lively@sunybcs.uucp (Richard S. Lively) (07/19/89)
One thing I would like to see considered for future conferences is student housing. Boston, for example, would appear to have been an ideal opportunity to accomdodate this request, given the proximity of BU, BC, MIT, Harvard, etc. Many students that I talked to at Graphics Interface were passing up SIGGRAPH because either they could not afford to pay for housing out of their own pocket or grants would not completely cover $100/night hotel bills. Other large conferences, such as AAAI, have recognized the situation of students who must face increasing conference costs while seeing little or no increases in graduate student stipends. Although I understand the convenience and exposure available at big cities such as Atlanta, Dallas, Boston, and Las Vegas, usually it carries along with it a higher cost of living. Although I find the $155 registration fee for students a bit steep, I cannot argue that at SIGGRAPH you get more than what you pay for. It is one of the best run and most entertaining conferences I have seen. The real problem is housing. For example, 3 nights at the Lafayette (my assigned hotel) is 1/20 of my yearly salary. At GI, dorm rooms at Univ. Western Ontario were $15/night. Although that might be an unfair comparison, I think that SIGGRAPH might consider attempting to provide some reasonable alternative for its less financially secure members. I would be interested in hearing from other students who share this opinion. If there is substantial agreement, I will forward the information to the conference committee for consideration. Maybe some progress can be made for future conferences. Rick Lively SUNY Buffalo
subramn@cs.utexas.edu (K. R. Subramanian) (07/19/89)
In article <8022@cs.Buffalo.EDU> lively@sunybcs.UUCP (Richard S. Lively) writes: >One thing I would like to see considered for future conferences is student >housing. Boston, for example, would appear to have been an ideal opportunity to I strongly agree. Its very expensive as a grad student. Its hard to come up with $700-800 (maybe more) out of your pocket for a conference. Its the premium conference in graphics, no question about that. K.R.Subramanian Dept. of Computer Sciences The University of Texas at Austin Austin, Tx-78712. subramn@cs.utexas.edu {uunet}!cs.utexas.edu!subramn
harrison@cscadm.ncsu.edu (Lou Harrison) (07/19/89)
In article <8022@cs.Buffalo.EDU> lively@sunybcs.UUCP (Richard S. Lively) writes: >One thing I would like to see considered for future conferences is student >housing. I agree that student housing would be a bonus, but have you considered becoming a student volunteer? In exchange for labor, you can get free conference attendance, free room, and, some free course notes. Granted, the whole package requires 30hrs of work, but student volunteers get many fringe benefits (the people manning the card readers last year were student volunteers, and are more than sympathetic to others). >Although I find the $155 registration fee for students a bit steep, I cannot >argue that at SIGGRAPH you get more than what you pay for. It is one of >the best run and most entertaining conferences I have seen. This year, I have a grant that is paying for one course ($115), and hotel for the conference. Flipping through the program, I saw two or three papers/panels that I thought would be interesting to attend. However, I am not willing to pay an additional $155.00 just to sit in on a couple of panels. I wouold like to see individual tickets available for purchace that allow the user (if already a conference attendee) to go to a limited number of papers/panels. These tickets could be available to everyone, but I suspect that the idea would be more well recieved if the tickets were available only to student members (since full members are usually on expense accounts). I have enjoyed being a SIGGRAPH student member for the past few years, and it is a thrill to meet and listen to the people responsible for the quality of the Computer Graphics being generated today. I hope that I can continue attending SIGGRAPH even through the lean times when I'm not supported by a grant at all. Lou Harrison (harrison@cscadm.ncsu.edu) N.C. State University Computer Science Dept. Box 8206 Raleigh, NC 27695-8206 The comments expressed above are the sole responsibility of the author and do not represent the opinions of the administration of North Carolina State University, or the Computer Science Department.
foo@titan.rice.edu (Mark Hall) (07/19/89)
In article <8022@cs.Buffalo.EDU> lively@sunybcs.UUCP (Richard S. Lively) writes: >One thing I would like to see considered for future conferences is student >housing. Boston, for example, would appear to have been an ideal opportunity to >accomdodate this request, given the proximity of BU, BC, MIT, Harvard, etc. > >Rick Lively >SUNY Buffalo SIGGRAPH is already doing something of this sort. The student volunteers have access to just the sort of program you are talking about. Working 35 hours gets you free accomodations. Working less hours gives you free admission to essentially everything, and the availability of housing at BU. I highly recommend being a student volunteer. You get to see a lot of interesting "behind the scenes" details, meet lots of people, and the price is right :^). - mark
foo@titan.rice.edu (Mark Hall) (07/19/89)
In article <23@brazos.Rice.edu> foo@titan.rice.edu (Mark Hall) writes: > Working 35 hours gets you free accomodations. Working less > hours gives you free admission to essentially everything, and the > availability of housing at BU. > Before I get corrected, there are other details to the student volunteer biz. Various numbers of hours can qualify a student to recieve other materials, like proceedings, art show catalogues, course notes, etc. The subject was "housing" so I was vague about other benefits. - mark
andrea@hp-sdd.hp.com (Andrea K. Frankel) (07/20/89)
In article <3434@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu> harrison@cscadm.UUCP (Lou Harrison) writes: >However, I am not willing to pay an additional $155.00 just to sit in on >a couple of panels. I wouold like to see individual tickets available >for purchace that allow the user (if already a conference attendee) to >go to a limited number of papers/panels. These tickets could be >available to everyone, but I suspect that the idea would be more well >recieved if the tickets were available only to student members (since >full members are usually on expense accounts). $soapbox_on HOLD it, guys. I have lots of sympathy for your student budget blues (having been there myself), but lemme tell ya something from the "real world" - days of unlimited "expense accounts" are damn near gone. In case you haven't heard, the high-tech industry has not been raking in money hand over fist like it used to, and "lean and mean" is the byword of the last few years (and most likely, the next decade as well). Many companies, perhaps most, go through periods of rigidly controlled expenses in order to get their profit margins back to reasonable when the orders fall off or the competition drives the prices down. I saw something just the other day indicating that Sun has told employees to cut down on long-distance telephone calls; here, I can't even order a manual until November without getting N levels of signature. Conferences are useful but not critical; they develop employees, but don't directly contribute to getting product out the door. When times are tight (which seems to be 50% of the time any more), requesting a one-day registration with two nights of hotel/food vs. full registration with a week of hotel/food really does make a difference as to whether management will sign that travel request. $soapbox_off But ANYway, I think the idea of selling individual tickets to specific panels available to ANYbody who has registered for at least one day of conference or one tutorial is an excellent idea! Maybe it could even be structured as a "bare registration" which includes just getting in the door of the dog-and-pony show plus the right to buy individual tickets, and some sort of discount structure for buying multiple tickets. Andrea Frankel, Hewlett-Packard (San Diego Division) (619) 592-4664 "wake now! Discover that you are the song that the morning brings..." ______________________________________________________________________________ UUCP : {hplabs|nosc|hpfcla|ucsd}!hp-sdd!andrea Internet : andrea%hp-sdd@hp-sde.sde.hp.com (or @nosc.mil, @ucsd.edu) CSNET : andrea%hp-sdd@hplabs.csnet USnail : 16399 W. Bernardo Drive, San Diego CA 92127-1899 USA
lively@sunybcs.uucp (Richard S. Lively) (07/21/89)
In article <23@brazos.Rice.edu> foo@titan.rice.edu (Mark Hall) writes: >>SUNY Buffalo > > SIGGRAPH is already doing something of this sort. The student > volunteers have access to just the sort of program you are talking > about. Working 35 hours gets you free accomodations. Working less > hours gives you free admission to essentially everything, and the > availability of housing at BU. > > I highly recommend being a student volunteer. You get to see > a lot of interesting "behind the scenes" details, meet lots of > people, and the price is right :^). > > - mark This is a good suggestion that has been made by several others as well. Most of the students who have responded to me by e-mail have indicated that there were so many good papers at the technical sessions that they did not feel they could sacrifice the 35 hours. From having been a student volunteer at other conferences, I have to admit that you do not have anywhere near as much freedom to attend talks. This may not be a fair assessment of SIGGRAPH, however. rick (lively@cs.buffalo.edu)
MAGIS@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (07/21/89)
> In article <8022@cs.Buffalo.EDU> lively@sunybcs.uucp > (Richard S. Lively) writes: > One thing I would like to see considered for future conferences is student > housing. Boston, for example, would appear to have been an ideal opportunity > to accomdodate this request, given the proximity of BU, BC, MIT, Harvard, etc. > ... > I would be interested in hearing from other students who share this opinion. I agree wholeheartedly with this idea! I am fortunate enough to have an assistantship that provides for my attendance at professional meetings and conferences, however, I would much rather stay in a dormitory and free up funding for additional conferences and technical publications. Has the SIGGRAPH Housing Committee ever considered this option? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pamela Magis I-NET: magis%tisl@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu Univ. of Kansas B-NET: magis%tisl@ukanvax.bitnet