Present at the November 5, 2009 meeting were Larry Lui, Stephan Larson, Sarah Maynard, Mark James and notes from Jeff Grethe.
The purpose of the meeting was to review the logistics associated with SfN and to identify areas for improvement for next year's conference which will be in San Diego.
The following areas were debriefed:
- Crate - It has been suggested that we use a combination lock instead of relying on a key. The use of the bolts was difficult as you had to hold the bolt taut while unscrewing the bolts. Also rescrewing the bolts upon closing the crate was difficult and time consuming.
- Mice and keyboards should be matching. All monitors within a booth should also be matching. A/B switches were not used.
- Furniture - Director chairs for WBP were comfortable. The wooden base was broken and the leg holders did not hold up. The NIF chairs were not comfortable. The surface of the cabinet required the use of mouse pads. One of the furniture pieces that was delivered was incorrect, which was quickly resolved by the Expo Group. The locking cabinets were almost useless as you could just pick up the top and remove anything from the top shelf. Bought a black sheet to cover the base of the standing TV monitor. The seating area was bare. Need to plan on making this section more related to the groups at the meeting. Also use of a plant may make it more decorative.
- Location - WBP ended up on an aisle.
- Network - need to provide greater Internet bandwidth to the booth. Demos took a long time to download. Larry also had to restart the switch one time. The flat cable was useful. Jeff brought a snake to get the cable across the aisle. The cable needs to be snaked after the carpet is laid. We will need to reorder the flat cable as it became frayed along the edges.
- Someone should be designated to take pictures. Many times when there were many people in the booth, these activities were not captured.
- Give-a-ways - The picture holder and pens were successful. The stickers and holograms less so.
- The evening social was attended by 35-50 people. Most of the food went. There were some minor issues with the drink tickets.