We Are Getting Serious

This week we have our in-person Executive Committee meeting in beautiful Portland, Oregon. I know I’m biased but I really believe that Portland is worth a visit. It’s a very walkable city with some hidden gems downtown such as the Lan Su Chinese Garden, an oasis in our small but vibrant Chinatown, and Waterfront Park down by the Willamette River. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the weather stays nice so I can show my colleagues some of these sights. We’ve had an incredible summer, though with the first day of fall yesterday the clock is ticking until the rain returns.

But back to the meeting. I promised you a glimpse behind the curtain so here we go. You probably want to know what’s on the agenda, right? We start the meeting with breakfast at 7.30 a.m.; as you know it’s the early bird that catches the worm. No sleeping in when you are on the DAC committee! The official meeting starts at 8.00 a.m. sharp, when I finally get to swing that DAC gavel, a privilege given only to the general chair. We will briefly discuss the agenda, approve the minutes from the last meeting in June and dive right into the budget discussion. We’ll be looking at changes and new investments in more detail. Executive committee members will have a little time to digest all the information as we won’t vote on the budget until the next morning. The rest of the first morning is dedicated to the technical program – the chairs for EDA, Security, IP, Automotive, Special Sessions, and Designer Track will all outline their ideas, introduce their subcommittees and give their plans for invited content. We also will use the first day to review the status of exhibits and our Industry Liaison Committee chair will report from his first meeting, scheduled for this Wednesday in San Jose.

We won’t just talk about the upcoming DAC. Whenever you have such a great team together, you want to utilize the brains and creativity as much as possible, even to talk about the longer-term future of the conference. That’s why Chuck Alpert (who I introduced in week 5) will lead a discussion about DAC after 2015 before we close the meeting at 5 p.m.

What’s for dinner? We usually all go out to eat and chat some more about DAC. This year we are changing that. As there are lots of new faces every year, I thought it would be great to do some team building. So instead of just sitting down to eat, we are going to cook our own meal as a group. I hope nobody throws food at me.

Friday morning we start again at 7:30/8:00 a.m. After voting on the budget, we will dive into the second part of the program discussion. It’s show time for executive committee members leading our panels, tutorials, workshops, co-located events, management day, DAC pavilion, keynotes and SKY talks — basically, all the elements of the conference — to outline their plans. I will update the team on our blog activities and the feedback and input we’ve received so far before Michelle Clancy (introduced in week 11) walks us through the marketing plan. The DAC sponsors will be invited to present their updates and DAC activities before we close the meeting. It’s a pretty full agenda crammed into just a day and a half. And right now is the perfect time for your input – nothing better than getting your ideas heard right at the beginning of the planning cycle.

Only 36 weeks to go!!!