VIP Conference

Aug 01, 2007 19:00

I was really nervous about this week, but seeing as what I thought was going to be the worst part of it is over, I guess I'm good now.  I knew weeks ago that I was going to be sitting through a conference to take notes.  What I didn't know was that I'd be taking notes for a VIP group.  A group that our facility was on 'full suit' alert for.  These people were coming in from all over the world from huge companies, so it was defitely intimidating.

Of course yesterday, I show up in a full suit because even though us conference aides aren't expected to dress quite as professionally as the full-time employees, I figured I'd be better off in a suit considering I had to sit with the group for 10 hours.  The topics covered yesterday was (of course) a topic that I knew hardly anything about.  And I haven't taken notes in forever.  Not to mention, it's a weird thing taking notes for other people, especially because you don't know what information they're going to remember, or who's going to sleep through what.  The woman in charge kept turning around to make sure I was getting certain things down, and I was typing so fast I thought my hands would fall off.  Definitely an interesting experience.  I learned a lot though, and I got free food!

Today was a lot better, I'd gotten used to typing 1000 words a minute, and I was familiar with what the group was about.  The topics today were less technical, and more about organization/leadership so it was a lot easier to take notes for.  I also talked to a woman with her PhD.  She asked what my major was, and as it turns out she's really interested in the field, and it's somewhat related to the kinds of things she deals with.  She's a professor at University of San Diego.  She gave me a list of readings to impress my professors with and we talked for a bit.  It's such a weird feeling being able to hold up a conversation with someone with their PhD.

20 hours of taking minutes resulted in 30 pages of notes.  I've still gotta go through and pull out the 3 take aways from each presentation.  I'll probably do that tomorrow.  After all, a part-time employee shouldn't have to take work home.

I can't remember if I updated after talking to the guy from Vanderbilt.  Either way, he encouraged me to apply and gave me the contacts of two other advisors/professors to talk to.  Should be interesting.  I guess most students are getting their PhD rather than just a Masters, but they do have some Master's students.   That's something I decide later.  Once I learn that I'm NOT changing my major again, haha.

Anyways, I guess that's it.  I've got another 4.5 hours of notes for tomorrow, but then I'm done!  I'm kinda upset though, I really enjoyed doing it, it was a nice change from work.  And working 7pm-1am and 4pm-1am on Friday and Saturday nights is gonna suck monkey balls.  And here I thought the note-taking would be the worst part.  Oh well.
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