Post Con Feelings
Con-Drop
I have been trying to articulate and failing what con-drop is to me.Below are my conflicting feelings about post - convention feelings.
The tweet summary was:
"Con drop hitting. Didn't see everyone. Saw many people I love. Too many muggles. Too long & short in Vegas. Too much & not enough seen/did"
For those who have never experienced this (burners call it decompression)
- You have a "high" while at the event. It is new and exciting.
- Your tribe, your people, your community, you are surrounded by them! Instead of a small group among the crowd, they are the crowd!
- Your friends are there, so many friends (the longer you have been in the community). You mostly get quick meetings with them, and don't get to see everyone because you all are trying to do all the talks, events, and see all your friends.
- You are excited and always "ON", especially exhausting for introverts.
- You learn so much, talk about so much, it's hard for your brain to process it all.
- There is so much awesome to do, and you want to do it all, but can't. As a result, you want more time, but you already are exhausted and know you couldn't keep doing this for longer.
- This specific conference was nearly as many attendees as my entire town.
As a result, on the return home, to reality, it's a crash, like a sugar crash, or the crash after an adrenaline rush. The contrast from normal from the super high makes normal seem low.
Does that make sense? Do you have better ways to articulate this to non-convention goers?
Thread from twitter
ReplyDeleteJim Troutman @troutman 3h3 hours ago
Returning home from 13 days on the road, & wanted to share some thoughts after attending @bsideslv @defcon @dcskytalks & spending (1/17)
much needed time with my tribe before & after. I use that word on purpose - tribe: "families or communities linked by social, (2/17)
economic, religious, or blood ties, with a common culture and dialect". What attracts so many hackers to spend a whole week in Las (3/17)
Vegas? I believe it is something far more powerful than just the draw of the individual conferences, no matter how interesting and (4/17)
useful they each are. I think the real reason we gather is the positive sense of community & well being that occurs when surrounded (5/17)
by so many smart and interesting humans that share our culture. I believe there are deeply primal needs (from Maslow's hierarchy) (6/17)
that get met only at these sort of events, if only briefly. The feeling of safety in numbers, acceptance, belonging, and the (7/17)
fellowship of the community. Being able to connect emotionally and intellectually, and also share the latest cool tech and our work (8/17)
and creations with others who appreciate them. I am thankful to have made some wonderful real life friends from attending InfoSec (9/17)
cons for the last 7+ years. We get together in the same physical space when possible (sometimes even outside of cons!), but it is (10/17)
still usually measured in single digit days, annually. I think there are few of us that ever feel like we have enough contact with (11/17)
our close friends and intentional family in our day-to-day lives, which is sad. Instead, we have "pocket friends" - nearly always (12/17)
present; just on the other side of the glass. Using twitter, slack, Signal, IRC, emails, texts, & voice to lash us all together in (13/17)
various groups & communities. It helps, but it is never quite enough. Pocket friends understand and share the particular stresses & (14/17)
often unique conditions of our field. We vent our frustrations to each other, make stupid & often hilariously inappropriate jokes, (15/17)
give each other random technical assistance, celebrate our successes & victories, & collectively lend a sympathetic ear when needed. (16/17)
In short, we support each other, as a family should. And that is what keeps me here. (17/17)