Presentation Day
Today I delivered my presentation at CSEDU 2011 and it went well. I got a bit of a shock when I learned that I only had 15 minutes to speak and not 20 (and at one point I even thought I would need to speak for 25 minutes!). I could have prepared a bit better, but apart from that I felt relaxed and received positive feedback at the end. So now with that out of the way, I am on holiday!
Other than conference activities, the day was not very interesting. It started with a huge and delicious buffet breakfast, which I quite enjoyed. The panel discussion which officially opened the conference was curious. One panelist could not attend because his flight was delayed. Another one made it just in time due to a delayed flight. The leader of the discussion introduced a topic which I did not find very interesting. He spoke enthusiastically about it because it was directly relevant to him. It was not to the rest of the panel, and when it was their turn they explained why it was not and then continued with a line of discussion which did not feel very relevant to anything. After the floor opened for questions, the leader tried hard to keep the discussion on track, and two Americans briefly bickered. When then had our first round of presentations.
I found a couple of things which I encountered today interesting, but nothing directly relevant to my work. I met a few more people and had some interesting discussions. At the end of the day, we had a social with “cocktails”, which consisted of a choice of wine, beer or juice. I got to see a bit more of the hotel and briefly ventured outside to take a few photographs. Now the sun is finally setting and my bed is calling out to me.
There was a much greater sense of participation and community today, undoubtedly sparked by the various presentations which have already been made. But some people still seem fairly isolated.
Having done my academic duty today, tomorrow I am going to bunk and travel to Amsterdam! I want to go see a few sights which I did not get the opportunity to last time.
EDIT: PS: My experience for the day was that I used a unisex bathroom for the first time today. The experience was not very out of the ordinary.