Conference proceedings

Today, I went to a conference. I commuted to Portland to attend a gathering of dog scientists.

The topic was irrelevant. You've been to conferences, I'm sure, so you know that going to a conference isn't about the presentations. It's all about the networking. Who just got a million dollar grant, whose funding is drying up, where an endowed chair is in the works. That's the good stuff--you can read the rest of it in the proceedings.

Like the previous conferences I've attended, this one was held at the conference center on Martin Luther King Boulevard.



It's a spacious facility--wait a second! Wrong picture. Next slide, please.













My meeting was at the other conference center on MLK. As I was saying, it's a spacious facility. Plenty of room for networking. My colleagues were there, of course...



but the most pleasurable aspect of networking is with some of the conference staff. One conference staff person, in particular.



Pay no attention to the scientist on the right. I have it on very good authority that he lied about doing post-doc work at Stanford. In fact...



That's better. To tell the truth, she's the only reason I enjoy going to conferences at all.