What can you say about a writers' conference that tries to cram too much into a mere two days? In fact, it was less than two days, and there was no hanging-out time planned for, as the vast majority of professional writers' conferences always include. Evening networking receptions provide a certain amount of author-wannabe author-agent chatting; however, there's nothing like taking a shuttle to the San Diego Zoo for two or three hours, with other attendees who are also suffering from sensory overload, or hiking down the hill to the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific. I'm sure you can think of plenty of other examples for your own favorite locales.

Given that the hard-working SDSU volunteeers have put on this conference for 22 years now, it's a shame they haven't picked up some tips from other major conferences like it. Perhaps they just like to do it their way. But when you have 84 50-minute sessions crammed into two days, no one can get to even the smallest percentage of everything they want to attend. And expecting people to pay $10 for a tape or $12.50 for a CD of each individual session they couldn't get to, is a bit mercenary. This is particularly so, when the recordings have inevitable gaps in them, stemming from the fact a person had to run back into the room to turn over the cassette at just the right time. Rarely did that go smoothly in the eleven sessions I attended.

Most people really don't care for dandelion, chickweed, and arugula salad at lunch either, not even with spinach leaves thrown in. (I'm guessing here, as the ingredients in the salad were actually difficult to identify.) A plain Garden Salad would have satisfied more of us, as would having the option of distilled water, without having to purchase it at the hotel gift shop. San Diego visitors are not immune to travelers' diarrhea, and I say that as someone who dearly loves to visit the city and its attractions! But if I drink the local water, I get sick every single time. And this has been going on for 20 years or more, in all seasons.

Let's hear it for making a good conference a great conference in the future! When people have paid $365 for just two days--just for the program itself--they shouldn't have to pay any extra for anything. Not distilled water, not all of their own beverages at the evening receptions, not $14 for a box lunch, not individual tapes... Well, you get the idea.