The Peculiar Artifice of Conferences

Let’s Talk About Marketing Ourselves.

What I should have said. But I was too panicked. (As usual, artwork by me.)

This week, I’m in New York City for a tech conference. I’ve been invited as a speaker, and now that the first half of the two-day event draws to a close, I’d like to reflect on how my experience has felt so far.

What Happened?

I’m writing these words while alone in my hotel room at 7:00 pm, while my husband is at a dinner with a work friend and my calendar says that I’m at another dinner with some other speakers. Yet, I’m typing away on my keyboard in the company of only the heater’s consistent huffing and the array of fluorescent lights from all the office buildings in FiDi.

Let’s address the question on all of your minds: yes, I’m supposed to be at a dinner right now. No, I’m not showing up later. And no, nothing bad happened to deter me away from it.

I am not at that dinner because I reached my limit for how much social anxiety I could keep at bay in the artificial environment of a professional conference.

Since …