Local and Regional Conferences
I’m increasingly finding myself attending local and regional conferences and other “events.” I think there are a variety of reasons for attending these events, including:
1. Supporting local/regional organizations and people—they put on this event because they think it is important enough to do so, and most of the time I agree with them. And although sometimes it’s tiring to attend (you know, after a full week of work)…these folks have been working hard for multiple weeks to put this show together.
2. Cheap professional engagement—by attending local/regional events I’m not having to fly and usually I’m able to sleep at home; cheap, cheap, cheap (however, this does then make for a major drawback, see below).
3. Networking, networking, networking—don’t get me wrong, as a scholar trying to stay active in a disciplinary community as well as stay marketable while working at a community college, I need to network with folks outside of my reason; however, for getting stuff down on the home front requires that I network close to home as well. I’m really beginning to enjoy attending local/regional stuff that is not necessarily education focused and making connections with folks outside of the education field. Who knows when I might want to ask one of these folks to guest lecture in a class, present on campus, etc.
However, I’m finding there are a few major problems with attending local conferences as well:
1. I’m not necessarily giving up the national conferences I’m attending; therefore, I’m trying to cram more stuff into a “lazy Rachel” that is already spinning out of control. (My partner in scholarly crime is named Susan and hate’s the fact her name is associated with those devices…so we’ve renamed them.)
2. By staying home I’m more distracted by all the other “work” I have to get done (you know: grading, writing, laundry, house cleaning, clip the dog’s nails, spend time with the partner, etc.). It’s much easier to disconnect from both home and work responsibilities when you actually leave the general vicinity of home and work.
Although I think the benefits outweigh the costs, I miss my partner and he misses me!
Me at the recent PodcampAZ unconference
“Shell[e]y listens” (cc) image posted by sheiladeeisme @ Flickr
Previous entry: Blog a Day for a Month
Commentary
I hear what you’re saying. I get all pumped when I’m at a conference & if I sleep @ home, I get there and other things are going on. Pulls me away from it.
But I sure did like networking here. I hear about and talk to people in SanFrancisco, LA, TX, MA but out of our CyberSalonAZ I didn’t consider more people like us here.