After yesterday's post about RaTLoCC 2009 (Ramsey Theory in Logic, Combinatorics, and Complexity) at Bertinoro some people emailed me and others commented asking Did you like it?. AH- my post was about what I learned there but not whether I liked it. IT WAS GREAT! I was at Dagstuhl Complexity a few weeks earlier and that was also GREAT! Some comparisons:
- Both meetings had the same format. Guests are invited, the area is specialized, there are talks in the morning, then a long lunch break (12:00-3:00 or so) then more talks. Also an excursion-- a Hike in Germany and a Guided Tour of a city nearby in Italy.
- Dagstuhl had 50 people or so, of which I probably knew 30 before hand. Bertinoro had 28 people of so, of which I probably knew 2 before hand. Both are good- I got to meet NEW people at both.
- I got more out of Bertinoro. There were talks at Bertinoro where stuff I learned about Ramsey Theory 10 years ago was all I needed. At Dagstuhl I needed more recent background knowledge that I often didn't have.
- I got more out of both then I do out of conferences which, by their nature, ONLY have the latest results.
- At Dagstuhl out last meal was served late which was annoying since we had a plane to catch. At Bertinoro all meals were served on time. While some may use this to support the tired stereotype that Italians are better at organization then the Germans I stand by my prior postings about stereotypes (I'm against them).
to your last sentence:
ReplyDeletethe usual german and italian stereotype are the other way around: italians come too late, and don't care much about it, while germans are in time, no matter if something else would have been more important, and organize everything very pedantically, be it a party or mass murder.
and they also lack a sense of irony
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