[Air-l] Introducing AOIRcamp: Un-conference for IR7.0 goers

[elw at stderr.org]

> I'm not speaking on behalf of the AoIR 2006 conference organising 
> committee, but I personally think that it is unfair of you to position 
> this initiative in direct competition with official AoIR conference 
> events such as the conference dinner. The more people are expected to 
> attend a conference dinner, the less it will cost to stage it per person 
> and the more diverse and rewarding the experience will be.

Maybe unfair, maybe not.

As a non-attendee of 7.0, I'd like to speak to this in another way.

If the (as noted, not inexpensive) conference dinners aren't 
self-sustaining, or if they are "too expensive" for the exec's budgetary 
tastes when not everyone attends - they should simply be discontinued.

Events like "AOIRcamp" should be encouraged - I'd much rather sit around 
and eat triscuits or cheese nips with other researchers and "talk shop" 
than feel trapped by a catering crew's idea of what a dinner should be 
like - and how people should behave.

Competition is a sign that people enjoy the AoIR audience, but don't 
necessarily agree with the way that things are being implemented.  This 
is, above all, a sign that the community is *healthy*, and should be 
celebrated!


--elijah


> On 22/08/2006, at 6:05 AM, "Kevin Lim" <injulim at buffalo.edu> wrote:
>> What is AOIRcamp? This free social event is meant as an alternative to 
>> the other conference events (e.g. $42 conference dinner).