🚀 go-pugleaf

In <1992Jun29.042129.21793@softway.sw.oz.au> peterc@suite.sw.oz.au (Peter Chubb) writes:

| I've just received the conference announcement for the AUUG winter
| conference...

I'm not goint to attempt to defend the presentation, grammar, etc,
of that thing, however ...

| No preliminary program, so I can't decide whether I want to go or not

You don't need to, that's not its purpose, no-one is really expected
to decide whether they want to go yet or not.  This flyer is (I think)
intended just to let people know when the conference is on, and give
them a way to indicate they want to be sent a copy of the registration
forms when they're ready.

| As a matter of interest, are there any invited speakers for the
| Technical stream? 

Yes.  The technical area should be fairly good this year (I hope).
I suspect (apart from the mentality of some of the people preparing
the brochure) that two of the reasons for including just those three
(who incidentally are invited speakers in the sense only that they've
been "invited", not in the traditional AUUG sense of having their
expenses paid, which still prevails for some of the more tech people)
are first that this thing is aimed more at non-traditional auug conf
attendees, for whom "exec of big name company" means more than name
of some competant individual, and that these kinds of people, more
so than tech people, need their egos stroked...

| The pamphlet says to register now to save $50 or more -- but gives no
| details.  

Its real intention is just to get some idea of likely attendance, and
to get a smaller list of people to whom the (much larger and more
expensive) full conference brochure should be sent.   I'm not certain
whether AUUG members need to send in the form on that in order to
get the next mailout (I hope not), but if you're even vaguelly considering
going I'd fill it in and mail it back.   Note that the "save $50"
cutoff deadline is Aug 28, which is still quite a long way away yet...

| I expect that the conference itself will be more worthwhile.

I think it should, but then I'm a little biased, since I was part of
the programme committee that put it together.  Obviously not everything
will appeal to everyone (that would be impossible), but I think there
will end up being enough to keep everyone happy.

Apart from guaranteeing you'll get the full registration mailout,
sending that form back will help make the conference better, by
allowing better planning for room allocations, ...

kre