I used to think that all conferences sucked. Then I started canceling class to go to non-academic conferences (one of my early attempts to get fired) and found out that there was life beyond academic snarking.
Right now I’m at a film festival/conference in a city with breakfast tacos (hint: it’s Austin). The panelists are all nice, normal people who talk about quality of life and non-dead writers. I just saw a panel of jokewriters — some of my very favoritest people to hear talk — and there’s a panel on Everybody Loves Raymond later this afternoon. Involving its creator, I mean, and not just people who want to wank off about television.
The great thing is, you don’t have to write a paper to get in. You just have to give them money. As a person who values my own time pretty highly, I think of it as paying for the convenience: you just shell out the bucks directly instead of wasting man-hours on your “contribution.” There are also parties that serve you free food and drink, and I mean good food and drink, not those lame cheese plates.
Anyway, I’d highly recommend attending random conferences for getting out of a rut. The students loved it when I’d come back and tell them I’d seen the creator of Arrested Development speak or met a Family Guy writer — I can’t imagine why this was more exciting than the latest theory on why Horace’s odes should be in a different order. Kids these days.
I’d better go get going, though. Since Hollywood hardly ever gets academia right, I’ve still gotta work on that elevator pitch for a new FX-style drama, Professors on the Edge.
UPDATE: Thanks to the Movie Bros. for posting this reminder on the Facebook page — it’s got almost every classic joke in it! And (sigh) apologies for the slightly politically incorrect joke, for those who might be offended…
First of all, love the nod to Airplane in your title. Second, can I help develop professors on the edge? I had to cover a class for another prof last night and I felt like I was wearing someone else’s pants.
Oh yes, this is a group effort waiting to happen…see next post!
“It’s an entirely different kind of conference,” she replies.
Your conference sounds fabulous, and I am jealous, and will be now be scouring fantastic conferences in my area. I believe knitting knerds comes to town next month.
Enjoy~
Oh, I will, and I’ll try to share some of the fun! Hope there’s something cool in your area, though — and seriously, even a random corporate conference can be fun if you treat it like you’re an anthropologist, or better yet, pretend you’re one of them and see if you can pull it off. Or maybe that’s just me…
For some reason I never think about non-academic conferences as an option – thanks for the reminder! Glad you’re having fun. I bet it’s a nice break from the job hunt!
Yup, this was definitely a deliberate job-hunting break, and it was a good one. And seriously, you do music, you could totally write SXSW off as a research expense!!
I used to live near Austin and loved all their cool film and music festivals. I miss having the time and money to attend things that are actually really enjoyable. Yet another reason why academe isn’t as exciting as I had hoped. Even when I get to go to interesting cities for conferences, I’m stuck inside the entire time listening to people drone on about whatever. On occasion there are great papers and people to talk to at academic conferences; the rest of the time it just feels like a punishment . . . or something I certainly shouldn’t be paying to attend.
Yup, that was exactly my problem with academic conferences — no one’s having any fun, we’re not seeing the city, and this is costing me money?
You should move to Austin. My collaborator and I are trying to make it the center of the PhD revolution