In Boston for a conference

[carbonel]

It 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.

Comments

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Neat! And congratulations on the smooth start to it all.

How long are you in town for? I have an Ig (http://improbable.com/ig/) meeting in Cambridge Tuesday evening and expect to be up in Middleton through the rest of the week. You're just a few miles from the NESFA Clubhouse, which will be full of NESFAns Wednesday night.

Do you have any free/down time? Access to the DeCordova (http://www.decordova.org/) Sculpture Park is free after 5pm, and it's a lovely place for walking. I'd be glad to provide the transportation if we can make the timing work. There are also other fun places nearby -- the MIT Museum, Museum of Science, and, if you have any daytime hours available the splendid Glass Flowers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_Flowers) at Harvard are well worth the visit and then some.

Plus there's Toscanini's (http://www.tosci.com/) in Central Square.

I hope it works out to see you.

[carbonel]

I fly back to MSP at oh-dark-thirty on Wednesday morning, so no NESFA clubhouse. I'll be busy pretty much all day and evening today, but my time should be my own on Tuesday evening after the farewell reception -- say 7 pm or so. Which, I suppose, coincides perfectly with your meeting.

I'd love to get together if the timing works, though.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Huh. I thought I posted a reply Monday morning. You're right, my meeting starts exactly at 7pm. It's likely to go for a couple of hours. I'm going to be all of 2.15 miles away from you -- depending on how late the meeting goes, a short jaunt over to Toscanini's afterward, perhaps? It's only 2 blocks away from you.

I can call and reality check whether the timing works for you when we're through.

My cell number is the same as it was in 2002...is yours? I'll follow up in email...

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

I had some similar experience when I worked on conferences for Training magazine. It wasn't what I did full-time year 'round--I also worked on the magazine itself--and I don't think I could handle it full-time permanently. But it was often fun. At the conferences themselves (rather than the planning time), my job was essentially to run around putting out fires. Exhausting, but challenging in a good way. All of this did not, however, give me a great deal of respect for the HR field in general. The prima donna quotient plus the emperor's-new-clothes factor...