I spent the last 3 days at a really great conference. Unfortunately, it was online and terribly organized. In the midst of the discussion, the conference admin kicks you out of the Zoom room without any warning whatsoever. I’m guessing there’s a shortage of Zoom rooms in the world.

It’s ludicrous that they charge very high registration fees and then can’t at least provide a typical Zoom warning (“this Zoom room will close in one minute, etc.”)

Today, this was especially upsetting because there was a scholar who started saying something really brilliant, and I so wanted to hear what she was going to say, but she got cut off midsentence.

But the talks were great. I learned a lot of fascinating stuff. The best conferences are the ones that inspire you to go check out a mountain of new books from the library and give you tons of new ideas.

By the way, every online conference I’ve participated that was organized by a major scholarly association was terribly organized. The only beautifully organized conference is done by one single guy who does the entire thing himself. He actually provides post-session Zoom rooms for people to hang out and discuss things. Plus, he’s the only one who sends out goodie bags. And has a great opening and closing ceremonies that you actually want to attend.

In any case, my conference season is over and I’m ready to rest.

Oh, that old one, come on. I thought it was long time for “we’re doing it because global warming.”

The least you can do is update the rationale for invading every 20 years.