The conference glitch
Published on Jan 10, 2007 at 5:13 pm.
No Comments.
Filed under conference blogging.
Every conference has one. Something doesn’t work. It is sometimes a blown bulb in a projector. Once I was at a conference where the fire alarm went off. And, there was another time when we were told to move to another part of the building because a tornado had been spotted in the area. It is not at all uncommon for room numbers to change for the sessions. But, today I saw one glitch that I’d never seen before.
The poster sessions run through today. According to the printed schedule, the posters are up until late this afternoon. Also, the exhibitors are supposed to have their things out until late today. Well, that is great. I had told people that I’d bring some souveniers from the conference. I already got some, and I was planning to grab a few more this afternoon. Well, I went to lunch and then to mail a couple post cards. When I got back, there was mass confusion. The convention center staff were dragging all the posters out of the exhibit hall into the lobby. Presenters had gone to lunch, many leaving belongings with their posters, and now all was scrambled. Posters on like topics are grouped together, but now they were all scrambled. I normlly walk through, get a quick survey, and then go back to talk to the poster presenters and get more information. Now, nobody can find anyone’s poster. It is all out of order. What happened? Well, apparently the printed schedule said until late in the afternoon, but the convention center staff schedule said until noon, so they were kicking everyone out. I didn’t get to pick up the remaining do-dads. :( But, that isn’t the worst thing. I know that if I were a poster presenter, I’d really be upset and feel slighted if my poster session was half as long as everyone else’s.
Every conference has its glitches, but this is the first time in over two decades of conferences that I’ve ever seen anything like this. And it was done over lunch when few people were around. Can you say “poor planning”?
But, other than this glitch, it has been a wonderful conference, with the exception of clouds so that I couldn’t see the comet. But, clouds in Seattle are to be expected, and a couple years ago when they picked this week at this location, nobody had any idea about the comet!
-Astroprof
