We made a commitment this year to go all-in on conferences. It was a worthwhile bet but not one that we’ll repeat moving forward. There are still a couple more this year, too, but next year we’re going to double down on the few that worked and skip the rest. This week, we went to SEETA, one of the conferences that worked best for us in 2024. It helps that it is co-hosted by schools that mean we can drive instead of fly and that we can put on smaller events for during the rest of the year. We generally wait until spring to host events on campus, but we probably will again this school year at at least one of the four participating universities.

I am an introvert who tends to shut down in the face of sensory overload, especially auditory overload. I’m not a big concert person for this reason. Being at a conference, though, requires me to be “on” for hours upon hours and to be talking to people most of that time. Sure I’m able to steal a few minutes here and there in order to find some quiet and recharge, but it’s like your phone being on 5% charge and you only have enough time to plug it in to get up to 10%. Big receptions with lots of people and a wall of sound make this even harder, but I can white knuckle it for a while. And don’t even get me started on the insanity of pumping music into a conference event space.

I’m also still not used to the way people at ETA conferences will walk up to me and start a conversation as if I know them since they’ve watched some of our webinars. It is something of a de facto business development filter for this reason. The best side effect of this parasocial dynamic, though, is that people will self-select and approach me at these events so that I don’t have to guess who I should try to speak with in a crowded reception hall.

Charlottesville was lovely and I wish I had an extra day to explore it more. It was very warm on Friday but we were inside and then the weather was nice by the time the event ended late Saturday afternoon and we joined one of our classmates and his family for pizza. I also walked on UVA’s campus on Sunday morning before driving back. It has more historical buildings than most college campuses, though there was ample construction taking place too, and there were very few people milling about given when I was there. Dinner on both Friday and Saturday were good. Friday, we ate late at a comfort food Southern type of place amongst a cluster of restaurants in an otherwise residential area and Saturday was pizza. I also walked through the downtown area Saturday night. It is definitely a college town, for better and worse.