[802SEC] Status of Melbourne Option for March 2012
EC Colleagues
There has been what I can best describe as intense activity since Singapore
to complete a deal for holding the March 2012 Session in Melbourne. Bottom
line, despite our best efforts, it is not going to work.
You will recall that in Singapore we had the basis of a possibly workable
budget. Internet charges were high but we felt those could be worked, we
had not gotten an AV quote so we were using a budgetary figure, and we
needed to get a better sense of HQ hotel options and prices. We already
knew we would have to forgo a social and that many other usual meeting
amenities were not going to be possible. Registration fee estimates were
already stretching the $650 boundary at that unless we did some subsidizing
out of the treasury. Not ideal but not impossible.
The reality turned out to be truly disappointing and frustrating. We were
able to make a lot of headway on several fronts but Internet access charges
went up rather than down with unacceptable service caps and AV plus power
strip charges were off the wall. HQ hotel options were also not very
wonderful but one could work around that to some degree. Forgetting the
service caps, which were unacceptable, the Internet and AV alone would have
added another ~$125 or more in fees. The convention center imposed
deadlines on a decision since they had local business willing to pay full
freight and were unwilling to move on these key issues. Given the already
Spartan nature of what we had, this plus the service caps just made it
unworkable, with no added time to seek an improvement. Reluctantly we had
no choice but to say no and try for a future time.
The back-up we presented in Singapore was the Hilton Waikoloa Village. It
is now the operating plan. At least that is half way to Asia. The deal
there is a completely typical Session with no open issues or surprises and
Buzz was able to get some really fantastic room rates as well. Good thing
since we did not have any other options remaining. Buzz will issue more
details shortly.
Regards
Bob H.
Bob Heile, Ph.D
Chairman, ZigBee Alliance
Chair, IEEE 802.15 Working Group on Wireless Personal Area Networks
Co-Chair IEEE P2030 Task Force 3 on Smartgrid Communications
11 Robert Toner Blvd
Suite 5-301
North Attleboro, MA 02763 USA
Mobile: +1-781-929-4832
email: bheile@ieee.org
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