Networks
I imagine this is true in all manner of professions, but in academia, conferences are the networking event par excellence. It's certainly not ironic then, that I was presenting paper based to a non-trivial degree on network theory. It did elicit an internal chuckle though.
Because my paper is not based on my dissertation and I may never return to the exact subject, the networking opportunities of the conference perhaps took a more central position than usual. That is why I decided to pay the big bucks for the conference hotel (with it's basic (3-channel) Sky, shitty TV reception and non-existent internet - No Copthorne; you're a hotel. If I have to pay extra for it, you don't offer internet. That goes for you too Starbucks.)
So, several dinners, lunches, drinks and coffees later, I certainly feel more connected to the worlds of dining scholarship and New Zealand Classicists, and to the field outside my own institution generally.
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Because my paper is not based on my dissertation and I may never return to the exact subject, the networking opportunities of the conference perhaps took a more central position than usual. That is why I decided to pay the big bucks for the conference hotel (with it's basic (3-channel) Sky, shitty TV reception and non-existent internet - No Copthorne; you're a hotel. If I have to pay extra for it, you don't offer internet. That goes for you too Starbucks.)
So, several dinners, lunches, drinks and coffees later, I certainly feel more connected to the worlds of dining scholarship and New Zealand Classicists, and to the field outside my own institution generally.
158