Here are my tips for having a successful Siggraph event. I've not been to every Siggraph, but 2006 will be my eighth Siggraph in all, and fourth consecutive. These are some things I've learned over the years.
Register on Saturday night (6:00 to 8:00 p.m. this year)
This allows you to get your stuff (shirts, dvds, proceedings, etc.) and take it to your hotel room so you don't have to schlep it around all day. As an alternative, you can register on Sunday morning, but don't pick your stuff up until the end of day when you're headed back to the hotel.
Food at the convention center is expensive
Unfortunately, in LA, you don't have a lot of options close by (i.e. walking distance) and you could drop twelve dollars on a sandwich, a piece of fruit and a drink. In San Diego, walk into the Gaslamp and eat there. I don't know about Boston.
Take snacks
Otherwise you end up paying three dollars for an apple. In the past, water has been easy to get. Take an empty bottle with you in the morning.
Wear comfy shoes
'Nuff said.
Start training early
My feet always hurt at the end of the week. This year, I've started walking several miles a couple of times a week to prepare. Hopefully that will help.
Plan ahead
Use the web and see what's going on each day and make a schedule. Prioritize your schedule (I'm usually triple-booked for most of the conference). That way, if you get bored in a session, know where you want to go next After you go to registration on Saturday night, look over the handouts for new additions to the schedule.
Attend the Papers fast forward
I don't usually do the papers. I can read them in the proceedings later, and unless the paper is in an area I know really well, they usually go by too fast for me to keep up with. The fast forward lets you see what's there. You can always change your mind.
Attend sessions that likely won't be on the dvd
Most industry courses and sketches don't make it on to the DVD's you can buy. See the presentations you can only see at the conference while you're there; do the rest on DVD later on. This is probably the major deciding factor for breaking the triple-booking. If I think a session won't be on the DVD, it rises to the top of the priority list.
Use the course notes
Get the course notes off the dvd and take them with you on a laptop. This saves you from having to take so many notes. Another reason to register on Saturday night. You used to be able to buy printed course note for outrageous prices, but I think they stopped doing that last year.
Attending Parties
If you're a man, hang around with women (good advice in general). If you're an attractive woman, you can pretty much get into any party you want with or without an invite. If you're a guy with a woman, you stand a much better chance of getting in. Not that I would really know. I'm such a geek, I've been known to go back to my hotel and write a raytracer after Henrik Wann Jensen's photon mapping course than try and attend a party.
Exhibition purchasing
Buy books in the exhibition hall, they're usually discounted over the ones sold outside the exhibition. Also, most vendors will ship (sometimes for free if you buy in quantity e.g. buy three books) back home for you. This is the advice I almost never follow. Last year, my bag was 48 pounds due to the books I bought. If it had been 50 pounds, I would have had to pay the airline extra.
Here are some other Siggraph tips
Jim Blinn also wrote an article called "How to attend a Siggraph conference" that appeared in Computer Graphics and Applications, Vol 15 Issue 4. I think it was reprinted in his book "Dirty Pixels". I read it quite a number of years ago and think it was pretty good. I couldn't find an online copy. Sorry.
Good luck and I hope to see you at Siggraph!
