What to see and do at Linuxcon

[mdulcey at pryder.pn.com (Mark J. Dulcey)]

On Wed, 31 Jan 1996, Mike Bilow wrote:

> I am really appalled by the idea of turning the Megameeting over to a
> professional trade show producer.  I go to that crap all the time.  My God, I
> even had free passes to "E-Mail World" a couple of months ago!  We do not need
> yet another one of these things.  The BCS should not be in the business of
> playing a captive audience.

I'm appalled, too.  Not that I have anything against commercial shows; I 
attend some of them.  But the Megameeting served a different need, and I 
think that the community we served with it will be ill served by a 
commercial venture.

Some key differences between the Megameeting and a typical commercial 
convention:

1.  Lots of space, and good space, was available for BCS groups to show 
their stuff.  At a commercial gathering, we typically have one small 
table in the worst location in the hall.

2.  Costs for the vendors were low compared to a commercial gathering.  
This made it possible for emerging companies to exhibit.

3.  You didn't have to pay hundreds of dollars extra to attend the 
seminars.