As with ESRI User Conferences in the past, there were several cancelled paper sessions. Not that this is unusual in and of itself, but it did seem that there were more cancellations than usual this time around. For example, one person commented that virtually everything relating to geology was cancelled.
The puzzling thing to me is why they didn't consider stepping up and having other folks present. This year, I also submitted two abstracts which were not accepted - good projects, built on ArcGIS Server and ArcIMS, using realtime sensor data, realtime analysis and other things which nobody else was presenting this year - and several other people I know also submitted abstracts for other good projects, but were not accepted.
Perhaps they should consider a "standby" list for presenters and presentations, rather than just having all of the glaring and disappointing instances of "Session Cancelled" ...
Posts
Were they USGS folks? Some of us (feds) haven't even gotten our O7 money yet and don't expect it until the beginning of next month.
Alot of people can't go to the meeting unless they present a paper. They get all excited, get their travel approved and then it gets cancelled because of lack of funds.
My session had one cancelled paper as well as my partners.
Standby would be hard, and trust me , the guy presenting with me brought a whole other talk which he gave and bored many people with.
I also work with feds (EPA), and I feel your pain... pretty much all of the civilian agencies have been getting chopped.
I don't think the ones in question were USGS specifically...
I think the point was that they could have some "second-round draft choices" - folks that were planning on attending the conference in any event, regardless of funding or travel approval, and who had also submitted papers, to fill in if needed.