conference life

it's the first day at the conference, and i've been reminded of some interesting aspects of "conference" life.

• at any given time, there are a good number of people 1) socializing 2) using their laptops (we have free wireless) or 3) on their cellphones not attending the talks.
• in almost every presentation i've sat and watched i've found people 1) socializing 2) using their laptops and 3) sleeping.

all this leads me to wonder how much people are getting out of the conference and the presentations?

i did really like one thing that they've done at the conference. in the morning, there is an hour in which every presenter can give a 30 plug for their talk. it was from these "advertisements" that i picked which tracks i was going to.