Thanksgiving weekend and the December face-to-face

It was pointed out to me in a private email today that if we have the face-to-face meeting in France the first week of December, and especially if the interop event starts on Monday, it will mean that U.S. participants will likely have to travel the weekend before. Those participating in the interop on Monday would have to either leave on Saturday evening November 29, arrive on Sunday to get settled, and start work on Monday morning, or (more brutal...) leave on Sunday evening, arrive on Monday morning, and start testing that same day -- possibly arriving late depending on flight schedules. The problem is that last weekend of November is Thanksgiving weekend in the U.S., and many people travel to visit family; they might not be back from family trips in time for a business meeting in Europe immediately afterward. Those who would be coming only to the TC face-to-face meeting on Wednesday-Thursday and not to the interop on Monday-Tuesday would be less likely to have a conflict, but some may still be concerned about returning from a family trip and needing to leave for France the same day or the following day.

Regarding my personal situation, my family has no plans to travel anywhere else for Thanksgiving this year. In fact, we don't have a tradition of traveling elsewhere for Thanksgiving, and instead generally organize a large dinner with several other families at church on Thursday and then take the rest of the weekend to recover :-). We don't even go shopping the Friday after Thanksgiving -- crowd avoidance is my motto! But I do understand if there are others who have made plans (or are making plans) and might want to reconsider the dates for the WS-DD interop and face-to-face.

Toby Nixon | Senior Standards Program Manager | Windows Device and Storage Technologies | Microsoft Corporation

toby.nixon@microsoft.com | www.microsoft.com | V: +1 425 706 2792 | M: +1 206 790 6377 | F: +1 425 708 4811

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