DISC 25 Las Vegas (2 November)

Las Vegas is always interesting.  It was the site of the 2012 SEG Annual Meeting and Exposition and the DISC was given on the Friday preceding.  Attendance was 39, with several familiar faces in the audience including Scott Morton (Hess), Paul Fowler (WesternGeco) and Rodney Johnston (BP).  As you would expect from such a group, there were many thoughtful questions.

The Las Vegas DISC class

About town

Let me first say that, amazing as it sounds, I did not make one stop at the casino.  Vegas arranges things so you must go through the casino to get anywhere.  But I resisted and not a penny was bet or lost.  Not that I am a reformed gambler or moral crusader, it just held no interest for me.

For the first time, I played in the SEG golf tournament on the saturday before the meeting.  It was a lovely day on a wonderful course.  Excellent.

A few photos below convey the spirit of a lively SEG.

Dawn in Las Vegas at the golf links.

Prof. Helmut Jakubowvicz of Imperial College

For the first time at SEG, digital poster presentations!

The lovely Marilee Sanzalone of SEG who organizes the Editor's Dinner.

Election watch party with Kyle Spikes, Jeff Shragge and other former Stanford folks.

Posters at 2012 SEG Meetimg

Posters at this year's SEG meeting will be on the perimeter of the exhibition hall. Excellent plan.....

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From: Chris Liner
Date: November 7, 2011, 6:55:53 AM PST
To: semery@seg.org, johnlouie@gmail.com
Cc: Steve Hill
Subject: SEG annual meeting posters

Steve Emery, SEG annual meeting director
Prof. John Louie, General Chairman of 2012 Annual Meeting

Dear John and Steve,

I have an idea related to posters at the SEG meeting and bounced it
off Steve Hill. He seemed to like it and suggested I pitch it to you.

As you know, we have a problem with posters at SEG. Over the years
they have become an ever larger fraction of accepted technical talks.
At they same time, they have become physically marginalized, moving
from hallways, the exhibit floor, to the 2011 situation where they
were in a vast hall well-removed from exhibit floor and technical
presentation rooms. For presenters and audience alike, it is a bleak
experience. Compare this to AGU, for example, where posters are
central to the meeting both philosophically and geographically.

Enough background info. The attached photo was taken at the San
Antonio meeting this year (2011). It shows the perimeter of the exhibit
hall. My idea is simple: We could stage posters along the perimeter
walls of the exhibit floor. I understand there will be gaps for
toilets, food vendors, exits, etc., but that would still leave ample
space for all the posters. Fire marshall concerns can be addressed by
having the poster stands tight against the walls, making little impact
on egress.

This plan would have the following benefits:
1) It uses space that will be rented anyway for the exhibits (saving
the cost of a poster room)
2) Posters could be left up Monday - Wednesday (lots of room)
3) Foot traffic past posters would increase
a) The technical message would get more dissemination
b) The poster-option would be more competitive with oral
presentation for speakers
4) Great buzz when posters are actually presented (and daily happy hour)

Well, that's it. Hopefully I have made the case clear enough to
interest you. Let's make this happen.

Best regards,

Chris Liner

Prof. Christopher L. Liner, Associate Chairman
Department of Earth & Atmopheric Sciences
University of Houston