Mike, if the information on which the Atlanta decision was made last year is to be believed, you're definitely in luck. We were shown a list of three hotels. All three had openings on July 28-August 1 (IOW, equivalent to this year), and one of them also had July 7-11 and July 21-25. At that time, none of them had availabilities in June. I don't know whether that list has expanded or contracted in the interim.

Is there a reason that I'm in bright, bright light in photo 7, while Tony, Mike, and Ben are in the shadows?

Is there a reason that I'm in bright, bright light in photo 7, while Tony, Mike, and Ben are in the shadows?

Angelic aura.

Duh.

But I'd already surrendered by spot on the SABR Board by then. I'm a mere mortal now.

And "my" spot too.

Well, in that case I suppose the Target bag was radioactive.

8. This was the best organized convention I’ve attended. Things moved along very well; I never felt like the organizers were scrambling to keep everything on schedule.

Whoever had the bright idea to give the room monitors those big, yellow "10" "5" and "1" minute signs earned a gold star. They worked very well.

It was very well organized, but with the bus issue I can't quite say it was the best organized.

4. Overall, I think this was the best group of presentations in the six conventions I attended. Yes, there were a few clinkers here and there, but the breadth and depth was quite good overall.

And this was the first convention in years where you missed my talk. . . Hmmmmmmmm .. . .

By and large they were very good presentations. I think Toronto had the most quality per presentation, but it's not quite a fair comparison. There were only about three dozen presentations in Toronto. There were 42 here. (Similarly, I saw 18 this year, whereas I normally only see around a dozen, so my perspective is skewed). I got quite a bit from 13 of the 18 I attended, and only had one completely flop for me. That's pretty good.

The minute signs were completely the local committee's idea. Probably Dave Raglin.

According to my records, here are the oral presentation counts for all but one convention since Boston (I wasn't directly involved with presentations in Denver) -- Boston (2002) 41, Cincinnati (2004) 33, Toronto (2005) 35, Seattle (2006) 47, St. Louis (2007) 36, Cleveland (2008) 36, Washington (2009) 42.

I agree with Mike that overall presentation quality was great this year.

I ain't never gonna get in no eatin' contest with them guys!

The posters were, on the other hand, mostly disappointing. The winning poster, by a HS senior named Susan Ballentine, was very slickly done but had a lot (and I mean a LOT) of very dense math.

A slickly done poster can score 30% of the maximum score simply by being slickly done. If it's only average in the other categories, it's still going to score highly overall.

From an historical research point of view, the best presentation might have been the one that assembled baseball-game scores from 1845 to 1860 out of what was published in newspapers. Not only was that hard work, but it genuinely extends our knowledge of baseball.* The one about the influence of transportation costs on cities becoming part of the National League in the 1870s was also very stimulating.

However, in contrast with Ballentine's attractive, all-on-one-board poster, both of these were pieces of paper pinned up in a not-necessarily-apparent sequence. The railroads one was actually a bit more than pieces of paper, including railroad maps and some charts, but the 1845-1860 board didn't even go that far. You can't really award a high score in the presentation category, so they have to be very good in the other categories in order to beat something that looked as good as Ballentine's.

______
*IIRC, the guy is planning to donate his database to Retrosheet, or may have already done so, but I don't see a link from the front page.

Here you go, fp.

After looking at picture #10, I wonder if any primate owns a pair of long pants. I guess Smitty's crusade has been successful.

It was 95 degrees, no need for long pants.

Dial owes me a couple of pictures, FWIW. He wasn't in any of mine.

-- MWE

SABR39 taking place in Washington probably explains why Jack Bauer is in photo #7. I guess the cure worked.

Is there a reason that I'm in bright, bright light in photo 7, while Tony, Mike, and Ben are in the shadows?

No particular reason. I'm not the greatest camera operator in the world.

SABR39 taking place in Washington probably explains why Jack Bauer is in photo #7.

Heh. That's not the first time Giacolone's been compared to Kiefer Sutherland, and it won't be the last.

-- MWE

SABR39 taking place in Washington probably explains why Jack Bauer is in photo #7.

Dial thought Giacolone wearing an Eddie Bauer shirt was the greatest thing ever.

But I'd already surrendered by spot on the SABR Board by then. I'm a mere mortal now.

The Department of Angelic Aura is a little behind on their paperwork. Staff vacations and all. Please allow 30 days for a change in your Angelic Aura status, etc.