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In Boston for a conference
Jun. 29th, 2008 08:14 pmIt came as rather a surprising discovery to me many years ago that running SF conventions was valuable training. I was working at Honeywell, and my boss was worrying about how to deal with a hotel to rent a room and arrange for a food function. "I know how to do that," I said, and shortly thereafter I was in charge of doing so.
In 2000, I was the secretariat (at least, that's the term I was told I was) for a cryptography convention (Fast Software Encryption 2000) in New York. In convention terms, I was hotel liaison, treasurer, publications, and registration, as well as the administrative end of programming. There were three food functions (reception and two lunches) as well as breakfast and afternoon snacks. After I got over the sticker shock ($90 for a gallon of coffee!), I had a lot of fun. There was a lot less volunteer help, but since the registration fee was $400 and there were corporate sponsors as well, there was a lot more money to play with. The convention went smoothly, and we had some pass-along funds left over for the next year's convention.
Which brings me, eight years later, to another professional convention, this time in Boston, at MIT. This one is less work (no proceedings, thus no large boxes of printed matter to worry about, and no registration fees to deal with). It's also smaller -- 50 or so invited attendees instead of 200 or so at FSE. But it's still the same worries. There was a welcome reception tonight, and I worried (simultaneously) that no one would show up and there wouldn't be enough food. But all went well. Most of the people we expected showed up, there was a decent-sized crowd, they seemed to be having a good time, and we didn't run out of food until the event was almost over. Tomorrow the conference proper starts, and there's dinner at Legal Seafoods in the evening. I won't relax until I'm sure that all the catering works out (there's breakfast, lunch, and afternoon snacks from two different vendors), but so far it's all going swimmingly.
I wouldn't want to do this as a full-time job, but it makes a nice change from the regular routine of work.
In 2000, I was the secretariat (at least, that's the term I was told I was) for a cryptography convention (Fast Software Encryption 2000) in New York. In convention terms, I was hotel liaison, treasurer, publications, and registration, as well as the administrative end of programming. There were three food functions (reception and two lunches) as well as breakfast and afternoon snacks. After I got over the sticker shock ($90 for a gallon of coffee!), I had a lot of fun. There was a lot less volunteer help, but since the registration fee was $400 and there were corporate sponsors as well, there was a lot more money to play with. The convention went smoothly, and we had some pass-along funds left over for the next year's convention.
Which brings me, eight years later, to another professional convention, this time in Boston, at MIT. This one is less work (no proceedings, thus no large boxes of printed matter to worry about, and no registration fees to deal with). It's also smaller -- 50 or so invited attendees instead of 200 or so at FSE. But it's still the same worries. There was a welcome reception tonight, and I worried (simultaneously) that no one would show up and there wouldn't be enough food. But all went well. Most of the people we expected showed up, there was a decent-sized crowd, they seemed to be having a good time, and we didn't run out of food until the event was almost over. Tomorrow the conference proper starts, and there's dinner at Legal Seafoods in the evening. I won't relax until I'm sure that all the catering works out (there's breakfast, lunch, and afternoon snacks from two different vendors), but so far it's all going swimmingly.
I wouldn't want to do this as a full-time job, but it makes a nice change from the regular routine of work.
