San Francisco: Part Two

I woke up already anxious on Saturday morning. It wasn't hard to roll out of bed at 7, considering it was 10 o'clock New York time, and I was eager to get ready for the conference. I wore a professional work dress from Banana Republic and decided to do my hair in a side braid. I didn't really know what to expect at one of these kinds of things, but I'm not going to lie, I was freaking intimidated. Even when I was in the Honor's College during my undergraduate schooling, I always just felt like I was faking it. I consider myself to be a somewhat smart person, but when I find myself in situations where I'm surrounded by real academics, I find myself feeling dumb as hell. Again, I was nervous and didn't really know what to expect.

The hotel I was staying in was only a couple of blocks from the conference hotel, which I didn't stay in because it was stupidly more expensive than the one I found on Expedia, so I headed out around 8:15, giving me plenty of time to stop for coffee and register before sitting down for my first talk.

The talk was pretty interesting, but I was honestly so distracted with thoughts about presenting that I wasn't able to give it my full attention.

I got to the poster area a minute after it was open. For the posters at these conferences, there's fifteen minutes scheduled for prep time before the hour of presenting and then fifteen minutes for everyone to take down their posters after. I continued to take deep breathes as I tacked up my poster. I worked really hard on it and I have to admit, it came out looking pretty awesome.

So, once all the posters are up and the presentation hour begins, people basically just walk around, read posters they are interested in, and ask questions to the people standing there. In theory, it's a great way for presenters to interact with the people interested in their work and it's kind of nicer than when people give a talk, since there's a lot more one on one time for people to have actual discussions about the work.

However, as the presenter, it felt super weird. Some people will just walk right past your poster and even though you shouldn't be offended, it kind of feels like your poster sucks. Then, you have people who stop at your poster and begin to read. I didn't know whether I should interrupt their reading or just stand there with a stupid grin on my face. I decided to settle on saying hello and then telling them to let me know if they had any questions. Then, as they read, I stared at their faces to try to access if there was any distain in their expressions.

For a while, people would briefly read over the poster, ask me a question or two about the research that I would answer the best I could, and then some of them took a copy of my paper, since I had printed out about like fifty. This is something Dr. Cramer told me to do. She said everyone did this, but nobody had their full papers. Why is she so weird?

There was less than fifteen minutes and I was beginning to relax as my presentation time came to an end. As I was drinking the last few drops of my coffee, a tall, brunette woman wearing a dark blue silk blouse tucked into a gray pencil skirt and shiny black pumps stopped in front of my poster, rubbing her chin. Out of every visitor I had that day, she hands down seemed the most focused. Her hair was in a flawless bun that I envied considering I felt like my hair was really frizzy from the humidity of the day.

"Hello," I began, standing with my shoulders back and giving my most professional smile. "Please let me know if you want me to explain anything."

The woman in front of me wasted no time before shooting a very deep question my way. I tried not to begin my answer with an "um" and I succeeded. I luckily knew the answer, so I was able to confidently answer without missing a beat.

She took her hand from her chin for the first time, turned her head, and gave me a genuine smile. "This is extremely interesting work, Caroline. Your hypothesis and research design demonstrate a deep level of thinking that, between us, not all of these presenters seem to possess." The right corner of her mouth turned up into a very coy smile.

"Well, you flatter me," I replied. "Thank you so much."

We made some more small talk about my research and I realized that this was the most I've enjoyed talking with anybody at this conference. I seemed to really connect with Lillian, as I later learned was her name, and I think it's because she was so down to earth.

Lillian looked around just as the hour was up. "It looks like things are clearing up here. I wish I had gotten to your poster sooner!"

"Me too," I honestly and enthusiastically replied. "Please take a copy of my paper if you'd like and I'll put my email on it if you want to discuss it further."

Lillian didn't reply at first and so I just awkwardly wrote my email address down on the back page of my paper before handing it to her.

"I'll do you one better," Lillian replied as she took the paper, shoved it under her arm, and then reached into her pocket. She pulled out a business card and wrote something on the back. "I work at Web Matcher," she began. "I think you might be a good fit for a new service we're working on. Give me a call on Tuesday."

I stared at the card. Oh, I absolutely would call her Tuesday!