOT part of the plan. Lou Katz, President, USENIX Association.