OVERVIEW
The San
Diego Convention Center overlooking San Diego Bay
-photo
by Tai-San Choo
Sea
of Change: SIGGRAPH 2003 Returns to the West Coast
by
Tai-San Choo
28 July 2003
SIGGRAPH
2003 made a triumphant return to the West Coast for its 30th
international conference on computer
graphics
and interactive techniques. After a lower than expected attendance
and exhibitor
turnout for last year’s conference in San Antonio,
Texas, SIGGRAPH had high hopes to draw a larger crowd
to the annual
event. They received that in full force as the attendance
for technical registration surpassed 2002’s conference
on just the second day of the week. The conference committee,
headed
by 2003 chair Alyn Rockwood, made several changes to
the program
to compensate for a tighter budget.
The most visible change in the conference program was the
expansion of the Art Gallery exhibit which was spread
out across the
upper level hallway of the San Diego Convention Center. Previously
segregated to its own area in previous conferences, this year’s
spread out Art Gallery allowed more viewers to casually view
pieces as they traversed the conference between courses and
sessions.
Another physical modification to the layout of the conference
was scaling up the size of the Vortechs area, where attendees
had a multitude of networking, gaming, demonstrations, presentation,
and discussion opportunities in a common environment. Strewn
across Sails Pavilion Vortechs area were everything from lounge
areas, to huge art installation pieces, to a volleyball court. “We
wanted to have a larger area where attendees could come to just
relax, have fun, and network with each other,” said Rockwood.
Another subtraction from the conference was the Creative Applications
Lab (CAL) that previously allowed attendees an interactive
hands-on experience for specific courses and sessions during
the conference. “Last
year we used cameras to monitor the usage of the lab, and we
decided that it wasn’t used enough outside of the workshops
to be cost effective,” said Rockwood. Instead, the SIGGRAPH
committee opted for a conference-wide wireless network so attendees
with laptops could gain internet access throughout the convention
center. Several courses also allowed attendees to access hands-on
material through their laptops during the sessions.
One noticeable change was the elimination of Panels from this
year’s conference. It will be on hiatus until next year
due to budget restraints and to allow the conference committee
to reevaluate the program.
The exhibition floor has been the largest surprise for the
committee as the west coast location seems to be an easier
move for potential
vendors hoping to set up booths at SIGGRAPH. “We were able
to break even this year through the exhibitions,” Rockwood
said, “Usually exhibition floor requests flatten out several
weeks before the conference, but this year we continued getting
last minute entries up until a few days before the start of the
conference.” In fact, most conference committee chairs
will have returns submitted this year.
While changes for the 2003 conference seem to have significantly
eased budgetary issues brought upon by the shaky economy, the
SIGGRAPH 2004 conference in LA hopes to push things even further.
Preparations for next year’s conference are already underway
as 2004 conference chair Dena Slothower works busily this week
to promote the coming conference, including the new location,
and proposal deadlines, and recruiting committee members and
volunteer staffers for next year.
The 2004 conference was originally scheduled to follow the
east coast/ west coast alternating conference locations as
it was
previously committed to Atlanta. Due to budget issues, the
conference was moved to Los Angeles. Some benefits to moving
to LA include
a cheaper convention center cost, familiarity with the venue,
as well as numerous benefits garnered by city subsidies. LA
is also a major hub for exhibitors as previous space capacities
have exceed double the current floor space.
One of the goals of the 2004 committee is to simplify and improve
the quality of next year’s conference. Costs saved on
location will go directly towards boosting the quality of the
conference.
Content-wise the committee hopes to bring back the Panels program
with more diverse ranges of viewpoints, in addition to including
the Electronic theater on site, and hopeful new additions like
a papers poster sessions program. Changes to the annual conference
continually seek to improve the overall SIGGRAPH experience
through each passing year.
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