Trip Report from a USENIX Moocher

by Danny R. Faught

This report has three themes - 1) How I attended a conference on the cheap, 2) How I worked a room to maximum benefit, and 3) What I saw while I was at USENIX. You won't get as much of #3 as you would normally expect from a trip report, because I only attended the vendor exhibits, which brings us back to #1, and why #2 is so important. But first, the background.

I just got back from the 2003 USENIX Annual Technical Conference in San Antonio, Texas. This was my first USENIX event (they don't have any local chapters). USENIX calls itself "The Advanced Computing Systems Association," where "Advanced" seems to mean anything related to Unix. There was a heavy contingent from the BSD camp, plus plenty of mentions of Linux, especially Debian, and other various systems on the Unix lineage, including even Plan 9. I went mostly to find ways to expand the market for my startup publication, Open Testware Reviews, and on a broader scale, to help to bridge the gaps between the professional software testing field and the open source community.

I managed to do the entire trip for well under $100, counting the T-shirt I bought and a $3 donation to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. I had already registered for the O'Reilly Open Source Convention, and actually paid for it. I almost always find a way to get into the conferences I attend for free, so this was quite a departure for me. I also have a sizable bill coming for a full week of training that I registered for. So I decided to give the budget a break and see how much I could get out of the USENIX conference with a free "exhibits-only" registration.

I drove down from Fort Worth on the day the exhibits opened, via the print shop where I printed up lots of marketing materials. It was right about one tank of gas for the round trip in my Toyota Prius (can't resist a plug for earth-friendliness :-). I arrived at the hotel, registered, and walked into the cavernous exhibits room. My heart sank a bit, as I saw how sparsely the room was populated with vendor booths, and I wondered how I was going to fill the day and a half I had set aside with so few networking opportunities. But I dove in anyway. By the end of the day, I'd made several interesting contacts, including a couple of possible consulting clients. I didn't have much in common with a hardware vendor I saw there, so I talked to him about how they sell services, and I picked up a few good tips.

During a break that afternoon, the legitimate attendees starting filing in, and they devoured the afternoon's snack within a few minutes. So much for a free dinner there. Then I started noticing the name badges - wow, deja vu! I saw names like Chris DiBona, Peter Salus, Rob Kolstad, Kirk McKusick, and John Quarterman, plus many others I probably should have recognized.

I always like to meet the movers and shakers in the industry. When I'm in my element, say, at a software testing conference, I'll try to find something intelligent to say about their work. In this case, though, I could remember that I'd seen all these names somewhere, probably several somewheres, but I couldn't recall where or why. So when I bumped into one of them, I'd simply tell them that I recognized their name but I couldn't remember why. Much better to admit ignorance than to miss an opportunity. Peter helped me remember that his book, A Quarter Century of Unix, is on my shelf. As luck would have it, I had cited Chris' book Open Sources in my sample issue of Open Testware Reviews, which he noticed before I made the connection myself. I knew Rob Kolstad had worked at Convex Computer Corporation before I did, but a strange bout of politeness took over me and I decided not to interrupt an intense conversation he was in the middle of. Overall, I'm very impressed with how down-to-earth each of the big names I talked to were.

Speaking of Convex, everyone I mentioned it to was familiar with the company. That's not something that happens at the average Chamber of Commerce meeting. One person from Virginia actually knew of both Convex and my last employer, Cigital, a feat no one I've talked to before has been able to accomplish.

I would introduce myself to people as a testing specialist. I didn't meet anyone else there who claimed to be a tester, and no one I met could say that they had met any testers there. So I have my work cut out for me in spreading the word! Several people expressed interest when I told them that decades of wisdom about testing had already been collected, and that they don't need to start from scratch. They were also excited to hear that there are hundreds of freeware test tools out there.

I found that despite the fact that I was a lone emissary, my usual networking tricks still worked, and in fact were more important than ever. Have you tried this one? Stand near a cluster of people, but look toward somewhere else out into the crowd as if you're looking for someone or just happen to be hanging out there. Listen in to the conversation long enough to decide whether it's highly personal (you can get clues about this from their posture too) and whether you want to join in. If you decide to crash the party, start looking more in their direction and use your posture and facial expressions to show interest. Interject something into the conversation if you get an opening. Almost always, if they're just shooting the breeze, they won't object to you coming into the circle.

Next I had the task of continuing my networking through dinner. I weaseled my way into a discussion outside the exhibit hall right after the exhibits closed. I mean, I was interested in most of the discussion anyway, though I couldn't contribute much. I heard some random mentions of dinner. They didn't actively exclude me, so I could assume they didn't have a private affair in the works. So when talk of dinner got more serious, I asked if they minded if I tagged along. The fact that I was the only one with a car there probably helped me get a positive response. :-) It turns out I was among a crowd including two published book authors, a book publisher, and a magazine editor. I got an added bonus when the check came, and a generous individual picked up the check for the whole table (thanks, Bill!).

We had missed most of the Birds of a Feather sessions (where they don't mind "exhibits only" folks hanging out) by the time we got back, but I prefer in-depth networking to larger groups anyway. I was off a few miles down the road to my cheap hotel room, the one where I had asked for the Passbook half price rate when I booked it. I must have sounded confused, and they must have mistook that for resistance regarding the rate, so they offered me a few dollars below half price. So the next time you book a room, trying acting confused.

The next day I hit the exhibits again, determined to hit most of the booths, and I also had some follow-up to do. I found that different people tend to rotate through working the booths at different times, and each was likely to have different experiences and contacts that I could benefit from. I talked a book publisher out of a free review copy of a book (thanks again, Bill!), on the condition that I publish a review. I arranged a subscription swap for Linux Magazine. I eventually made it over to the booth for the Portland State Aerospace Society, thinking there was little chance I could make much of a connection there, but I ended up having a long conversation about software quality and perhaps found a whole group of future subscribers. I even made small talk at the USENIX membership table in the hall outside, and found out that I was welcome to put my marketing materials out on some tables designated for that purpose. Doh - I should have asked about that sooner! There were two or three booths that I didn't get to before I ran out of steam, but overall, I made many more contacts than I thought I would when I first arrived.

So was the experiment in mooching a success? Yes, I definitely think that the 24 hours or so that I spent there was a good investment. I certainly could have made more connections if I had been able to attend the technical sessions, and if I had stayed another night to attend the next round of Birds of a Feather sessions. Perhaps I'll propose a presentation for next year to further the cause of testing and have an excuse to attend more of the conference.

Danny R. Faught is a software testing consultant based in Fort Worth, Texas. He is publisher of Open Testware Reviews (http://tejasconsulting.com/open-testware/). You can reach him at faught@tejasconsulting.com.