On Wed, Feb 21, 2001 at 08:40:03PM -0500, Jared Mauch wrote:

If i were a vendor i'd at least make them talk to me or get a business card/name on a sign-in sheet before they got their goodies. It's better business than showing up and giving away 550 t-shirts at a considerable cost to me with no return on my investment other than the advertizing value.

Not to drag this discussion out any longer then it needs to be, but 550 t-shirts is hardly a budgetary nightmare considering the amount of money that the people who attend NANOG spend on these vendors. I very much doubt any real discussions with vendors take place over and beer and gear, its an opportunity to build goodwill and for people to get an upclose look at new equipment they might not otherwise have the opportunity to see. IMHO, This entire discussion is really quite sad. Yes the boxers and "IP Everywhere" shirts are not items you'll find in the Cisco Marketplace, but I didn't think the point of the beer and gear was to get drunk and be politically correct. People go their to socialize, have a good time, and yes they like to get neat little toys and clothing. If you cannot deal with this you don't have to go, noone said you had to take off your suit and tie and put on a Cisco t-shirt. As for the "outrage" over people leaving conferences early, maybe the problem is that the presentation is less interesting then a tshirt. I know I'm not the only one who was praying for someone to snipe the presenter off the stage during that 2 hour long MPLS VPN nightmare. And yes I've said as much in my survey. </2cents> -- Richard A Steenbergen <ras@e-gerbil.net> http://www.e-gerbil.net/ras PGP Key ID: 0x138EA177 (67 29 D7 BC E8 18 3E DA B2 46 B3 D8 14 36 FE B6)