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April 11, 2003
Utah NANOG
NANOG, the North American Network Operators Group, is (probably) the oldest, longest-running forum for Internet network operators. I attended my first NANOG in Atlanta in November, 1998. I remember it very well; it was at that NANOG that I decided to focus on a technical career instead of business management (which was where I had ended up as a company owner at that time).
I have attended as many NANOG meetings as I could since then. I enjoy meeting and talking to the people who attend NANOG. I use information from NANOG presentations in network designs and to improve network operations regularly.
For many years, I've wanted to have a NANOG conference in Salt Lake. Until I worked at UEN, I've not had the resources (or time) to do that. Last year I started planning to host NANOG in Salt Lake and in December, Merit agreed consider UEN for the Summer 2003 NANOG. After some intense work with Merit and several local hotels, UEN and UofU were selected to host NANOG in Salt Lake City in June. This is the first time NANOG will be held in Salt Lake.
It's been quite a bit of work. We will be hosting 400-500 of the senior network operators in North America and many other parts of the world. I guess it's something like having the Martha Stewart convention at your house. For the 3-4 days they are in Utah, they will use UEN's network continuously. It's our job to make sure the network works, the hotel is wired (and wireless), people can register, and that people enjoy their time in Salt Lake as much as possible.
Fortunately, many people have volunteered to help make NANOG happen. About 15 people from UEN, UofU and even the community have offered to help man the registration desk, run cables, hand out T-shirts.
Today I finished (with Troy's help) our Web page for NANOG. This will be linked from the NANOG 28 page, to help visitors get more acquainted with Salt Lake.
There's still work to be done, but things are coming together, and I (and lots of other people) are getting excited about NANOG.
Posted by pete at April 11, 2003 11:32 PM