I just finished answering the questions in the DAC questionnaire sent to me by Audience Insights. A few hours earlier I had received the John Cooley's post-DAC wiretaps and this surely means that the 46th DAC is now over. It is time to plan the 47th DAC, especially since this time around there are only 11 months to get ready.

What Went Well

In spite of negative prediction, founded mostly on the misguided notion that physical conferences are too costly and too ineffective when compared to virtual or captive events, DAC had a larger attendance than last year (a 12% increase). It is true that the location helped, but those attendees did not come solely because they had nothing better to do or money to throw away.

I also liked the layout of the exhibit floor. Yes it required walking between two halls, but look at it on the bright side: may be you will avoid diabetes for a longer period of time!
The aisles were wide, allowing people to circulate even if there was a crowd in front of a particular booth. True the wide aisles led some people to guess that attendance was low, simply because the floor did not seem congested.

The DAC Pavilion. Panels and presentations in the Pavilion are very popular: this is now an institution with a great tradition that serves as a catalyst not only to knowledge sharing, but also to professional networking. It may be time to think about something similar in the User Track.

The very large presence of TSMC and the Open Platform Coalition. Finally some serious evidence that foundries and EDA need each other.

Thanks to EDAC and the three "I LOVE DAC" musketeers (Atrenta, Denali, and Springsoft) free Monday was back. I know that what is worth attending is worth paying for, but Free Monday has been around long enough to have become a tradition, and one fools with tradition at one's peril. Furthermore, Free Monday benefits exhibitors, who play a very important role in the financial success (or not) of the conference. If they want Free Monday, and they obviously do, they should have it.

What Needs Improving

The official Conference Program contained two panels that certainly need re-thinking. The CEO Panel on Monday and the How Green is My Valley panel on Thursday.
It is about time for a Conference Committee that suffers from a strong technological and academic bias to realize that what a CEO of a publicly traded company can say in public is as innocuous and predictable as possible. Any detail that may be interpreted as causing a significant move to the stock price (in either direction), any forward looking statement that is not accompanied by a properly worded legal warning, is not allowed. So what can we ever hope to learn from these fine gentlemen in such a setting?

The moderator, Juan-Antonio Carballo is a rare individual: he is both a respected technologist and a successful venture capitalist for IBM. Yet he was visibly not at ease in the role of pitching previously agreed to questions. What was even more astonishing and uncreative was the ruse of only accepting SMS questions from the floor. Good education dictates that cell phones should be turned off when attending such an event. And yet, no other than the DAC Conference Chair was suggesting the use of cell phones during the panel. It is true that some of us are being judged too stupid to be able to do anything else than representing the media, but even we got it! And Juan-Antonio is neither a good actor nor a good liar, so next time do not ask him to fulfill such an awkward role.

The Green Panel had such great possibilities: low power and alternative sources of power. Instead it became a sequence of statements, quite predictable I might add, from panelists too concerned with avoiding confrontations than offering different point of views on a specific subject. In the end the Valley was not any greener than before, just a little more sleepy. I suppose a $200K electric super car may be a viable idea, since the Volt price is estimated at $40K, but there is more than a silent, well performing engine that goes to make a super car. How many rich people not involved in our industry would rather drive a Wrightspeed instead of a Ferrari, a Lamborghini, or a McLaren? Trust me, in that world, gas prices are not a consideration! But the song of the engine, the beauty of the bodylines, and the name on the badge are.

What Really Did Not Work

Not even DAC can mix a reception with a presentation in the same hall and at the same time. Especially not if the room is set up to suggest a social event with tables and chairs instead of an auditorium style seating arrangement.
I understand that to err is human and that one has to make errors in order to learn. We have learned, let say no more.

Finally A Modest Suggestion

Press badges were a problem this year. From whmo could have them to what they ended up to be, to what they finally turned into. I am not going to revisit the issue of who should get a press badge. if you want to know how I feel read:
http://www.gabeoneda.com/news/bloggers-press-credentials-and-conferences

But having established that we need press badges, then make them a separate category. Do not issue either exhibit or conference badges with a ribbon stuck under it. Issue a different category of badge that is identified as press even when swiped by an exhibitor or a technical program door attendant. That way, among other things, Audience Insights will not ask me which category of tools I recommend, evaluate, or purchase.

See you in Anaheim next June. It will be our last visit to the Magic Kingdom for a while, and DAC is never going to Orlando, Paris, or Tokyo either. So be there: your children, grandchildren, or whatever relations to children you have, demand it.