Monday, October 19, 2009

Did the economy affect SfN at all?


I’m a bit curious at whether or not the current (lousy) state of the economy has affected SfN in any way. With a reported 29,500 people at this year's conference, it seems that attendance hasn't been affected so much.

I've been told by several job-seeking attendees that opportunities are quite slim this year. Most are contracted and there are hardly any permanent positions.

Could the (lousy) wifi situation be a probable consequence of the economy? Not enough money to buy enough cables and such?

How about you? Has anyone else noticed anything different about SfN that could have been caused by the recession? How are the quality of 'freebies' in the vendors section? I'm hoping to investigate this topic more and I'd love to hear your take on the situation.

2 comments:

  1. It seems like a convention center should be equipped for large-scale Wi-Fi, and it should only be a matter of flipping the switch to turn it on. I doubt SFN would have to install its own wireless network at the convention center.

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  2. It didn't actually seem to be a problem with the wifi, per se, more a problem with the internet--you could get a full wifi signal, but then couldn't actually connect to the internet. Perhaps too much traffic or something? Honestly, a convention center that size should be equipped to deal with a convention the size of SfN...

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