Re: [802SEC] 802 Plenary registration fees
My $0.02 which is only worth about $0.01 in the US :)
1) Raise the fees to $300/350.
2) I have had discussions with some members where they claimed
that if 802 were to have an increased meeting fee cost for
those who stay off-site then, they might be able to convince
their companies to stay at the main hotel if the net was cheaper.
However, if you do the math, this would mean charging an
attendance fee of $500 to $800 for off site attendees so
that the corporate bean counters can see that staying at the
main hotel (or the overflow hotel) is the best deal.
The problem I have with this sort of fee structure is
that I do have some people attending on their own dime
and the extra $$ would present a barrier to attendance.
I suspect a flat adder of $100 might be ok, but it will
clearly not cover the sort of shortfall we had in vancouver.
3) Cookies. I know that we can't do this given most hotel
contracts, but given what hotels charge for one cookie, we can
go to the grocery store and buy a BAG of cookies for each
attendee! Personally, an Oreo is way better than most of what
is served! While food is not necessary IMO, caffeine sources
other than coffee or tee are appreciated!
4) Most of my people would be ok with no social.
5) My people do like lunch, and at interims enjoy the more
formal meal. That being said, having a fresh box lunch is
often good enough. There have been numerous occasionals
where the hotels (at the last minute!) managed to pull together
a fine box lunch for about $6 or so a person. Oddly enough when
they have weeks of prep time the price doubles! My group
appreciates the convenience of some kind of quick grab lunch
at plenaries and frankly I think we should insure all hotels
do have these lunches available. I have no issue with polling
my group each day to determine how many people will want the
lunch for the next day. This gives the hotel some time to
react.
mike
--
Michael Takefman tak@cisco.com
Manager of Engineering, Cisco Systems
Chair IEEE 802.17 Stds WG
2000 Innovation Dr, Ottawa, Canada, K2K 3E8
voice: 613-254-3399 fax: 613-254-4867