i've concluded something.
of all the times to attend a conference, this month and year ranks as the most inopportune. it feels petulant to give this as a reason, but i have thesis corrections to do and no time to do them [1]. next week is another conference and a similar lack of time.
it's not just the corrections. there are indirect consequences.
i had hoped that the next time i attend a conference, i'd have more questions in mind and more inclination to talk to people, possibly foster collaborations .. in general, be more interested and involved.
instead, my thesis consumes my thoughts, and i have to remind myself to be hospitable. i should remember that my friends and colleagues are here, that they're here when i am here, and after this year this will become a very rare thing.
it could be the size of the conference,
but something about it makes me inclined to edge away.
i felt the same way last august in helsinki. i felt like saying nothing and being ignored. this time around, it seems much more difficult.
so i think i greatly misplanned things, this may. despite my best efforts to assure people that it was all right to attend the other parallel section and to miss my talk --
as i've said before, in all honesty, and will say again, "if i wasn't giving my own talk, i'd attend that one!"
-- friends and acquaintances have apologized and promised to hear it next week. that's quite flattering and more than considerate, but there's a problem.
i'm not giving the same talk:
it will be about analysis, but not in the same subfield.
it's about something completely different: some work i did with the advisor about a thesis problem which never became a thesis.
a friend of mine even went to my talk on monday because next week, he and i will have the same time slot and give talks in parallel sessions. he made all that effort and he'll still not hear all that i have to say for these two weeks.
argh......
there seems a protocol for back-to-back conferences of which i was ignorant -- that it's okay to give roughly the same talk. somehow i thought the opposite principle was true -- that one should not bore the audience with much of the same.
it just goes to show you: my talks never go right at conferences.
[1] that's not quite true.
tomorrow (wednesday) afternoon is free of talks;
i might agree to meet people in the evening -- there's a party planned -- and disappear for a few hours to LaTeX and be frustrated.
5 comments:
It's not just for back-to-back conferences. A number of speakers gave the same talk as in Helsinki last August (like Peter Jones today). And why not? Not everyone was there, and even those who were probably did not understand everything on the first try. Also, one can talk about the same theorem but with different examples to illustrate it.
Finally, the participants have a program of the conference and can decide for themselves if they want to listen to you. You do not bring anyone to a conference room by force.
Also, one can talk about the same theorem but with different examples to illustrate it.
that's a little trouble for me; i don't know of many nontrivial but accessible examples to give!
i never thought to forcibly bring someone to my talk, of course. i'm just saying that i unintentionally and regrettably played a part in causing an inconvenience. that's all.
it just didn't occur to me what people were expecting.
there is a little irksome thing, though. i don't mind meeting with a few people who ask me to tell them about my work, but i'd rather avoid too many of these "catch-up" sessions.
call it a mild, irrational neurosis, but in such a case i wouldn't be able to shake the fact that i was being repetitive and boring. even if the listener has never heard it before, i judge by my own internal count.
lastly: i was wondering if you'd check this blog regularly over the conference, L. q:
I'm not checking it regularly. I'm just subscribed to your RSS feed... and 164 other feeds... but I can quit any time I want.
And did Peter Jones translate another part of Völuspá?
I hope you've had a great conference! I'm stuck here preparing for the Spring show of the dance school...
hi saara,
i don't think i fully appreciated either of the two conferences. too much worry about the thesis, which happily is now over.
it wasn't bad, though -- either of them. tomasz seems happier, now that he is done and has a job.
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