Re: Why Was IOUG Attendance So Low?

I agree that the economy is the major factor this yaer as the cause for the lack of attendance.
 I attended the SEOUG conference in Charlotte N.C. a few months back because I could afford it and it had some presenters that I know I would get valuable infromation from. The attendance there was not what I expected with all of the fine presentations going on. It appeared to be low by the number of empty seats in the hall and meeting rooms.  I could not afford the IOUG conference this year and my company will not pay for training out of state.
Ron

>>> optimaldba_at_yahoo.com 05/07/03 02:27PM >>>
I recall an article posted several months ago about the Hotsos Symposium. The gist was that the training dollars are being spent on more focused events and less on general conferences, like IOUG.

For the past several years, the content of IOUG was somewhat lacking. However, this year, the content was excellent. Most of the time, it was difficult to decide what to see. With fewer new people entering the Oracle world, the need for introductory presentations has declined. It seems like the more advanced sessions really packed in the people. In order for IOUG to reverse the trend, they need to continue to improve the content. Techies and Management need to see the value in sending the employee away for a week and paying a couple of thousand dollars in expenses.

The attendance at RMOUG this year was down (for the first time) about 10%, which was not unexpected considering the economy here in Denver. One reason we are able to keep our attendance up is the low cost. Most people are local, so no travel expense. The full price of the conference is less than $500 (including 2 sit down lunches). We do attract attendees from elsewhere, but the overall costs of Denver are much less than Orlando (for example).

-- 
Daniel W. Fink
http://www.optimaldba.com 



Orr, Steve wrote:



>Repeating... 

>Why was IOUG attendance so low? 

>

>Economics? Fear of travel? User saturation? Mismanagement? 

>All the above?

>

>Didn't RMOUG enjoy better attendance? Why?

>

>If it's truly an "International" conference then after Toronto maybe

it should be held in Texas.  :-)


>

>

>Sharing an international border with our Canadian friends...

>Steve Orr

>Bozeman, Montana

>  

>



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