Hi,
We hope that very many of you will be able to attend this meeting and make it a success. Please, if you consider joining us, use the registration facility that can be found at the website above.
[no mention of any limits whatsoever]
Need I say that I'm seriously p.o.'ed that inscriptions are closed?
Going to Amsterdam on a week-end is synchronized with my family (two small children) and therefore not something to which I will say "count on me" and register within 8 days of the announce. It need be prepared.
I fully understand that it's a private initiative, and that people did not expect 75 people to come (when I was at a meeting in Berlin, we were ~7), yet shouldn't the next thing be to announce that you're looking for a room much larger than 75 places? -- and given that you can count on such many people, a large room should become affordable.
Or shall I know better the next time and proceed to early allocation of resources (I went to Edi's web site long before it was full), so as to be able to desist later? At least, then *I*'d get my seat if I come. Normally, I'm against surch unfriendly allocation algorithms.
Independently of these griefs, thanks to Arthur and Edi for taking the initiative. It obviously shows that there are missing opportunities for Lispers to meet.
Regards, Jörg Höhle.
Hi Joerg,
[no mention of any limits whatsoever]
The web site mentioned the possibility that we might run out of seats (and that it would be first come first served) from the very beginning.
I fully understand that it's a private initiative, and that people did not expect 75 people to come
Indeed. We expected 40-50 persons and I originally booked a room for 50 persons. When we reached 40 registrations within a few days, we realized that we would get more than 50 registrations and I found a bigger room. I reserved the bigger room in the expectation that we wouldn't get more than 70 registrations.
But the growth of interest in Lisp meetings is stronger than even I (famous for my theory that the number of participants to Amsterdam Lisp meetings doubles each time ;-) expected and within a few more days we reached 65 registrations.
At that point we sent a warning to comp.lang.lisp and the eurolisp mailing list that we were filling up very fast and that people should register quickly if they wanted to be sure of a place.
shouldn't the next thing be to announce that you're looking for a room much larger than 75 places?
I'll see Edi next Saturday and we'll discuss this.
There are a couple of reasons why we probably won't do this, though:
- Finding a room takes about a day of my time. I need to search on the internet, call people, go out and look at the room, make calculations to see if we can afford it, etc.
- I don't have any experience in organizing stuff for big crowds. I /have/ organized a meeting for 33 people and I'm reasonably confident that Edi and I can handle 75 people. I'm a bit less confident that we can handle 100+ people without making some stupid mistake.
- Another question is whether we actually /want/ to handle a meeting that big. We're not the ALU, this is not the ILC, and we're still two guys with wifes and kids who have to work to pay their rent.
given that you can count on such many people, a large room should become affordable.
Yes, affordability doesn't seem to be the problem. 25 euro per person seems to be (just) enough to cover the costs for the room and for stuff like a beamer, a projection screen, etcetera.
Or shall I know better the next time and proceed to early allocation of resources (I went to Edi's web site long before it was full), so as to be able to desist later? At least, then *I*'d get my seat if I come.
The best way of making sure you get a seat at a Lisp meeting is by organizing one yourself ;-)
Arthur
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Arthur Lemmens -
Hoehle, Joerg-Cyril