So… I’ve spent the weekend in Toronto, lost my wallet, but managed to compensate for that (mostly), had a lovely Sunday of brunch and sightseeing. It’s now the last Monday in March and I have two days of conference before I go home.
I’d never been to a business analysis conference before. Actually, this was a combo project management/business analysis conference, but I was only interested in the BA stuff. The conference was in the south side of the convention center – the hotel was connected to the north side. So to the lobby, into the convention center, up a bunch of escalators, across a pedestrian bridge, then down down down to a subterranean level. Signed in, picked my badge, a tote bag, a schedule and a blank notebook with pen. Then through the breakfast buffet and into the big room for the first keynote speech.
I’d already decided it was my job to fake extroversion and talk to people, so I plunked down at one of the round tables and introduced myself. I was ever-so-chatty for the 2 days, it was exhausting. What was amusing to me is that almost everyone there was local (or at least Canadian). When I told them I was from NYC, quite a few people said, “oh… so what brings you to town?”. Um, THIS. This conference. It turns out that this organization does several conferences around North America, so I could have gone to one in Boston or DC or whatever… but I told them I was happy to be back in a city I loved so much.
The first keynote speech was mostly about making connections, and how important it was in this day and age, especially after COVID and remote working and the ‘loneliness epidemic’ identified by the Surgeon General. We did some fun ice-breaking exercises, like ‘if someone bought your first car, what CD would they find in the player’ and ‘if there was a museum exhibit about you, what 3 items would be on display’? Really fun and more interesting than, ‘so, where ya from?’
The middle sessions of the day (with a break for lunch) were breakout sessions. I targeted symposia about AI – which I’ve been trying to ignore, but it’s just become so present and I found it really fascinating, actually. Two basic thrusts – how to use it responsibly and not automatically trust it, but also different ways to use it to make your life better (such as summarizing meeting notes, generating test cases and so on). It was really interesting. And then other symposia just about general BA stuff.
The final session was another keynote speech and it was about equity – and that was interesting, because the speaker had an amazing personal story – had been brought to the US from Pakistan in an arranged marriage when she was 16, and was essentially a prisoner in her home – until she was old enough and smart enough to get her and her children out of what sounded like a very stifling situation.
After the day was over, I basically holed up in my hotel room to watch news and knit until I went to the hotel restaurant for dinner.
The next day was much the same to start, except I had to pack and check out of my room. Another rah-rah keynote address with “Coach Vic”, a little too perky for 8:30 am, but good. More breakout sessions and lunch. I skipped the final keynote so to get to the airport (and I’d always intended to miss the last two days of the conference, which were workshops I wasn’t interested in).
Here a bit of skating on danger – I expected to be able to pay for my airport express train ticket with my phone, but I also had cash if that didn’t work (and probably could have summoned an Uber as Plan C). But had no problems getting the ticket. Checked in, checked my bag, through security. The gate was something like “A6” but when I went to find it, it was way down in the bowels of the terminal and there were multiple A6’s like “A6d”. I had to do some checking online to make sure I wasn’t missing something. Then grabbed a quick dinner (a quesadilla, I think) and back to the depts of A6.
The flight back wasn’t bad, but had a lot of instances of bad behavior. The guy calling the boarding “first class, comfort plus” and so on, had a very thick accent and was hard to understand. And he was also calling row numbers sometimes instead of classes. Well, one of the passengers decided to dress him down for being unclear, and wouldn’t let it go. Meanwhile everyone else is glaring at him, ‘shut up asshole, and just let us get on the plane’.
Then a different asshole refused to shut his laptop and store it before we could move from the gate, and argued with the flight attendant and there was a lot of ‘I’ve never been asked to do this before’. Again, it was like, ‘really? this is pretty standard and also what’s your fucking problem.” I see why there have been so many reports of bad behavior on airplanes and such. Some people just haven’t learned the necessary skill of ‘sucking it up’ in an uncomfortable experience. What did he think was going to happen? The flight attendant going, ‘you’re right, sir, I’m wrong, never mind safety and laws, go right ahead’.
I was also mildly nervous about getting back to the US, since I had no US cash with me at this point. (although I had remembered that I had an ATM card at home for an account I don’t use much, so had a way to get cash once I got home). I figured I would find an exchange booth at JFK and exchange my Canadian cash (which I never had to use), and that’s what I did. The exchange rate was usurious, but I did now have enough cash to pay the cabbie if for some reason I couldn’t pay with my phone. But that turned out not to be a problem.
Back home by mid-evening, leftover pizza and sleep.
Followup: the conference was really great and a couple of weeks later, I gave a presentation to my co-workers about it and encouraged all of them to try to go to that or similar conferences. Also, the credits I earned at the conference put me over the top so I could re-certify my professional certification, yay!
I also found this online after I got home:
Wish I’d known about that while I was there!
I had hoped that some kind soul had found my wallet and mailed it back to me, but that hasn’t happened. However, I continued to monitor my charges and account stuff and there was no hanky-panky. I actually had a new wallet at home I’d bought in Oslo last year, and a duplicate driver’s license in my filing cabinet, so that was a good start, and I put some ATM and credit cards in it that I don’t normally use. Then casually over the next two weeks, would report a card lost/stolen so the number would change and they’d send me a new one. And that’s what’s been happening, and I seemed to have dodged a bullet.
More soon… I’m still behind.
The Toast Point Page 