( DAC 00 Item 51 ) --------------------------------------------- [ 7/13/00 ]
Subject: Best & Worst DAC Parties, Best & Worst DAC Freebies
YOU CAN'T STOP TRADITION: It's been a running theme that these collective
DAC Trip Reports also tell the more important non-technology side of this
week long EDA shopping trip. It's hard to be daddy coming home after being
away for a full week without an armload of freebies to give to the kids.
It's also kind of 'nerd cool' to have logo freebie items in your cubical at
work. (I guess that must be something left over from man's hunter-gatherer
roots. It's difficult to come back home from a hunting party empty handed.
What do empty hands then say about your manly hunting abilities...? Grunt!)
And the thoughts on parties? That's just good old fun. Who wants to work
*all* the time? (Those in the middle of a tape-out are asked NOT to answer
that question at this particular time in your project, thank you. I don't
need any hate mail from engineering managers saying I'm sowing descension
in the ranks.)
"* Loudest party: Denali, who booked an large nightclub and filled it
with guests, food, and loud '70s music.
* Latest Party: Denali -- I believe it finished around 2.00am.
* Best inter-company initiative in several years: SystemC
* Best freebee: I was lucky to snag a radio-controlled car from Axis.
Would have liked a digital camera from HP, though.
* Non-exhibiting company that flew in the most people from abroad:
STMicroelectronics were reputed to have flown in around 60 people
from France and Italy. Saw a lot of Infineon and Siemens badges also.
* Biggest disappointment: still several companies with interesting
products that don't support VHDL.
* Biggest mistake -- booking into a non-DAC hotel, so I had to *drive*
after leaving the parties!
* Biggest waste of money: $70 for the DAC party ($45 for the ticket plus
$25 parking), only to have to stand in very long lines for the food."
"Worst Freebie: Silicon Perspective. Actually the prizes were great,
three LCD TFT flat screen computer monitors. However, the execution
failed since they didn't manage to give away any of the monitors. In
each conference attendee's bag, they put a box of chocolates containing
a paper flyer say something like "Come to Silicon Perspective's booth to
find out if you have won a flat screen computer monitor. Your lucky
number is XXXX." If the number matched one of the numbers assigned to
each of the three monitors, then the person won that monitor. Of
course, nobody ready the flyer because it was inside the box of
chocolates. Many people probably didn't open the box until after they
got home. Others probably thought that the flyer was just packing for
the chocolates & didn't read it. Nobody showed to claim the monitors."
"Denali party rocked.. it was more like an EDA vendor party... Hey if
you cant beat them head on in the marketplace (mempro vs denali) join
em... and try to "consume" as much of their dac party budget as you
can!"
"I went to four events at DAC. Synopsys, Cadence, Denali, and the DAC
party. Denali was the best party only because Cadence was more like an
event. Cadence put on a whole concert at Paramount. At Denali there
was a party atmosphere. People were actually dancing and having fun.
The DAC party wasn't much of a party. The food lines were really long
and you just sat there and ate. Unless something happened after I left.
I'd like to add that the Cadence Demo suite presentation were definitely
the worst. The demonstrations were not informative and always left my
eyes glazed over. I expected more from such a large company."
"The best freebies as rated by my 5- and 8-year old kids:
- Monterey's stuffed dolphin toy. My 5-year-old sleeps with it
every night.
- Novus's toy car, "the bug you can control". Lots of fun to program
and play with."
"Good: Mentor's party on the Queen Mary. Nice venue, good food, but a
little formal and stuffy.
Better: Denali's party in a seedy nightclub in downtown LA. Free
drinks, loud music, lots of dancing."
"Best: Debussy programmable bug.
Worst/Most ill-thought-out: Altera's chair. Yeah, let me sit down
while Quartus takes the next 4 hours to P&R my part."
"Certainly the best was the Synopsys Party. They had great music and
beautiful women walking around on stilts! Cadence had a cool one, too,
but with so many people, it just was not as nice as the Synopsys party.
I really did not see any bad ones this year."
"Worst: Sagantec frisbee. It doesn't stay open or fly very well. Kind
of a disappointment because it looks good.
BEST: Cadence's "night of the thousand stars". BY FAR!!!"
"The worst freebie is hard to say. After all, it was free. The Intel
tool kit was weird. The tools didn't fit into the box correctly and
why were they giving out a tool kit?"
"I just wanted to add that I have figured out what the lamest freebie
was. IKOS gave away a keychain that is entirely too big. Their floor
presentation was pretty bad as well. It didn't tell you anything about
their tools. They just gave themselves stupid awards. Waste of time."
"Verplex: absolutely best - small company invites 500 engineers to
Universal studios to host them with excellent food and entertainement
Denali: absolutely worst - totally overexagerated expectation set in
advance and the party ends up being in a Night Club (or better: shack)
in the "suspicious" area of deserted downtown LA with some even more
"suspicious" impersonators...
"The best party was the Verplex party at Universal Studios on Monday
evening. A very pleasant trip by train around the area (I have seen
Norman Bates' Hotel !) and no ques to the rides. (I hugged Marilyn!)"
"The Altera free chair that clogged up the flights home was a mess.
Worst? Synopsys extension cords for Laptop Modem connection"
"BEST: ALBA party at British Consul General's mansion."
"Most ill-thought-out: Simplex gave out a PHB doll (Dilbert's
pointy-headed boss). The doll was wearing a Simplex button. But
every Dilbert reader knows that any technical opinion offered by the
PHB character is always completely ill-informed and wrong. So what
were they thinking? (I did like their Terminator video, though, and
my two year old daughter likes the doll, though I wasn't happy when
she called it "daddy")."
"C Level Design's soccer balls. My kids loved them."
"Favorite? the iSD magazine boxers! With the glow in the dark
'lightning bolt' coupled with the phrase "Hardware" My wife loved
them (on me that is ;-)
"Cadence: best, cause Huey Lewis was great; food was ok
DAC Party: worst, cause the band was miserable, long queues for food,
food was not to my taste
Synopsys: band was good, the best food and beverages
"Worst: Sadly enough, it was my own company's freebie. (Intel) A
lousy spring and hoop of wire to form a lame "magic trick" based on
"perception." It was absolutely the lamest thing I've seen at DAC ever.
Best: It has to be a tie between C-level's volleyball and Sun's bouncy
ball with LEDs inside. My son likes both ... :)
"Worst: Xilinx Passed out the same stupid freebie it did last year
"Best Party: Cadence at Paramount studios: Hewey Lewis was great!!!
"What is it with Altera? Every year, they seem to give out booth freebies
which are an airlines worst enemy in consuming overhead bin storage
space. Two years ago, it was the hockey sticks. Last year, it was the
free billiards cues. This years space-eater award is the fold-up
director's chair."
"Magma's Party - Great setting (I am a native Angeleno. I moved to
Florida in 1981. When I left LA downtown was a dump. I was thrilled
to see downtown renovated.
"WORST: Cadence's, because even though we bought more than $1M of their
stuff this year alone, our a**hole sales person didn't give us invites.
"Best example of poor planning: The DAC party on Wednesday night. The
food lines were horrendous since there were only about 4 serving
stations for around 3000 people or so. On the plus side; there were
plenty of bartender booths for alcohol to help pass the time."
============================================================================
Trying to figure out a Synopsys bug? Want to hear how 11,086 other users
dealt with it? Then join the E-Mail Synopsys Users Group (ESNUG)!
!!! "It's not a BUG, jcooley@world.std.com
/o o\ / it's a FEATURE!" (508) 429-4357
( > )
\ - / - John Cooley, EDA & ASIC Design Consultant in Synopsys,
_] [_ Verilog, VHDL and numerous Design Methodologies.
Holliston Poor Farm, P.O. Box 6222, Holliston, MA 01746-6222
Legal Disclaimer: "As always, anything said here is only opinion."
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