I spent the last three days at the Sheraton Hotel in Newark. I left the building once the entire time. I never really had a solid meal, instead opting to intake my food continually over the 72 hour period (pausing for several hours a day so I could sleep). As you may have guessed, I was at a conference.

My company has a staff conference once a year, and it is always held near the airport for maximum blandness. What made it worse was that I work for a non-profit and the conference is primarly geared towards the solicitors; the national staff just shows up to make nice with our various regional offices. Thus, I spent a minimum of 16 waking hours working on improving my fund-raising skills, which have little to no effect on my job. Not so much fun.

Like all of these events, the fun part is hanging out with people you don't see often or hadn't met before. Thankfully, the non-profit world tends to attract interesting people. So, this is what kept me entertained.

Next time I go to a conference I'm hoping it'll be something geared towards my discipline, otherwise I'll need to paint fake eyes on my eyelids. Oh, I'll do it.