Tuesday, June 06, 2006

SoCG 2006: Day 1 - Da Bizness...

So Jeff Erickson, while not even being here, managed to post a fairly accurate rendition of the SoCG business meeting. This of course means one of two things:
  1. Jeff, having spent many many years attending SoCG, has a keen sense of the pulse of the community and can distill out its essence.
  2. SoCG business meetings are really boring and predictable.
You may draw your own conclusions.

The Erickson-meeting was far more entertaining than the poor substitute for fiction that the real meeting was. However, since I am a dedicated worker bee in this community, I will attempt to add some truthiness to his description.

The heat: It is so hot that apparently someone stole the free sunscreen that the organizers had placed on the registration table. Carola made a plaintive plea for its return. Alon (very defensively) claimed that he didn't expect the weather. To which I say, NO ONE EXPECTS THE WEATHER. It's THREE main weapons are surprise, unpredictability, .... oh never mind.

The drinks: We had drink statistics ! as you might suspect, we are a bunch of effete snobs who only drink imported beer.

PC Stats: Papers get in if you write them on folding, sensors, blah blah, 3-4 authors good, blah blah.

Aren't PC stats fun ?

Next year: In Gyeongju, which we are told repeatedly is the old capital of Korea. It is "apparently" easier to get to than Sedona. You
  • Fly to Incheon airport (50 bajillion hours)
  • Take a bus to Seoul (1 hour)
  • Take a train to Gyeongju (3 hours by super-fast-your-teeth-will-ache train, 5 hours by lets-stop-and-pick-pickled-cabbage train)
phew....

2008:
  • David Mount for DC: I hope someone comes up with a better bid than this
  • Tamal Dey for OSU, looking at his PR material: Is this really Columbus ?
We set the record for the least enthusiastic presentation of new locations. I didn't try volunteering Cuba, and Erik (oh callous, heartless, Erik) refused to volunteer MIT.

Who won ? oh yeah, it was DC, 45/28.

General discussion:
The most listless general discussion section EVAH ! Pankaj, John Hershberger and Carola tried valiantly to create controversy over parallel sessions, and the rest of us drink our imported beers and say 'Pfeh'. Thankfully this ends quickly, with no resolution (What! what did you expect?) and this sad spectacle comes to an end.

I feel nostalgic for short papers.


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