“I hate mornings. They start so early.” ― Janet Evanovich, Plum Spooky
Brace yourself for a rather uneventful post today – theme is: Conferences, Contests, and Conventions. May I use the term “I draw a blank”. Absolutely! I’m as mute as my voice has been for the last couple of months.
Remember the Seinfeld show when George and Jerry are meeting with the NBC executives? George decides he can be a sitcom writer and his pitch is “a show about nothing”. What a dag he was. Very talented dag, though.
Anyway – going off-track, because, nothing is what comes to mind when thinking about this week’s theme …. see above! See, thing is, as social as I might be amongst friends, crowds actually cause me to panic. Not in a severe form, I honestly feel for these people who have that, but in a way that I feel a bit claustrophobic. Just not my thing. So bottom line, I try to avoid major conferences as interesting they might be – same goes for conventions.
Now contests … there’s an interesting one. Have I actually ever entered a contest? Does filling out the little tickets for Red Nose Day to win a car count? Well, then I have. Heaps. Nothing. As in, I have won nothing, yet. Still same ol car out in the driveway. Same goes for Daffodil Day and White Balloon day raffles. I like buying those raffles, in a selfish way because I’m hoping for a new car, but if I lose, I know I did something good.
Did I ever win anything? I did win some movie tickets. How cool is that. Before the days of kids, so no babysitting to arrange or such. Can’t remember the movie, though, LOL, so it couldn’t have been that good!
So I kind of rely on you lovely people out there to tell me about the conferences you go to and contests you have won!
Please …….
Angela Schroeder
Patricia Kiyono
Elaine Cantrell
Jeff Salter
Joselyn
Tonette Joyce
Four Foxes, One Hound 
I had to look up what you meant by “dag”. The online dictionary I checked says it’s: 1. a character; eccentric, 2. a person who is untidily dressed, and 3. a person with a good sense of humour. I’d definitely agree with the first definition!
As for the rest, I LOVE to attend conferences. I learn so much, and it’s a break from the daily life. Not that I hate my daily life – but I’ve always been one for new experiences and adventures. And I love to check out places I haven’t been, meeting people I haven’t met, and learning things I didn’t know. I’ve been to conferences for music teachers, scrapbookers, quilters, and writers. And I’ve entered contests, but like you, I end up supporting the people who sponsor them!
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It seems a constant thing at the moment in my life that I use a little word which is part of my daily vocabulary and I throw my American friends with it. Dag the way I use it, is weird, but funny weird, nice weird.
You do get around conferences a lot, Patty …. Good on ya! I can imagine a scrapbookers and quilters conferences to be some fun!
Thanks for stopping by, Patty!!! Much appreciated.
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About conferences, I believe I’m a bit like you, Iris. I used to attend a state library conference every year. Almost always dreaded going, because of the hassle, expense, and time ‘lost’ — and because nobody was at work or home taking care of the stuff I would normally be doing.
But nearly every time: once I got there and began networking with friends and colleagues, I relaxed and usually enjoyed myself.
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Isn’t it always like that, Jeff. The initial ‘push’ to get going only to find out that it’s actually quite fun. yes, I have that very often, with a lot of things!!! Esp going to evening out or holidays ….
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I haven’t been to any writing conferences, if that is what we were talking about; I HAVE been to a food conference and Baby, you don’t know what you are missing! Try to get someone to take you along if you like anything about food, because there are samples of everything from soup-to-nuts, literally and the vendors/suppliers/other businesses pull out their best and bring in top chefs to show you what can be done with their products.If you are a foodie otherwise, you will see every kind of beautiful or helpful packaging,(again, they trot out their best for show).
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see, Tonette, the more I’m reading the replies, the more I wonder whether the Americans actually call a conference what Australians refer to as an Expo …. hmmmmm ….. Any Australians out there to clarify that ???
Conference for me is similar to seminar … Expo is like you said above, where suppliers, businesses “show off” their products. I think I’ve been to a few holiday expos, and a caravan expo …. I will need to check that …..
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Food conference? Sign me up!
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Micki, they are one of the things I miss most about no longer being in business!I can’t get in any more![And if you are into pretty boxes and things, the packaging and presentations were wonderful to behold!]
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Oh, we have “Expos” open t the public and they sell everything under the sun,(or do it on themes), but I was talking about a professional conference, where you also have to be in the business and be invited. They have serious meetings and talks on the business of food , health and safety, etc….AND THE FOOD!!!! There is a difference.I’ve been to those expos, which we often call ‘shows’ here…they are nightmares. You could not drag me to another ‘open to the public’ Show/Expo.
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It seems I’ve gotta go to a conference one day ….. lets check the aussie conferences. Thanks Tonette!
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legal conferences are dull things but I must attend them for the day job. Writers conferences are much more fun and I definitely like them better.
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People are really surprised when I tell them that law was my favourite subject at school …. not sure whether I could cope with a conference though!
I really have to check whether there’ll be a writers conference on while I’m in the US … LOL … it seems the place to go to!
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I’ve entered, and even finaled, in a few writing contests, but I haven’t entered one in a while because I haven’t had anything ready in a while. As for other contests like raffle drawings, I can not complain that “I never win anything” because I once won a pair of airline tickets for Southwest Airlines! I had hoped to use those to travel to Hawaii or someplace really cool, but I had to use them to fly to Miami (not a bad thing) with my husband (a very good thing) to visit his brother (a very arrogant, narcissistic, materialistic jerk thing). I have also won a case of Coca-Cola, a T-shirt, bags of books, and other goodies I can’t recall at the moment.
I haven’t attended any conventions like Comic Con, but I think I’ll add that to my bucket list. As for conferences…I’m a conference junkie! Love them!
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Ohhhh wow – airline tickets would be great to win, I reckon! …. Oh …. and … *cough* that Coca-Cola thing…. I’ll take it, should you ever decide to get rid of it 😉
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