Fwd: NetFPGA tutorial with IETF in Anaheim

[Lars Eggert <[e-mail]>]

Forwarded with permission. 

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Nick McKeown <[e-mail]>
> Date: February 8, 2010 16:09:12 GMT+02:00
> To: "Eggert Lars (Nokia-NRC/Espoo)" <[e-mail]>
> Cc: Aaron Falk <[e-mail]>
> Subject: Re: NetFPGA tutorial with IETF in Anaheim
> 
> Lars,
> Thanks for checking. The NetFPGA tutorial is not a for-profit event.  It 
> will, in fact, run at a loss.
> 
> As you might imagine, running a tutporial is quite expensive. We will be 
> flying in two instructors, shipping 10 PCs, setting them up, renting a 
> room, paying for hotel rooms and providing food. Our estimate is that 
> this will cost around $250 per attendee. We are subsidizing the cost of 
> the tutorial using money we spend time raising during the year. We offer 
> about 5-10 tutorials per year, all at a loss.
> 
> Running a tutorial like the NetFPGA tutorial for free is not really what 
> you want. A tutorial like this - with specialized equipment - costs 
> about $5,000 to run. Someone needs to pay. We are a non-profit, and 
> raise funds for the salaries of all the people working on the project.
> 
> If you think it is useful for the discussion, feel free to forward to 
> the IETF list.
> 
> - Nick
> 
> On 2/8/10 1:38 AM, Lars Eggert wrote:
>> Hi,
>> 
>> On 2010-2-5, at 16:52, Aaron Falk wrote:
>> 
>>> Details about this event and registration information are posted on-line as:
>>> http://netfpga.org/tutorials/IETF2010/index.php
>>> 
>> the page says: "Cost of the tutorial is $200."
>> 
>> I'm trying to understand if this is a for-profit event. The reason is that I'm growing somewhat concerned with the recent trend to have more and more non-IETF meetings during or adjacent to the IETF weeks, which distract or at least take energy away from the IETF-related meetings (Sunday has always been *the* day to prepare for the week). But at least so far, those events have been free to attend.
>> 
>> If we're now seeing events co-located with the IETF that charge attendance fees, we're running the real risk of having folks get day-passes for the IETF in order to attend non-IETF meetings. (The cost of this tutorial is ~1/3 of an IETF registration.) Conversely, I don't see the chance of getting additional attendees into the IETF based on these side meetings.
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> Lars
>> 
>> PS: I do believe that the topic of this particular tutorial is interesting for a good chunk of the IETF attendees, myself included. My main concern is the monetary aspect, a minor concern the potential with taking energy away from the IETF week.