On Thu, Feb 15, 2024 at 10:30 AM, Lee Howard <leehow...@hilcostreambank.com> wrote:
> > > I’m jumping on an earlier part of the thread. > > > > Based on what I heard at the Members Meeting and several follow up hallway > conversations, I think: > > > > - NANOG needs a focus group on attendees. A survey won’t do it, we > need a deep dive into roles, interests, career level, and why they attend. > - Somebody or somebodies should be specifically tasked with following > up with every one of the 120 newcomer attendees to ask what it would take > to get them to come back. Our conversion rate to repeat attendee is a key > performance indicator. There’s a great Newcomer Orientation just before > conference opening; let’s have a Newcomer Lessons Learned at the end. > - Poll attendees on relative importance of location, registration fee, > programming, side meeting space. Iterate based on comments (location = > airport? Hotel? Nearby amenities? Proximity to home?) > - Survey sponsors. I give feedback to staff and occasional board > members, but there’s no clear way to gather information. > - These should be sent to the Members in advance of a Members Meeting > to discuss. Needs more than 20 minutes of a 45 minute meeting before main > programming. > - Consider empaneling a Mission Committee to review NANOG’s mission > and how to fulfill it. > > > > > Other thoughts, which I couldn’t submit in a survey or find another way to > send to the board or staff: > > > > - I suggested in San Diego and now bring to the list: the last item on > the agenda should be 15-30 minutes of “What are you taking home from this > NANOG?” > > - Helps remind people what value they got > - Lets us know what people found most valuable (Specific sessions? > deals done? Trends in hallway topics?) > - Solidifies for people what they can offer their boss as the value > of sending them to NANOG > > - We should look into cooperating with other network organizations for > meetings. WISPAmerica, NRECA, NTCA, Fiber Connect, SCTE, IETF > - ARIN has a help desk in the main hall. Allow other sponsors to put > up a Help Desk. Put up a sign showing which company will be there for which > half-day increment. I think a lot of attendees would find value in the > ability to sit down with a senior sales engineer at their favorite router, > optical, or intelligence vendor to say, “Here’s my problem,” even if many > of those conversations resulted in “Let’s schedule time to discuss in more > depth.” > > - Price it like BnG—you’re getting ½ day of visibility, less > distraction than meal/break sponsors > - Require swag to be incidentals like pens and stickers—if you’re > getting a mad rush of people, you’re missing the point > > > > > > > We actually had an IETF "Help Desk" at NANOG 63 (San Antonio, 2015) and NANOG 64 or 65 — https://www.internetsociety.org/blog/2015/01/chris-grundemann-nanog-63-talking-bcop-ietf-and-more/ and https://www.internetsociety.org/blog/2014/11/operators-and-the-ietf-update-from-ietf-91/ We hoped to answer questions such as: “Why should I participate in the IETF?” “How do I get involved in the IETF?” “What is the difference between an Internet-Draft and an RFC?” “How do I submit an idea to the IETF?” “What is the IETF working on in <foo> space?” “How do I comment on an existing IETF document?” <your question here> This was (IMO) quite successful, and I personally thought that it benefited both the IETF and NANOG. We had hoped to continue this series, but NANOG moved to wanting to charge the IETF for a sponsor table[0], and, lacking funds, we stopped. W > This can’t all be done in time for Kansas City, but maybe some of it can > be. Given that hotel contracts are negotiated two years in advance, I > figure we have about two years to get this right before it’s too late to > steer the ship away from the rocks. > > > > Let me close with: I think we have an excellent board, all of whom love > this community and have spent years thinking about this. The lack of a CEO > is a problem soon to be resolved, and that will help support the already > excellent staff. There are themes we’ve been hearing for several meetings > in a row, and I know the board is giving them a lot of thought, and I’m > just trying to support those efforts from outside the board. > > > > Maybe this should have gone to the members mailing list, but I couldn’t > find one. > > > > Lee > > > > > > > > *From:* NANOG <nanog-bounces+leehoward=hilcostreambank....@nanog.org> *On > Behalf Of *Warren Kumari > *Sent:* Sunday, February 11, 2024 2:50 PM > *To:* Mike Hammett <na...@ics-il.net> > *Cc:* nanog <nanog@nanog.org> > *Subject:* Re: NANOG 90 Attendance? > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > You don't often get email from war...@kumari.net. Learn why this is > important <https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentification> > > > > > > > *This message is from an EXTERNAL SENDER - be CAUTIOUS, particularly with > links and attachments.* > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > On Sun, Feb 11, 2024 at 8:31 AM, Mike Hammett <na...@ics-il.net> wrote: > > > > > > > I haven't been to a NANOG meeting in a while. While going through the > attendee list for NANOG 90 to try to book meetings with people, I noticed a > lack of (or extremely minimal) attendance by several organizations that > have traditionally had several employees attend. I've also noticed that > some organizations I had an interest in were only sending sales people, not > technical people. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > There have been a few changes - part of this is driven by post-pandemic > decreased travel budget in many organizations, part by industry changes and > consolidation, but also a fair bit seems to be because the tone of NANOG > has changed and become much more of a polished, sales-y feeling event than > it used to be…. > > > > > > > > Here is the current NANOG agenda: > > > > > https://www.nanog.org/events/nanog-90/agenda/ > > > > > > > > Here is the agenda from 20 years ago: > > > > https://www.nanog.org/events/nanog-30/nanog-30-agenda-2/ > > > > > > > > This time I've received at least 6 phone calls along this line of "Hi, I'm > [person] from [company]. We are a NANOG sponsor and we'd like to personally > invite you to a very special [breakfast/lunch/dinner] with our [CEO/CTO]. > They'd love to explain how we can solve your > [security/inventory/DDoS/automation/documentation] needs…" > > > > > > > > There would alway be business stuff done at NANOG, but it used to be more > along the lines of "Hey, we have too much traffic in [location]. I saw you > have a cage in [location] too… If I hand you an Ethernet, can we peer > there? Great…" or "So, I have a Foozle-1205 with the Turbo-forwarding(R) > option, but when I configure hyperspace-bypass mode, fire comes out…. I > know you also use Turbo-forwarding(R), but it looks like you still have > your eyebrows. Any hints? Oh… cool, I didn't know that you could use > wormholes to avoid the hyperspace issue. Ta." > > > > > > > > W > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > How long has this been a thing? > > > > I remember when I attended years ago that there simply wasn't enough time > to meet with technical people from all of the organizations I wanted to > meet with. Now the calendar is looking a bit dry. > > > > > > > > > > ----- > Mike Hammett > Intelligent Computing Solutions > http://www.ics-il.com > > Midwest-IX > http://www.midwest-ix.com > >
