The Conference is Over; Long Live the Conference

Well, apparently it's time to go home. The conference is over and there's nothing left to do but pack and catch a flight in the morning. It was a good conference for me - I got some work done (but not as much as I wanted); I saw some good talks (but missed a couple I should have gone to); and I got to see my good friends and meet new potential collaborators. All in all, I couldn't ask for much better.

The best part about the conference, at least for me and mine, is that we generally have a Wed. or Thurs. group dinner. Dinner then morphs into a night on a patio drinking and smoking cigars. This year was no exception. After a long dinner at McCormick and Schmick's, most of the group (twelve of us) pulled up some chairs outside and enjoyed one of the great things about academic conferences - sitting with old friends, cracking jokes and reminiscing. My adviser's adviser has a close bond with many of his former students, and that group, along with their students (academic cousins?) are some of my favorite people. We have similar senses of humor, taste in cigars, and a general willingness to have a good time. It's also a group that is very welcoming to the new students that are joining up. My buddy Dom made his first FiO trip this year and I think he was integrated into the group quite well.

I also enjoy Thursdays at the conference because I see a wide assortment of random talks. Mon-Wed. I try to go talks that seem relevant in between trying to work with collaborators on papers. On Thursday, though, I feel obligated to see as many talks as I can just to get my money's worth out of the conference. Some of the talks I end up seeing are clunkers, but some of them are really cool. I just move from room to room with little rhyme or reason. I often walk into a room and then see someone I've met at a student function or just sitting in the lobby giving a talk. Somehow, even though I meet these people at the conference, I guess it doesn't register with me that I might actually see them talk.

I had a great time this year, and I'm looking forward to coming back. I'll have one or two more posts wrapping up ideas from the conference - one to describe my new ideas for how the conference should be run (the sporting event analogy) and maybe a good story or two I've kept out of the blog so far.