A proposal for SLUG '91

[buff@pravda.cc.gatech.edu (Richard Billington)]

The following is a proposal for a new conference based on the SLUG model. The
idea is to this year hold the SLUG conference in conjunction with a larger
conference which would include other lisp vendors and their users.

We (the SLUG board of directors) would appreciate your feedback and whether
you'd be interested in attending.

Our preliminary estimate is that we'd hold the conference in the Washington
D.C. area in late Sept or early October. Please let us know of conflicts.




		    Lisp Users and Vendors Conference (LUV'91):
			 A Lisp-Community Town Meeting


RAISON D'ETRE

This conference is a chance for the Lisp user community to meet in conjunction
with the Lisp vendor community to learn about what we have to offer each other
and to discuss issues of mutual concern. The primary focus of this first
conference will be to enumerate the issues which keep lisp from being the
clear language of choice, particularly in areas where it has lost that role,
and determine how to address those issues.

Lisp is an important programming language because it is general purpose,
powerful, and easy to develop and maintain programs with. It is equally good
as a tool for analysis and design as it is a tool for implementation.  Because
of these properties, many advances in program development technology have been
pioneered using lisp. Some examples are object-oriented programming,
integrated development environments, and machine-independent user interface
systems.

Lisp itself, and these tools, have enabled programmers to produce large,
sophisticated software systems which would be difficult or impossible to
develop and maintain in other languages. These software systems have been
developed as a part of basic research, applied research, as well as in the
commercial sector.

Lisp is at an important crossroads. Many of the ideas first developed into
reliable tools for the professional lisp programmer are beginning to appear
for other languages. As a community, we must stress the pre-eminance of lisp
as the language which has systematically lead the way in introducing and
improving development tools; and to continue this leadership, we must
determine what the course of future development of programming tools will be
that will have the most benefit to the lisp programming community. 


GROUND RULES FOR VENDOR PARTICIPATION

This is NOT a sales conference: it is a conference for users to get together
and learn technical details about products, new and old, and to provide a
focal point for input to the vendors about what our needs are. To this end,
only management and technical representatives are invited to attend this
conference. Further, NO NON-CONFERENCE FUNCTIONS - no hospitality suites, no
specific vendor sponsored parties.


PRELIMINARY AGENDA

		Monday and Tuesday: Tutorials some product/vendor specific, others
		more "community wide" - like CLIM and CLOS tutorials. We may want to
		also have vendor-specific technical sessions as well - i.e. sessions
		that are instructive technical sessions, but which aren't the sort of
		thing you pay extra money for as tutorial sessions. These have been
		offered as part of the general SLUG sessions in the past, but given
		there are a lot of additional things to do on W - F, perhaps some
		could get mixed in here. 

		Tuesday evening: Vendor sponsored welcome to attendees.

		Wed morning: welcome and direction setting from the conf. organizers;
			    welcome and important agenda items from each of the vendors.

		Wed afternoon: Lisp community issues such as formation of a Lisp
			    user's group, standardization, how to get our
			    management to change their attitude about lisp, etc. 

		Wed. evening: Application "poster" session - I quote poster 'cause
			    this could be demos ... wine and cheese should be served in
			    conjunction.

		Thurs: vendor "mini-conferences": sessions about detailed state of
			    companies, new products, specific user/vendor issues (like,
			    specific user/vendor issues, as well as how to use
			    vendor specific facilities optimally).

		Thurs evening: Refreshments, entertainment, and a generally good time.

		Fri morning: conclude "mini-conferences"

		Fri. afternoon: Plenary session - a "user group" summary of issues to
			    be addressed over the coming year (one from each user group?);
			    ditto vendors (one rep. from each gets to do a short talk); 
			    audience - panel Q&A session; summary talk from someone who's
			    important and quick on their feet - that is, can do a
			    reasonable job of summing up the conference and in particular
			    the afternoon session.