Re:NSA convention question

[P3D Bill Davis <bd3d@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Susan Wageman wrote:

>I am curious to know what percentage of attendees usually attend the 
>banquet. It this a big thing? Or, are there lots of other things going on 
>at the same time? 
>
>Susan Wageman
>swageman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>suewageman@xxxxxxxxxxx

I can't answer about "usually", since I've only been involved in one NSA
convention (last year), but for that one, I counted 870 attendees total,
with 260 attending the banquet. (This was by far more than ever before
number-wise.  Percentage-wise, I don't know.)  Actually, these 260 banquet
tickets sold out by mail even before the convention started, so that is
really 260 out of 625 pre-registered.   A BUNCH more wanted to sign up for
the banquet as they registered on-site but had to be turned away.  Sorry,
you snooze you lose at NSA '96. :-)

I don't think there is ordinarily much else going on concurrent to the
Banquet.  

There is generally a Keynote Speaker at the banquet, after the feasting is
done. There have been View-Master folks, Magic Eye folks, Realist folks, and
last year, a Kodak guy. If there is a thoughtful Convention Coordinator,
arrangements can be made to re-locate to the Stereo Theater for the Keynote
Speech.  That way the folks who didn't get into the banquet can still attend
the talk.  I think we had nearly 500 attend Bill Ewald's talk after our
banquet!  (We had one of those thoughtful Coordinators, you see.  Who was
that masked man? :-))

Anyhow, I think the numbers depend on several factors, among them cost and
speaker.  Our banquet price was only $19, so that certainly contributed to
the record turnout.  On the other hand, most people had no idea who Bill
Ewald was (although I wrote a pretty good bio for the program booklet), so
that may have had no bearing on turnout. 

I don't know who they've set up as a speaker for Bellevue.  Maybe someone on
the committee can post some details on the list?

Best regards,
Bill Davis

P.S.  I almost forgot: Officially, it's called the Awards Banquet, so
there's also the presentation of NSA Awards either before or after the Speaker.


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