Re: Impressions of Tri-Ada 97

[rlivings@aisvt.bfg.com (Bob Livingston)]

On Tue, 18 Nov 1997 19:48:30 -0600, Stanley Allen <sallen@ghgcorp.com>
wrote:

>For the benefit of those of us who didn't get a chance to
>go to Tri-Ada this year, can some who did post their 
>impressions of it?

Nice view of the arch...

>  How was the attendance?

Down again - 330 this year.

> The trade show?

Smaller. Lots of consolidation. Closed early. SGI was not there, so at
least you could talk without having to shout over the video games...

> The entertainment?

I left early to watch NYPD Blue. (sorry Robert!)

> The presentations?

Mixed bag - some great, some boring, most in-between

> The panels?

As usual, very good!

This conference definitely had a different feel than those of 5 years
ago. Much less "we got a mandate" arrogance ('cause we don't...). I
was dissapointed by the attendance, but have a feeling that it has
bottomed out or is at least approaching bottom. There was a very high
percentage of foreign attendees, almost as if the foreign interest has
remained stable while the U.S. interest declined.

Next year is in DC, and the name is changing to SIG-Ada '98

An interesting side note: St. Louis was *paralyzed* by a "record"
snowfall of TWO inches on Thursday afternoon. To be fair, it was ice
on the bridges into IL that really slowed things down. I had planned
on staying until Friday anyway, but my colleague had to leave
Thursday. So I took her to the airport (15 minute trip) and it took me
THREE HOURS to get back downtown!

We live in Vermont and she was booked on a flight through Pittsburgh
to Burlington (scheduled arrival 11:00 PM -- Thursday).

Her flight was 3 hours late out of St. Louis, then got diverted to
Harrisburgh where she had to spend the night. The next morning, the
only flight east went to Philly. From Philly, all the Burlington
flights were either canceled or full, and the only thing she could get
was a flight to Montreal. From there, she had to rent a car and drive
2 hours to Burlington where her car was parked at the airport.

I came home Friday and picked up my car (parked in the same lot) an
hour after she did!

Bob