I have a habit of making calendars, almost obsessively – in my sketchbook, by the computer, and pinned up in my studio. So I know that it’s only been a month since I returned from Seattle and the SNAG conference, but it feels like a full season has passed. Somehow I’m still scrambling to avoid scorching everything I put on the back burner in May. Now I’ve had some time to sit with the whole ordeal, read other blogs, and let things settle . . .
Often the difference between one conference and another has more to do with the individual attendee than the programming. I’ve been on a hot spree of SNAG conferences for the past six years, and in some ways they become interchangeable. The routine of lectures and exhibitions coupled with the landscape of a giant hotel and an unknown urban setting blurs into a merry-go-round of manic conversations and gut reactions. The whole conference experience is so removed from daily life that it can be too much to process....(continued)