The accommodations are in nearby Towson, which is weird since they then have to shuttle our asses for an ugly congested commute to the seminar locale deep within the Baltimore Sun newspaper compound. I like the hotel setup, since I have had good time to play Pokemon on the shuttle, and the hotel adjoins the regionally famous Towson Towne Center, a mega-mall I quite like.

Although the seminar organizers today committed the egregious error of asking those of us who drove to Towson Sunday night to now drive to the newspaper building for tomorrow morning's final event day. What the fuck. So now I get the brilliant pleasure of having to navigate through Baltimore morning rush hour. Way to fuck up the whole conference for me on the last day. They'll be hearing about that on my comment card.

You know, every single one of these sort of things that I've attended has been apparently scheduled by chipmunks storing away nuts for the winter: too much crammed into one day. Every damn day, some session (whoops, the contemporary buzzword is "module") goes over and then we spend the rest of the day moaning about having to "rush through this one" and "we're going to cut this short to get back on schedule."

Just stop lining up so damn many speakers! Schedule one less session so you have time to let the group dive more deeply into the topics that need extra discussion, plus giving everybody pad time for tech difficulties, open forum Q&As, and that lunch that never ends on time.

Secret news for event organizers: People have limits to how many lessons they can glean in one day. Plus, there's something to be said for making a couple days away from work somewhat relaxing and stress-free. Even though we're there to talk about work, it would be great if felt less like work. So far, I've had to wake up in the morning between 6 and 7. The last time I saw that hour, it was because I hadn't been to bed yet.

There have been some great modules though, and despite my annoyances with the means, I will take home some good ends. This particular conference is about leadership and management and I intend the manage the piss out of my staff when I get back.

I often feel like a large portion of these social meetings are wasted on me. I'm not especially career-driven, so all the networking and businessy stuff often just bothers me. We had a "networking event" at the Baltimore Aquarium last night, which translate to a happy hour with people in suits I don't know. I don't drink, and I'm not amused by being around people who are drinking, so those activities leave me cold. They are inevitable, however; always preceded by lots of winking and giggling about "Let's wrap up this final module so we can all get to the bar ha ha ha." Ugh. I have enough trouble bonding with strangers without them all getting slowly toasted.

So I spent some time talking with the few people I already sorta knew, then spent an hour walking around the Aquarium... which was in afterhours mode so it was completely empty. That was pretty cool. By the way, the Aquarium cocktail party served salmon. So much for conservation and respect for marine life.

But I'm always up for these things. I like the travel and hotels and walking. I do genuinely want to do better at my job, because I fully intend to spend a hell of a lot more time there. So I love getting the insights and lessons... I just wish there wasn't as much stress and hoopla endemic to the concept.

And good fucking shit I should not be expected to drive my ass car through metro rush hour fuck.

One guess what I did in the hotel room every night. It starts with "Pikmin" and ends with "2".