I remember NIPS being less terrible back in the day: the Google robots read their corporate slide decks, but we mostly ignored them, and they didn't have walls

I remember NIPS being less terrible back in the day: the Google robots read their corporate slide decks, but we mostly ignored them, and they didn't have walls of sponsors with fine gradations... https://imgur.com/a/Hn3Aa https://imgur.com/a/Hn3Aa