( DAC 01 Item 42 ) --------------------------------------------- [ 7/31/01 ]
Subject: The Best/Worst DAC Parties & Freebies
IN THEIR OWN WORDS: Here's what people thought about the DAC parties and
freebies this year. And, of course, in this time of layoffs, I'm keeping
my sources completely anonymous here. "Honest, boss, I worked the whole
time I wasn't looking at tools at DAC!"
"Best parties:
The Synopsys party was a great place to talk with people, since
rumjungle was just the right size.
The Cadence party at the Hard Rock Hotel was very relaxing -- sitting
outside by the beach surrounded by a tropical hillside garden. As to
the Beach Boys, I overheard someone say "they're not from my
generation!", but it was still fun.
Best freebies:
Those credit-card sized CD's loaded with company presentations, white
papers, and tutorials are great! Cadence and Cynergy were a couple of
companies that gave these out. I love getting info that fits in my
pocket, so I still have room to take home some toys.
Verplex's book giveaway of "Principles of Verifiable RTL" by Harry
Foster & Lionel Bening was worthwhile. I'll still have to attend the
tutorial in July to get the second edition, but this was a really
useful freebie."
"Best freebie: Harry Fosters book Principles of Verifiable RTL design.
Not the most fun one but surely the most useful."
"Worst party: CMP Electronics Party. How many CEO's can you squeeze
into a suite at the MGM Grand?"
"Worst party at DAC: Synopsys at Rum Jungle. What were they thinking?!
A great environment for a drunken frat party, not for a mixed audience
of high-tech professionals. It's the only DAC party I've *ever* paid
my own way "home" from (in order to escape early). And to attend the
Synopsys party, I missed the genuinely interesting Blue Man show hosted
by Simplex :-(."
"The Celerity super-soakers were both the best and the worst freebie at
DAC. (1) you had to sit through an entertaining presentation about a
set of tools that have a very narrow niche in the design community
(parasitics extraction or something related), (2) after the presentation
all attendees were given a super-soaker (best), (3) then you had to get
the monsters home (worst). Some of the guys at the airport said that
their super-soakers were being confiscated at the X-ray machines."
"We went to Verplex party at the Star Trek Experience in the Hilton
- Good food: In Quarks bar from Deep Space Nine. Fun Startrek drinks
(blue one that had mist coming of it, red beer). Dabo girls
with unending supply of appetizers. Buffet.
- Museum: Tons of cool Star Trek stuff. Huge models. They even
had the bottle of champaign that crashed against the new
Enterpise in one of the movies.
- The ride: Could go on again and again. We did it twice. Very
cool. Can't tell you about it. Promised not to."
"Verplex had the best party. The food was great and it kept coming. At
one point we told a waiter that we couldn't eat anymore appetizers to
which he replied, "Yea, you better stop, it's almost time to eat." Then
came a gorgeous buffet. I think the announced end time was nine. At
almost eleven we were still getting free drinks. Great food, music,
drinks, and company.
While Cadence's party was nice, it was over too soon."
"The Loot
- BEST: SuperSoaker: It is huge. From Celestry (a spice-
type timing tool). Everyone wants one, everyone watched
the extremely snake-oil salesman pitch (guy changes hats
and talks in different accents) to get one, everyone is
packin' hardware. I wanted to commandeer some bottled
water from the demo suites, fill my soaker up and go
postal. (Side note: Security at airport would not let
me take it on the plane. I gave mine to them. I bet they
ended up with 4 or 5 each, before the end of DAC.)
- Runners up:
a) Folding flipper calendar with alarm clock : forget who
b) Leatherman and retractable headset : Cadence
c) Mystical orb : forgot who
- Other: T-shirts, T-shirts, T-shirts. Two pair of sunglasses.
Retractable clip from Synopsys. Pens. Fanny pack.
- Stuff not acquired yet: (did not get any of this)
a) Folding camp chair
b) Soccer ball, basket ball
c) Raffle for: radio controlled car, MP3, blue man tickets
- No frizbees, no footballs: my dog Merf will be sad
More Loot:
First the bad news: I could not bring the Supersoaker on the plane,
so I gave it to the folks at the security check. I bet they have
25 each by Friday.
- Cool yellow M&M-style candy guy. Has smiley face instead of M&M.
- More car rags/ I mean T-shirts.
- Entered to win Playstation 2. (did not win)
- Found a frizbee for my dog Merf."
"Someone in the bus who sit next to me said 'Cadence is on top of
Synopsys' when she saw the Cadence and Synopsys signs opposite
to the convention center."
"WORST FREEBIE:
Fully inflated basketballs and soccer balls (just the thing to insert
in one's luggage, next to the DAC proceedings). One vendor was kind
enough to offer me a deflated ball, which was in line with my deflated
expectations.
BEST PARTY:
I enjoyed the Synplicity party most, mainly because it was given at the
hotel where I was staying (Paris), and I did not have to walk over a
mile and through two or more casinos to reach it. Also, it was
relatively quiet and low key, and the deserts were excellent."
"Went to the Denali party, very well attended, very loud music, no way
to converse with anyone. Certainly have a good budget to spend on
these kind of events."
"Synopsys party was a big desolation this year."
"WORST - The Water Gun from Celestry - People have to sit through the
whole presentations to get it. And The Airport security made
you i) either disemble the water gun and put it inside the
carry-on, or ii) you have to check-in the water gun.
BEST - Like the small calendar by Montery System."
"Innoveda's marketing/sales staff should all be dragged into the street
and stoned. Who the hell wants to carry home a big chair?"
"I'm so glad DAC's not going back to Las Vegas for a few years. I can
hardly stand it."
"The freebie-to-die-for was Celestry's super soaker. A friend asked me
to get another one for him, so I suffered through their floor show. I
don't remember anything about their products, but he really liked the
super soaker. The airline wouldn't let them on the plane as carry-on
luggage, though!"
"Celestry supersoaker waterpistol - fantastic giveaway - had to check
it at the airport as an offensive weapon although bright orange and
purple.
Synopsys had best party. Good on them."
"Best: Celestry's SuperSoaker.
Most-Ill-Though-Out: all of the basketballs that you have pack and get
on a plane."
"Best Comedian: Don McMillian at the Mentor booth.
Most Annoying Skit: the magican/card trick guy at Rubicad(?)"
"Worst DEMO for an decent prize was the Celestry Squirt Gun.
Best Party to take your Wife to: HP/Cadence Party at the Hard Rock.
Beach Boys! -- need I say more?
Best Party if you didn't mind you head ringing: Denali at the LUXOR.
It was packed and the band was good."
"Biggest Lie: "The industry is doing great" by the CEO of Cadence
speaking at the Dataquest presentation Sunday night. To be fair, he
was speaking as the chairman of EDAC and not just for Cadence, so
should be tarred with a broader brush. But c'mon, even his
hockey-stick revenue slides only went through 3Q2000!! Was that the
EDAC droids wearing the emperor's new clothes in the back of the hall?"
"Most diappointing vendor party: The Avanti party, because they had
some schmaltzy Vegas Cover Band instead of a Real Vegas Elvis
Impersonator singing Jail House Rock. When you think about it,
opportunities like this don't present themselves all that often, and
it was shocking (shocking I say) to see this one squandered."
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( > )
\ - / - 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."
The complete, searchable ESNUG Archive Site is at http://www.DeepChip.com
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