So, I went to a conference this week. A conference that I (that is supposed to be capital, but “i” is always capitalized and so it is difficult to tell) did not select for myself.
These are dangerous things for me – conferences not of my choosing. It would be different if it was something that I didn’t know about, but could find interesting once I learned more. This was not that. This was something that I know about and don’t want to know more about because I feel like it isn’t forward thinking.
How many people feel this way in the audience? How many were sent by their boss to gather info? And, even how many more will go back and just casually mention “stuff” from the conference in a meeting and then not implement anything from it?
Why do we keep holding these things in big conference centers with “free food” and vendors that hang out all day hoping that someone will come to their booth during breaks? And, hoping that people will come to their booth for something besides the free gadgets?
There has to be a better way. I really should figure out the better way. It is hard to do so whilst glazed over eyes try to deeply listen to information of absolutely no interest.
Even worse is when you find yourself at the lunch or in the hallways held hostage by a small group of people that think you are interested and then start name dropping about people that you don’t know about and don’t really care to know about.
Ah, well, I’ve said this before, but perhaps I’m the problem in the equation.
This is so different than the human capital conference I attended in Arizona earlier this year. I came away pumped and motivated and…I did implement.
Now, not so much. Just writing about it made me tired. Best to sleep it off and hope that tomorrow brings bigger things. But, the inspiration for those bigger things is going to have to come from something else tomorrow.
