My very second business trip, day 4
Sep. 7th, 2012 10:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eveglassThe good news: My cold seems to have finally turned the corner. The better news: I've got a sperm-shaped pin! It's so cool!
Good news! The triple forces of turning off my air conditioner, the vaporizer from Nicole the Hotel Liaison, and sleeping almost upright seems to have sent my cold into a rapid retreat (or, as my Heavy Gear group might say, a "retrograde advance"). I woke up this morning a bit congested, but nowhere near as bad as yesterday. Huzzah!
Got downstairs for 6:30 and opened the reg desk at 7:00, not that we were very busy. The first lecture was at 8:00, but most people who wanted badges had claimed them yesterday. A few people picked theirs up, but it wasn't the mad rush of yesterday. Things were very calm for most of the day. I created some signs, registered some people for tomorrow night's President's Dinner, and printed some badges and some certificates of attendance, but really things were very calm today. I found myself feeding my dragons in DragonVale pretty frequently.
It occurred to me today that the problem with being at the registration desk is that I don't actually get to attend any of the talks, many of which sound pretty interesting. (Though today's were mostly clinical and way beyond my current understanding level.)
Incidentally, we got our first media story today -- a piece in the Ottawa Citizen about one of our keynote speakers who gave the opening lecture yesterday.
Food-wise, breakfast today was pretty much the same as yesterday: croissant with peanut butter, orange juice, and a few berries. Unlike yesterday, I did not resist the temptation of scones at morning break... with whipped cream. Lunch was okay (salads and half a tuna salad sandwich) and I even managed to avoid taking one of the many, many brownies. I took one teeny-tiny dessert square at afternoon break, but that barely counts at all. The wine and cheese probably counts a bit more. And while supper was very good -- lamb chops with broccoli and a small piece of bread beforehand -- it was probably more than I should have eaten. In fact, most dinners I've had this week have been good but about twice as large as they needed to be.
Late in the afternoon, I decided to check out the exhibitors' room (because that's where the food was) and discovered all the sperm-themed swag. So much fun! There's sperm stress balls (you squeeze the head), sperm key-chains, glow-in-the-dark sperm, metal sperm... My favorites are the pens with the light-up swimming sperm at the end, and my nifty sperm pin that I totally plan on wearing on the train back home. Just because I can. I've already had a number of people ask for pins, but I'll have to see whether there are any left when the exhibitor's lounge closes down tomorrow evening.
After I closed the reg desk at 5:15, I went to a lecture on dealing with the media, given by Anita the PR Rep. Interesting stuff, even if I'm not planning on giving any interviews any time soon. Then we both headed over to the wine-and-cheese poster session (in which people who submitted abstracts present their posters/research findings). I had about a half-glass of wine and a bit more cheese and crackers while schmoozing with those few people I knew and apologizing for not shaking hands. (Most people were quite grateful when I mentioned that the reason is that I didn't want to make them sick.)
After we'd fortified ourselves and Anita gave a brief pitch for a "media relations training roadshow" to one of our sponsors, we went down to the hotel restaurant for dinner. It wound up being slightly more expensive than I anticipated because unlike lunch, the dinner main courses don't come with any sides. So if you want anything other than a slab of fish or meat, stuff like vegetables or fries or pretty much anything, you've got to order it separately. And at $7-8 a pop, that adds up fast. (For prices, you can check out the dinner menu.) In the end, Anita had one of the catch of the day specials, I had the lamb chops I'd been craving since yesterday, and we split an order of steamed broccoli. (I swear, they probably gave us a whole broccoli head. It was a massive serving.)
It was really nice to spend some time chatting with Anita. Both of us are laypeople who are getting involved in the field from the outside (her from media relations, me from administration), so we've shared a lot of the same "I have no idea what you're talking to me about" moments when chatting to people who work in clinics or labs.
Anyway, by the time we were done dinner, it was about 9:00, and I decided it was time to come back up to my room. And here I am. Time enough for a shower and then I'm gonna crash out before starting up again tomorrow. Tomorrow's gonna be a really long day: all day at the reg desk, followed by the Annual General Meeting (which I may be in charge of taking minutes for), another wine-and-cheese poster session, and the President's Dinner, which is probably going to run moderately late. So I'd best get my beauty rest tonight. Or, failing that, my healthful, healing sleep. G'night all.
Good news! The triple forces of turning off my air conditioner, the vaporizer from Nicole the Hotel Liaison, and sleeping almost upright seems to have sent my cold into a rapid retreat (or, as my Heavy Gear group might say, a "retrograde advance"). I woke up this morning a bit congested, but nowhere near as bad as yesterday. Huzzah!
Got downstairs for 6:30 and opened the reg desk at 7:00, not that we were very busy. The first lecture was at 8:00, but most people who wanted badges had claimed them yesterday. A few people picked theirs up, but it wasn't the mad rush of yesterday. Things were very calm for most of the day. I created some signs, registered some people for tomorrow night's President's Dinner, and printed some badges and some certificates of attendance, but really things were very calm today. I found myself feeding my dragons in DragonVale pretty frequently.
It occurred to me today that the problem with being at the registration desk is that I don't actually get to attend any of the talks, many of which sound pretty interesting. (Though today's were mostly clinical and way beyond my current understanding level.)
Incidentally, we got our first media story today -- a piece in the Ottawa Citizen about one of our keynote speakers who gave the opening lecture yesterday.
Food-wise, breakfast today was pretty much the same as yesterday: croissant with peanut butter, orange juice, and a few berries. Unlike yesterday, I did not resist the temptation of scones at morning break... with whipped cream. Lunch was okay (salads and half a tuna salad sandwich) and I even managed to avoid taking one of the many, many brownies. I took one teeny-tiny dessert square at afternoon break, but that barely counts at all. The wine and cheese probably counts a bit more. And while supper was very good -- lamb chops with broccoli and a small piece of bread beforehand -- it was probably more than I should have eaten. In fact, most dinners I've had this week have been good but about twice as large as they needed to be.
Late in the afternoon, I decided to check out the exhibitors' room (because that's where the food was) and discovered all the sperm-themed swag. So much fun! There's sperm stress balls (you squeeze the head), sperm key-chains, glow-in-the-dark sperm, metal sperm... My favorites are the pens with the light-up swimming sperm at the end, and my nifty sperm pin that I totally plan on wearing on the train back home. Just because I can. I've already had a number of people ask for pins, but I'll have to see whether there are any left when the exhibitor's lounge closes down tomorrow evening.
After I closed the reg desk at 5:15, I went to a lecture on dealing with the media, given by Anita the PR Rep. Interesting stuff, even if I'm not planning on giving any interviews any time soon. Then we both headed over to the wine-and-cheese poster session (in which people who submitted abstracts present their posters/research findings). I had about a half-glass of wine and a bit more cheese and crackers while schmoozing with those few people I knew and apologizing for not shaking hands. (Most people were quite grateful when I mentioned that the reason is that I didn't want to make them sick.)
After we'd fortified ourselves and Anita gave a brief pitch for a "media relations training roadshow" to one of our sponsors, we went down to the hotel restaurant for dinner. It wound up being slightly more expensive than I anticipated because unlike lunch, the dinner main courses don't come with any sides. So if you want anything other than a slab of fish or meat, stuff like vegetables or fries or pretty much anything, you've got to order it separately. And at $7-8 a pop, that adds up fast. (For prices, you can check out the dinner menu.) In the end, Anita had one of the catch of the day specials, I had the lamb chops I'd been craving since yesterday, and we split an order of steamed broccoli. (I swear, they probably gave us a whole broccoli head. It was a massive serving.)
It was really nice to spend some time chatting with Anita. Both of us are laypeople who are getting involved in the field from the outside (her from media relations, me from administration), so we've shared a lot of the same "I have no idea what you're talking to me about" moments when chatting to people who work in clinics or labs.
Anyway, by the time we were done dinner, it was about 9:00, and I decided it was time to come back up to my room. And here I am. Time enough for a shower and then I'm gonna crash out before starting up again tomorrow. Tomorrow's gonna be a really long day: all day at the reg desk, followed by the Annual General Meeting (which I may be in charge of taking minutes for), another wine-and-cheese poster session, and the President's Dinner, which is probably going to run moderately late. So I'd best get my beauty rest tonight. Or, failing that, my healthful, healing sleep. G'night all.
