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[802SEC] Status of Melbourne Option for March 2012



EC Colleagues

There has been what I can best describe as intense activity since Singapore to complete a deal for holding the March 2012 Session in Melbourne. Bottom line, despite our best efforts, it is not going to work.

You will recall that in Singapore we had the basis of a possibly workable budget. Internet charges were high but we felt those could be worked, we had not gotten an AV quote so we were using a budgetary figure, and we needed to get a better sense of HQ hotel options and prices. We already knew we would have to forgo a social and that many other usual meeting amenities were not going to be possible. Registration fee estimates were already stretching the $650 boundary at that unless we did some subsidizing out of the treasury. Not ideal but not impossible.

The reality turned out to be truly disappointing and frustrating. We were able to make a lot of headway on several fronts but Internet access charges went up rather than down with unacceptable service caps and AV plus power strip charges were off the wall. HQ hotel options were also not very wonderful but one could work around that to some degree. Forgetting the service caps, which were unacceptable, the Internet and AV alone would have added another ~$125 or more in fees. The convention center imposed deadlines on a decision since they had local business willing to pay full freight and were unwilling to move on these key issues. Given the already Spartan nature of what we had, this plus the service caps just made it unworkable, with no added time to seek an improvement. Reluctantly we had no choice but to say no and try for a future time.

The back-up we presented in Singapore was the Hilton Waikoloa Village. It is now the operating plan. At least that is half way to Asia. The deal there is a completely typical Session with no open issues or surprises and Buzz was able to get some really fantastic room rates as well. Good thing since we did not have any other options remaining. Buzz will issue more details shortly.

Regards

Bob H.



Bob Heile, Ph.D
Chairman, ZigBee Alliance
Chair, IEEE 802.15 Working Group on Wireless Personal Area Networks
Co-Chair IEEE P2030 Task Force 3 on Smartgrid Communications
11 Robert Toner Blvd
Suite 5-301
North Attleboro, MA  02763   USA
Mobile: +1-781-929-4832
email:   bheile@ieee.org

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