Weekend in Review

[yesthattom]

I went to BiZone's Endless Possibilities Conference this weekend. I had an excellent time. Big difference between last time (2002) and this one? A _lot_ of people had LJ's. (I know I'll miss tons of people if I try, but I know that njslutmuffin, puzzld1, logisticslad, bensong1, cloacabutt and many others. Reply to this post if I missed ya!)

I ended up facilitating the "Relationships" panel, helped a lot with A/V for the keynote and the video room. I lead the closing ceremony, which went less well than last year (which was my fault). The party on friday night was really fun and I got to meet a lot of new people. I think the co-chairs did an excellent job this year, as did the whole committee.

I always am disappointed that there weren't more people. However, there certainly was enough people to have critical mass... everyone that was there had a good time. However, I'm always curious what we could do to get a bigger turn-out. I may be playing with fire, but I'm always curious about why I don't see 100% of my friends at this conferences... I mention the conference at every opportunity and yet I often get feedback from friends saying, "Oh, I didn't know it was happening!". Feel free to post anonymously if there was something in particular that kept you away (something that we could have controlled :-) ).

Comments

[jcspd.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry I didn't go :-( I always feel such an obligation to go these things (which I should), and I always end up never having any time. It just fell at a really bad time for me, with all the exams/papers I had, plus I felt it imperative to go to the march yesterday.

My spirit was with you guys, though :-(

[geminigirl]

You make a really good point there; I know that in college, and grad school, there were quite a few occasions when Tom would mention something like this to me, and it would be either outside of my budget (because even though sometimes you can offer to swap work hours for conference registration, there's still travel, meals and lodging) or too close to finals or midterms.

[jcspd.livejournal.com]

yeah, the budget thing is a good point too. This weekend, I was considering goign to a GenderPac conference, but I quite simply can't afford it (plus, I have 2 15 page papers due Monday)

[xeger.livejournal.com]

It overlapped with a different conference - and I've been trying to ration my conference/away-time budget.

[geminigirl]

I would have loved to have been there; salliesandbags had actually talked to me about being on a panel, which I'd have been overjoyed to do. I had a work obligation on Saturday night (major annual fundraiser) which would have kept me away even if the March hadn't been on Sunday morning. I wonder how many people felt forced to choose between the two, and chose the March instead.

Next year, I want to be there if I can, empaneled and everything.

[kimuchi.livejournal.com]

Well, I live far away and don't identify as bi. Aside from the "we like Tom" factor, if I was going to travel to a conference that's not quite my thing it'd probably be the Leather Leadership Conference. But other than that, it was a (scheduled/predictable) bad work weekend.

Sorry for missing your hard work, though. :)

[jenn-girl.livejournal.com]

i was there! it was a great time and I got up early sunday morning and went to the march too! I had a wonderful weekend doing both events and met a lot of great people.

[logisticslad.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed the conference and I've been mulling over what kind of useful feedback I can provide (being another experienced organizer type). My favorite parts were the people, the relaxed game room, the fun bingo mixer, and the Sat night dance (note that I was only there on Sat). I was neutral on the drag show and the addition of all those women who were not part of the conference. I liked how the boxed lunches worked, even though I didn't order one - I may do so next time. However in the end, I did not enjoy the less structured programing as much as I would have liked. I thought the panel topics were appropriate, but I did not enjoy the loose panel discussion structure (although it was well moderated and so worked better than I feared). In my experience, it is fairly standard for panelists to express any concerns they may have prior to being on a panel and this structure did not adequately allow for that. While it is hard to claim to be an "expert' on any of the panel topics, it is possible to come to the panel with some prepared thoughts to discuss, and I would have liked to have heard more of that. Thus, I did not like that the panelists were not treated any differently than the audience during the comment stacking. I thought it was odd to have the Keynote so early in the morning, but it sounded like there was adequate attendance, so maybe that's just me. I still really dislike the method of ending the closing ceremonies, which I see as a way of forcing community rather than building it (I chose to leave rather than participate). I also would have liked an actual schedule for the films so that I could have planned to see one. I would suggest maintaining the gaming hangout space for much longer (it was painful for our group to have to stop working on the puzzle due to lack of time). But, it was clear that you all worked very hard and the day was much fun, so kudos and thanks to you all.

[lovingboth]

The width of the Atlantic...

Which of the session write-ups that you had the poll about did you use?

[yesthattom.livejournal.com]

Actually, the poll helped us figure out which descriptions were most appealing, and helped us refine/improve the panels to make them more appealing.

Tom

[cloacabutt.livejournal.com]

I was there and had a decent time considering my kid was sick and cranky. I would have had a better time if there were other kids, and also if there were more specific workshops geared toward bis who have been out for more than 5 minutes. Frankly there wasn't much to draw the experienced bisexual. I liked last year's conference better.

I did have fun hanging out with my friends, but it was a lot of money to sit and play with Mr. Potato Head. Also, there were no "pickup panels" as you said there would be. I thought there'd be more specific workshops going on that were spontaneous?