From: tal@plts.uucp (Tom Limoncelli)
Newsgroups: soc.motss,soc.bi
Subject: Which Workshops Should I Select At A Conference
Date: 20 Nov 1992 22:18:16 -0500
Organization: P.L.T.S., North Plainfield, NJ, USA
NNTP-Posting-Host: plts.uucp

In article <6c11==h@rpi.edu> buckmr@vccnw05.its.rpi.edu (Ron Buckmire) writes:

>There really should be a workshop on how to pick workshops at the conference!
>I decided to enjoy myself, for the most part and go to informational things.
>I figured next year I could go to the fundraising or other skills-building
>workshops.

How to pick a workshop by Tom Limoncelli (first draft):

(1) Some workshops are about an issue which you constantly read about
on soc.motss,soc.bi and therefore you'll know more about it than
they'll have time to explain.  i.e. Skip the workshop if it's been
talked about to death on soc.motss,soc.bi.  Also, by reading
soc.motss,soc.bi you'll have heard enough differing opinions on the
topic that you'll be able to argue both sides.  So, going to a panel
discussion on this topic isn't worth it.  Often these workshops only
have enough time to educate the audience to where you are already.
Obviously, going to these workshops is a waste.

Exception #1:  Issue is changing rapidly (i.e. the issue was dormant
for a while, but suddenly things are happening in the last week).
Exception #2:  The person on the forefront of the issue is giving
the workshop.  Someone on the forefront usually spends 5 minutes bringing
everyone up to speed so that most of the time with the real issue.
Exception #3:  Go to a workshop like this anyway if you want to
learn first-hand how much better off you are by being on the net.

(2) Some workshops are about technique or skill-building workshops.
These are worth while, but often they only have time to cover the
basics.  If you know a lot about a skill, don't go to a workshop
on that topic unless the description states that people should
have a certain amount of experience already.

Exception #1:  I've never seen a "advanced people only" warning
at a queer workshop.
Exception #2:  At the BiNet conference (which will be the day(s) before
MOW93) I will be conducting some "advanced only" workshops. :-)

(3) If the keynote speak is also giving a workshop, DON'T MISS IT.
This person isn't a keynote speaker because there was a random
drawing.  At United '92 (the best queer conference in the North
East... which everyone ignores because it's in New Jersey) the keynote
speaker gave one of the best workshops of the year.  Actually, that's
happened the past couple of years.

(4)  "biphobia workshops" and "lesbo-phobia workshops" and all the
various "people don't understand us" workshops are GREAT to go to because
they are so enlightening.  However, if you are "foo" and the workshop
is about "foo-phobia" then your first time will be great ("wow, there
are other people going through what I'm going through") but after that
they can be a real drag.

General Advice:
Once I was at a conference where I didn't notice that all the workshops
were 40 minutes long, except the 10am workshop was 1.5 hours long.  I
should have spent more time choosing the 10am workshop so as to choose
it carefull.  Lesson learned:  check to see if all time-slots are the
same length.

If everyone is having lunch at the same time:  Leave the workshop
before lunch 5 minutes before it ends.  :-)

Lastly, I've gotten to the point where I've been to all the workshops
that you can find at all the queer conferences.  Call me jaded, but I
started to feel that I was wasting my time.  So, I changed strategies
and started only going to workshops that I *was* *not* interested in.
Wow!  What a difference!  I guess it's sort of obvious, but once I
adopted this strategy I suddenly found that every single workshop was
100% new information about things that I had never heard about.  Things
are never boring for me now!

Tom

P.S.  Oh, of course you should ALWAYS check the bulletin boards to see
if there are any soc.motss/soc.bi/bisexu-l/bifem-l/thyst-l/
alt.sex/alt.sex.bondage/etc/etc/etc get-togethers!
-- 
Tom Limoncelli -- tal@plts.uucp (home) -- tal@warren.mentorg.com (work)
"Higgy higgy forward, higgy higgy higgy higgy higgy shake!  Yeeaaah!"

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