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I sent the following questions to people I know who have not been to OOPSLA:
  1. Have you heard of OOPSLA (www.oopsla.org)?
  2. What would interest you enough to come?
  3. If you go to other conferences, which ones and why these?

1ST RESPONSE:

I’ll answer this as honestly as I can. Please take the responses professionally.

  1. Unfortunately the first time I heard of it was when you mentioned it at that Deloitte alumni event.
  2. I’ve gotta be honest and say that I probably wouldn’t attend. The truth is that I’m more involved on the business analyst, requirements, and project management side of things. I haven’t coded for a few years so I think others would benefit more than I would.
  3. I attend the usual Microsoft and other vendor conferences (like Cognos) because I’m closely involved with products from those vendors.

2ND RESPONSE:

  1. I heard about OOPSLA in the DRT days and probably a lot more from you and Henry
  2. Seems interesting and would be more interested in going if it tied in with projects I was working on. Good networking opportunities. I'd be more interested if the conference was local or I was sponsored to go.
  3. Haven't been to any major conferences in a couple years; mainly due to cut backs. Have been to a few Microsoft developer type conferences locally in recent years. Also one or two Cognos and Rational sessions as well.

I asked (personally) a couple of people

OOPSLA regulars
if they were comming this year. They both gave the same answer: no.

I then asked why
one said either that they hadn't submitted anything (not just tech papers, also tutes etc); the other that they had but it had been rejected. Neither of them then felt it was worth going without such a reason
JamesNoble.

Got a couple of no's too.

And mine will be a no. And these pages make it a "sad that it may be a no this year". Several reasons -- rejected and no funding, need to renew visa in that period ...

This discussion truly gives hope for a OOPSLA that I dare to recommend. Thanks Dick. MartineDevos

I am getting into this discussion rather late due to just wrapping up a project. I browsed through most of the pages and this one looks like a good place to put my thoughts. Last year was the first year I haven't attended in 10 years (I think). Why? Coming from the industry side, it is getting more and more difficult to justify conference attendance. I have to trains of thoughts here, so I hope I get them both out.....

In the beginning.....OOPSLA was a good place to come learn things. OO was new. Many in the industry looked to OOPSLA as an educational experience. After a few years, the things that were new to learn have diminshed. Also, the people we are hiring now have many/most of these skills out of college. So, what do I go for now? The last few years I got more out of meeting people, discussing ideas, etc., than in learning things. That could continue, except for......

For the most part, the easiest way to justify attending a conference is to have a paper accepted. I've pushed that envelope successfully to include acceptance to a Workshop, giving a Tutorial, being on a panel, etc. But my time to prepare for these things has greatly diminished with my current job responsibilities. Part of this is the schedule. It's a paradox of putting in the effort to have something accepted and not having a guarantee that my company will send me, so is the effort worth it. This is especially true when submissions are due well in advance of the conference.

I also believe that the disappearance of attendance from the industry coincides with the loss of the trade show element. The opportunity to see the what other companies were offering was a draw for us, and, since we had booths to man, we sent more people to the conference.

I don't know that I have any suggestions on how to fix things. What I think works for me are meeting other people, discussing things, Workshops. I should comment on Workshops. I have attended many different models, but the ones I got the most out of (when I wasn't one of the organizers) were those built around a specific topic, but with more of an informal organization. Workshops that were just presentations of papers, and usually a venue for the organizer(s) to push their own presentation, didn't work for me. I liked and appreciated keynotes that were more on the edge of things, and maybe not even from the industry.

I didn't attend many of the paper presentations. I've seen comments elsewhere that match my opinions. I think these presentations need to be less of presenting the paper, and more of a polished presentation of the ideas in the paper.

So to answer the questions at the top of this:

1) Yes, or I wouldn't be here.

2) I'm not sure anymore.

3) Wherever my company sends me, usually to man a booth.

DavidDeLano