TITLE: Planning for OOPSLA 2005
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: May 01, 2005  6:02 PM
DESC: Planning for OOPSLA 2005 is underway, and an extra benefit for me is my first visit to San Diego.
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<IMG SRC="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog-images/oopsla05-logo.jpg"
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Today and tomorrow, I am in San Diego for the
<A HREF="http://oopsla.acm.org">
   OOPSLA 2005</A>
spring planning meeting.  I have the honor of chairing
the
<A HREF="http://www.oopsla.org/2005/ShowPage.do?id=CallEducatorsSymposium">
   Educators Symposium</A>
again this year and so am on the conference committee
that makes OOPSLA happen.  As usual, I'm impressed by
the energy and talent of the people behind the scenes
of OOPSLA.  These folks are in the trenches scheduling
talks and panels, tutorials and workshops, while
simultaneously thinking about the future of software
and where the conference can and should go in the future.

<IMG SRC="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog-images/oopsla05-view.gif"
     ALT="the view from the OOPSLA 2005 conference site"
     WIDTH="400">

San Diego will be a great location for OOPSLA.  We are
at the 
<A HREF="http://www.towncountry.com/">
   Town and Country Resort</A>,
about 15 miles from downtown.  The resort is more than
just a hotel; the property includes several buildings
of convention space, meeting rooms, and restaurants,
not too mention the pools and outdoor gathering spaces.
San Diego's temperate weather makes outdoor gatherings
a real possibility.  On our site tour earlier, a couple
of us joked about holding software demonstrations
poolside -- or even on the water, the "floating demo".
We may as well surrender to the inevitable temptations
that accompany meeting space adjacent to an outdoor
pool.

Last night, I had the pleasure of catching up with a
current friend, a former student who now calls San Diego
home.   Kris picked me up, gave me a short driving tour
of the area, and then took me off for dinner with another
former UNI student, a former Waterloo native, and another
Iowan.  We talked sports, much to the chagrin of the
ladies, and current campus goings-on.  Dinner was at
Quiigs Bar and Grill (5091 Santa Monica Ave)  -- I had
a wonderful grilled prawns dish.

This morning, I checked out the running options from
the hotel.  I did an easy 10+-miler, heading west
along Friars Road toward the beach.  I never reached
the beach but I did find an unexpected bonus: down
near a marina off Sea World Drive, I came upon the
start location for the
<A HREF="http://www.triclubsandiego.org/featuredEvents/689412.html">
   Spring Sprint Triathlon and Biathlon</A>.
This is a little tri, a &#188;-mile swim, a 9-mile
bike, and a 3-mile run -- just within my reach.
One of these days...

Dick Gabriel and Ralph Johnson have a lot of
<A HREF="http://dreamsongs.com/OOPSLA2005/Essay.html">
   neat ideas in the works</A>
for OOPSLA this year, including a track for
<A HREF="http://www.testing.com/cgi-bin/blog/2005/01/10#2005cfp">
   essays</A>,
collocated symposia on wiki and Dylan, and the
evolving Onward! track, which will debut a
<A HREF="http://www.oopsla.org/2005/ShowPage.do?id=CallOnwardPresentationsAndFilms">
   film festival</A>.
If you want to know what software people will be
talking about in earnest three or four years from
now, make sure to attend OOPSLA <EM>this</EM> year!
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