Officially Unofficial Advice to New Attendees of LISA

"Casual" is the operative word. At the first LISA one of us attended, his wife remarked, "Everybody here is dressed like you." Many people, including instructors and speakers, wear t-shirts and jeans. One year, one of us counted the number of ties he spotted during the conference—grand total, 3. If you want to get dressed up, the reception would be the best time. Of course, if you're job-hunting, you may want to have some dressy clothes on hand.

Bring a long-sleeved shirt or something medium-weight to put on over your t-shirt or take off later—one room may feel hot to you, the next may feel cold. Conference rooms are very hard to get "just right" for everyone.

In addition to clothing, you will want:

• Your laptop, wireless (802.11b) card, and power strip
• Notepad or notebook paper and pens/pencils
• Business cards to hand out to colleagues
• Extra luggage or room in that luggage for printed proceedings, if you choose that option, and for any booty from the vendor floor or tourism
• Gym clothes if you want to work out
• Swimsuit if you want to swim or use the hot tub
• And maybe your camera

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Yes.

In the conference area

USENIX provides wireless Internet access and offers a terminal room and a laptop drop room during the conference.

In your room

The hotels we use have in-room wired Ethernet access. Check with the hotel for details on exactly what they provide.

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If it's just you for the conference, probably not. Most of our venues have access to good public transportation or at least reasonably inexpensive shuttle service between the conference facilities and the airport, and we tend to choose venues with restaurants within walking distance.

If you're coming in early or staying late, or bringing family, you might like to have a car available. It depends on what the venue is, how far away the tourist areas are, and what you and your family want to see and do.

Bottom line: Most attendees manage just fine without a car.

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The hallway track is the groups of people in the hallways (and restaurants and bars and so on) during the conference. They're the informal sessions of interpersonal networking.

You'll get a lot more out of the conference if you start up conversations with folks you run into. If you are taking tutorials, make it a point to chat with others at your lunch table. Exchange business cards, phone numbers, email addresses. This is a tremendous opportunity to find out what others are doing with similar challenges in completely different organizations. It's how one of us found out he was one of a large number of folks using Amanda for backups.

Those who aren't new attendees are encouraged to make an effort to draw newcomers into their groups, so don't be shy: everyone was new once upon a time, and most people can remember back that far.

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Tutorials: Yes, with certain restrictions. If you are unhappy with your tutorial session, you can switch to another tutorial at the first break; just go to the conference registration desk and ask whether there's a vacant slot in the tutorial you'd prefer.

Technical sessions: Yes. The goal is for you to have the best conference experience possible. Don't hesitate to move from one presentation to another in the middle of the session, but please try not to disturb others. If at all possible, wait until the end of a presentation, or sit by an aisle if you think you may want to leave in the middle. (The speakers can't see you—the bright lights are shining at them.)

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There are a couple of different ways to do this. The most common is to ask a question in the Q&A at the end of the session. Please go up to the microphone! Speaking loudly doesn't work for everyone, and even if the presenter can hear the question, in larger rooms the audience can't.

Another way is to meet one-on-one with the presenter after the session. Many of the presenters of papers and invited talks have agreed in advance to make themselves available after their session (through the break and possibly beyond) to answer questions and provide more information.

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Talk to the people around you. You'll be near them when going into sessions that haven't yet started, when leaving sessions that are done, when getting your coffee or danish at the breaks, at the tutorial lunches if you're taking tutorials, in the halls heading to and from sessions, at BoFs, and at the social events, such as the Welcome Get-Together and the Conference Reception. We recommend that everybody make it a point to talk to at least one new person a day, and not to eat all your meals with the same group of people.

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Ask! It's always okay to ask people you're chatting with (during breaks, in the hallway track, and so on) if they're up for a meal with you. It's also okay to ask a group if you can join them—but please do ask first, and please be gracious if they say no. (It's most likely nothing personal; they may be uncomfortable in a large group, they may be going to a fixed-count reservations-required meal, it may be a working meal . . .) If someone asks to join your group, don't feel you're required to say yes—you're only required to be polite, whether you say yes or no.

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Oh, boy. There are usually (small to large) groups of people who decide to go out to dinner, either in the conference hotel restaurant or somewhere nearby. The conference packet usually includes a list of convenient restaurants. Most conferences have Birds-of-a-Feather sessions (BoFs) most nights, from around 7 p.m. through 11 p.m. Some nights there's a reception of some kind (like the Welcome Reception and Conference Orientation, usually held on the Saturday night at the start of the conference, and the big Conference Reception, generally held on Thursday evening. See the activities.html page on this year's LISA Web site for details on BoFs, receptions, and other activities.

Depending on interests and location, some folks go to the local community to do something touristy. Some folks hang out in the hotel bar, socializing with other attendees and extending the hallway track. Some folks use other hotel amenities (gymnasium, pool, hot tub, etc.).

We strongly advise you not just to go back to your room, order room service, and watch the tube. You'd be missing out on a lot.

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Birds-of-a-Feather (BoF) sessions are informal gatherings of persons interested in a particular topic. They typically meet for an hour on a given evening. Any conference attendee can attend or host a BoF. To schedule one, either contact bofs@usenix.org before you arrive, or check with the registration desk at the conference. Topics and schedules, along with unscheduled rooms and the number of people each can accommodate, are typically posted near the registration desk, as well as on the conference Web site.

BoFs can be either technical (e.g., "Mac OS X," "Backups Are Dead!," "Large Filesystems: Breaking 2TB Limitation") or nontechnical (e.g., "Settlers of Catan," "Bisexual, Lesbian, Gay, Transgender, Intersexed, and Friends," "'Is There No Help for the Widow's Son?' Conspiracy Theory, Loonie Fringe, Libertarian Meetup"—no, we're not making these up).

Meet with your peers! Present new work! Don't miss these special activities designed to maximize the value of your time at the conference. BoFs are great ways to meet like-minded people in a social setting.

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The conference is long: six days of tutorials overlapping three days of workshops and three days of technical sessions, with events running from 9 a.m. into late evening.

Take a nap if you can—the days can be very long, but plan on staying up late. If you just go to the daytime sessions, you will miss a lot of the value of the conference! The social activities start on Saturday evening, BoFs start Monday night, the Keynote is going to seem awfully early on Wednesday morning, and you won't get much of a break for the rest of the week.

Some people choose to sleep in on one morning and miss the first tech session, or to nap instead of attending one of the afternoon sessions. Check the conference schedule and decide for yourself.

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