On Sun, 24 May 2009, Dave CROCKER wrote:
It's rarely just a matter of "the hosts chosen location," but what is
available at a given time and what is suitable for an IETF meeting in
So, in this economy, you think that the choices were severely restricted 15
months from the time the contract was made?
If you are talking about venues in the Netherlands, yes. The IETF is a
relatively BIG meeting, The Netherlands is a relatively SMALL country
at least in terms of convention venue space (including hotels).
In the case of The Netherlands (where the major sponsors for this meeting
are based), it's a choice between maybe 3 possible venues and, no they don't
care which one nor are they the sole decider.
Starting with the assumption that it has to be the Netherlands -- no matter
how nice that country is -- is already a problematic constraint, if it
produces problematic choices. Link host to venue -- at all -- and this is
what happens.
It's not that it HAS to be The Netherlands, but that is where Drew
found a (number of) host sponsors in this particular case. I would
hardly characterize a 3-4 hour train journey as "problematic" if you
consider what other venues the IETF historically has used.
In the case of Japan, Hiroshima would not necessarily have been the #1
choice if they had been given the option to host "any year", but this wasn't
the case for that particular meeting.
Another example of the problem with linking host to venue.
Well, Dave, the host is WIDE a very major networking organization in
Japan and hardly one we could "avoid" if we want to meet there, and
of course we would be very foolish to try to avoid their gracious
support ;-) That kind of limits the venue to "Japan" (which by the
way includes Okinawa, but I digress...) Beyond "Japan" there is no
tight linkage between a given venue and this host. And, again,
characterizing this as a "problem" I think is a gross exaggeration.
Coming from Tokyo to Minneapolis isn't exactly a single hop either
if you want to consider another case.
Right. If we are serious about choosing "convenient" venues, then
Minneapolis well might not qualify, no matter its other benefits.
It would be interesting to see how many people actually think
Minneapolis is "inconvenient". I can think of a lot of pros and cons
of the place (especially in winter), but getting in and out has never
seemed like a major problem from my point of view. Sure, not a single
hop, but I'll be departing for Sydney in a few weeks and that's REALLY
far away...
Ole
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