Re: [eclipse.org-eclipsecon-program-committee] IBM speakers

[Kevin McGuire <Kevin_McGuire@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I can't speak for all of IBM, but I
will say that for the Jazz and Eclipse teams we've already been doing a
fair amount of self-censoring of proposals, based on our projections of
how many people we're going to be able to send, prior to the submission
actually being put into the EclipseCon system.  And exactly for the
reasons that we don't want a proposal accepted only to have to pull it
later.  

To be clear: we believe that we will be able to send the people to cover
the proposals we've submitted should they all be accepted.

While it's true that given the recent
financial issues, travel approval for IBM employees is tighter, what I
heard on the call, and what I imagine is true anyway, is that it's a general
problem.  Actually, knowing the planning work the Jazz and Eclipse
teams have been doing, I'm more confident of us being able to meet our
commitments than the average company.  Not to speak negatively of
other companies, but only to say that we the program committee face a higher
than usual risk associated with attendance at this year's conference and
we need to plan for that.

Regards,
Kevin

Bjorn Freeman-Benson <bjorn.freeman-benson@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent by: eclipse.org-eclipsecon-program-committee-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx

11/26/2008 02:25 PM

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Subject	[eclipse.org-eclipsecon-program-committee] IBM speakers

Program Committee members,
Given that the issue of IBM speakers not getting travel approval has been
raised, we should be very careful about accepting IBM talks. This is unfortunate
given the depth of technical expertise at IBM, but the worst situation
we, as a program committee, could get into is to decline our #2 choice
in favor of our #1 choice and then have the #1 choice withdraw because
IBM won't send them to the conference - then we'd either have egg on our
faces when we go to the #2 choice or we'd have nothing at all if the #2
choice made other plans. So... how are we going to handle this? Do we need
IBM people to get a letter from their manager proving that they can come
to the conference before we will accept their talk?

- Bjorn

P.S. Originally we had intended the speaker agreement to be that double-check
on people's attendance, but an unfortunately high number of people have
been signing the speaker agreement (wherein they agree to come) and then
reneging on that agreement later. So, basically, we can't count on the
speaker agreement as an agreement.

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