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OSCON: mechanics 11 Comments More | Login | Reply /

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  • The biggest issue I had with OSCon this year had nothing to do with the conference team, but with the venue itself.

    It was a wee bit inconvenient having everything layed out vertically. In San Jose, Monterey, and San Diego, there were many more opportunities to network because you could see someone down the hall, walk over and start up a conversation. This year, not only was it easy to be spread out across four levels, but the horseshoe configuration on LL1 didn't help. Going to Salon I felt like a trek

    • I would have liked a ladies' room on the main conference level. There was also a lack of general sitting space - the lobby didn't offer much space and there were very few tables outside the speaker room.

      But it was nice being able to walk down to the riverfront at night, and out to places to eat.

      If given a choice, I'd prefer to have some light breakfast provided at the conference rather than lunch.

  • In a place such as Portland, where there are lots of places to eat close to the hotel, I'd prefer to get my own lunch.

    On the other hand, I'd gladly pay extra for an OSCON t-shirt. :)

    -Matt

  • That the convention was in a hotel within easy walking distance of restaurants, ice cream, and liquor stores was a big, big win for OSCON 2003. In a perfect world, there would have been a better mingling place for attendees. I think the lobby area on LL1 needed to be utilized better in some way (although I found that camping under the stairs was particularly useful for socializing). The LL2 lobby was just dingy and had no chi flow. The terminal room was just too darn far way from everything.

    I had a mor

    • I had a more positive experience with OSCON 2003 than others

      Sorry if I sounded too curmudgeonly above, but I did have a good time too. Portland is great, and being back downtown again is a huge win. Twelve hours a day in that hotel started to grate on me towards the end of the week...

      I don't think there is an ideal hotel for OSCon. The Fairmont was great, but it's way too small now. Now, it's a case of picking priorities. This year's venue is obviously addressing years of feedback and fixing thi

      • I don't know what others think, but the hotel in Monterey had both a great location and a good layout (from what I remember of it all those years ago!). I'd love to go back to Monterey.

        Though I must get this in: Make the date in August next year! I can't go to OSCon unless it's in August now my wife is working full time - she just won't let me visit the west coast without her - and you can't blame her.

        Of course I realise that August is probably much more expensive :-(

        • If the current location pass muster, we're looking at July 26-30 in 2004. Confirmation of that will come within a month. No August, sorry!

          Can your wife escape in April or May? The Emerging Technology conference [oreillynet.com] is then, and might provide a convincing west coast escape excuse. Similarly for the Mac OS X Conference [oreilly.com] in October. If you can get her to the west coast then, you might be able to slip off to OSCON without her later :-)

          --Nat

  • My talk was standing room only also, but I sort of like the intimate feel of the smaller rooms.

    If anything, I think people enjoy the sessions more than the tutorials, regardless of room size. With tutorials, you have to register specifically for that, so you feel stuck, or feel that you've wasted half a day if the tutorial turns out to be not so good.

    With sessions, the speakers are forced to get to the point quickly, so your time is better spent, plus there is a lot more to choose from, and you're fr

    • Things look much better when the rooms are full than empty, but I frequently found that if I wasn't in a room five minutes before the talk started then it was impossible to get a seat. Sometimes I'd end up bouncing from my first choice, to my second choice, and finally end up standing in the back of my third choice. In general, the only sessions where I could get a seat were the giant Perl talks, like the Perl 6 Preview or 9 Views of Dominus.
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