First Computers & Writing Con
[edit: pics added 5/24]
As are most folks, I’m in recovery from the conference.
I spent yesterday in Frankenmuth, MI with K., taking as many snapshots of us posing with a variety of tourist-trap sculptures (if only I can find a cable so I can transfer the images from the camera–bad packing list): a fiberglass giraffe; the giant mouse head on slice-o-cheese; 9 ft tall angels (at the world’s largest Christmas store). Not sure why we get pleasure from this sort of activity.
Anyway, I met a lot fun and brilliant folks this week (and was able to put faces with many for whom I only through blogs). I greatly appreciated the mentoring and support in our community (all the encouragement/info from Bradley; I’ll start some home brewing as some as, well, I’m done with grad school). I’d especially like to thank Scot for putting up with up to 2 hrs of driving a day introducing me to his peeps.
As a ped-head, hearing so much theory floating around reinforced how valuable it is to what I’m working on, even if I can’t escape the pull of the pedagogical imperative.
As far as the conference itself, it was the best I have attended. My only major complaint is Why have Sunday panels? And this goes for all the big cons. Not only are people leaving for home, but there are organizational meeting running concurrently. Low attendance sucks. No attendance is worse. Why not start a day earlier or reduce the number of panels to avoid this? If it weren’t for a couple friends/colleagues (Scot and Annette) and Jody Shipka (thanks for coming!), I was about to thank the first two panelists for their presentations and walk out. I’ve done the present to just the other panelists before. Why bother?
All in all, great trip, good beer (loved the DBC IPA), and I wish I had had more time to walk around and see everything Detroit has to offer.
The two-hour drive didn’t bother me so much, though I can’t fathom how some people (many, actually) make that drive everyday. Why???
Sounds like you’re having fun still in MI, or, as I like to call it, the “Superlative State”…
Comment by Scot — May 22, 2007 @ 2:14 pm
It was good to meet you, Rick. As another C&W first-timer, I agree about the conference being good, although I am sorry to hear that the panel turnout on Sunday was low. I can’t remember if I mentioned that the panel I attended late Saturday afternoon (before bumping into you and Scot) had just two of us in the audience. Since the Sunday sessions are up against meetings, anyway, it makes sense to squeeze them in closer to the start of the conference.
Comment by Derek — May 22, 2007 @ 2:46 pm
Ah, Frankenmuth, the yearly stop for my high school german club trip. I remember running around that town trying to get into trouble….
Comment by K8 — May 22, 2007 @ 4:42 pm
Derek, it was great to meet you too. Katy and Scot, I added some pics from the trip, so far.
Comment by Rick — May 24, 2007 @ 1:53 pm
If it’s possible, the Storm Trooper painting is even more disturbing out of context…
Comment by Scot — May 24, 2007 @ 9:19 pm
The answer to why Sunday…
The conference’s tradition is to be inclusive and to allow folks to do as many talks as they want (which is not the policy of a larger event like CCCC). To do that, you have a high acceptance rate and a lot of panels. With that, you need all three days.
All CWs take place over three days (plus the one day for GRN/Workshops). Like other conferences, however, folks don’t always stay for the whole event.
Comment by jeff — May 31, 2007 @ 2:52 am
I’ve only been involved in planning one conference (last summer’s GLS), so I’ve been attuned to conference organization and experiences this past year. Thanks for the clarification, Jeff.
I think it’s great that C&W allows for more than one speaking role–which makes me think (and this, I’m sure, would be a major headache for conference organizers) first time and one time presenters should go earlier during the week. First-timers because I think it would (1) help funnel audiences to their presentations (something I saw happen on Friday) and (2) give them a positive experience that might influence them to return & one-timers for the first reason.
Also, if the con (any con, for that matter) didn’t include a Sunday, but rather started a day earlier, I don’t think there be as big of an issue. Sure, even Saturday attendance will taper off, but Sunday is a major travel day so as to get home for work on Monday. But, maybe getting that extra weekday off for the event causes other probs.
Comment by Rick — June 4, 2007 @ 1:01 pm