Acronym

In speaking with many association people over the past couple days, I can honestly say that for many of us, preparing to attend Annual is also accompanied by another time-honored ritual: the last minute scramble to get as much done as possible before hitting the road.

So it was interesting for me to log in and read everyone's posts in anticipation of the meeting, critiquing the schedule, etc.--things I often think about on the plane at the earliest, or at the first blast of AC in my face as I enter the hall for the first time at the latest. I was very proud of myself for leafing through the schedule to find attractive programs in advance of the event... but also struck by how challenging it is to bet in advance where my time will be best-spent over the course of each day.

On site, I am often the guy you'll see who, five minutes from the end of the program you're sitting in, opens the program book to 'go session shopping,' crossing out a few programs I pencilled in earlier, checking a new one, basically making up my schedule as it goes along, sometimes prompted by need, a negative reaction to the last program I attended, or the simple realization of just how far room 18A is from oh, 19B in this particular convention center. (I also am one of those people who needs track shoes to match my suit as I employ my exit strategy ... if a program doesn't seem to live up to its billing and I had an attractive second alternative, my Type A attitude and degree to which I value my time almost always leads me to sacrifice the five minute walk to get to the other session, even if I wind up standing for it in the back of a crowded room.)

But my real point today is that as attendees we need the right attitude to make the best use of the 18 or so waking hours we spend each day at or near the conference, including what looks like 'down time.' My own Outlook calendar looks scary over the next 4 days despite my lack of planning: 9 receptions, 8 labs, 2 councils, 2 general sessions, 1 stint in a booth, and 8-10 appointments. If I don't get a real 'payback' in terms of learning, social, and reconnecting, I'd be really surprised. But outside those commitments, there is also 'down time' that I've come to appreciate more and more over time. The expo exclusive hours, the 'long' gaps between each session are things I used to resent back when I had hair and was (even more) impatient (than I am now),

On the flights back from Boston and Chicago I wasn't remembering my programmed time so much as I was the people I met in what I used to regard as down times--chatting across a round table waiting for a session to begin, meeting someone randomly in the expo hallway, or just waiting for the shuttle bus. To me these times and the overall ASAE community are an education too. Sometimes we stereotype the hall as being packed with CVB's (and I too appreciate the contribution they make to the overall health of ASAE) but I find many other vendors there and find almost every conversation enlightening. Even if they do something totally unrelated to my work, I learn something--they know the same people, share a common practice, or have a unique perspective. ASAE feels unlike other very large shows I attend, in that most booths are populated by company owners and senior personnel. I hope I am not projecting my own attitudes on others, but unlike the Kevin Circa 1993 who would walk an expo hall avoiding eye contact and mouthing 'no thanks. I don't do that' I now allow myself at least 90 minutes of free time to walk the hall and chat up people. I'm courteous enough to recognize the well coiffed who just want to sell sell sell, but often I get more out of this than I do hearing a first-time speaker do their best to describe his program from a podium. The expo time is utterly unstructured, a bazaar with hundreds of stalls, possibly even intimidating, but personally I've come to find it just as rewarding and educational as the educational programs themselves. I'm kind of glad the schedule isn't even more crowded than it already is!