A San Antonio Perspective
By Tai-San Choo
7.24.02
As a San Antonio resident for the past two years
I welcomed the idea of bringing the annual SIGGRAPH conference and
exhibition to town in 2002. San Antonio is really the ideal kind
of city for a conference like SIGGRAPH, with an abundance of vacation
spots and touristy activities going on year round.
The big attraction remains to be the Alamo, the site where 189 Texas
defenders fought 4000 Mexican troops for 13 days during the Texas
revolution against Mexico. Located just a few blocks from the convention
center, many SIGGRAPH attendees took this opportunity to visit this
historic site for the first time.
The nearby River Walk provided conference goers a wealth of restaurants
and shops at their disposal. The River Walk also probably saved
this conference from being cancelled or postponed from the massive
flooding that swept San Antonio in the previous months. The River
Walk was designed to channel out flood waters from in and around
the downtown area. Other local attractions include amusement parks
like Sea World and Fiesta Texas, scores of parks and museums, and
even more golf courses spread throughout the city.
San Antonio has a huge amount of restaurants offering a wide array
of cuisines, but you can’t come to San Antonio without eating
Mexican food. The only issues that exists is that many restaurants
and shops close early during the week. One of the most eye-catching
restaurants was right outside the door of the convention center
in the Tower of Americas. The 750-foot structure brings patrons
up in glass-walled elevators to the restaurant floor which offers
a full panoramic view of the city. Malls are also abundant around
the San Antonio area with the River Center, and various shopping
centers just up 281 in the Quarry, Northstar, Crossroads, and Huebner
Oaks malls.
 Besides being a nice vacation spot, San Antonio has a strong graphics
community centered around the local SIGGRAPH professional chapter.
With school’s like UTSA, San Antonio College, and my school
Trinity University, as well as numerous graphics related businesses
including Newtek, San Antonio is an excellent location for anyone
interested in graphics.
Overall San Antonio was a great place to be for SIGGRAPH 2002 and
I hope all attendees felt the same way and choose to come back.
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