Apimondia 2023 Day 3
Sep. 8th, 2023 03:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aggienautOkay you'd think I'd know better by now about trying to write an LJ entry directly in the browser on my phone, having had a similar thing happened too many times already. But i thought it would be safe if i was in a place with a stable internet connection, so I was writing an entry here in the conference center during presentations i wasn't interested in. I was almost done when the browser refreshed itself and the "restore from draft" brought in the previous day's already posted entry, the one I'd just spent maybe an hour altogether on was lost completely. It's not just a waste of my time but it seems to use a fair bit of phone battery having it open to the writing screen for awhile and i only have a finite amount of battery that needs to last me from now (Friday afternoon) all the way till i arrive in Australia now.
Amd anyway i absolutely hate rewriting the same thing twice so as happens in this case you'll get a severely shortened version of what I'd just written.
Thursday, September 7th - at the conference all day. I had written several paragraphs about it but well you can look at some slides https://photos.app.goo.gl/ikvMDsSFTXVsktRM7
One cause of frustration for me had been that you needed a different pair of translation headphones for the upstairs two halls versus the downstairs two halls. You needed to give your ID card as collateral for the headphones and re exchange them between floors. But this day i realized i could get one pair with my US drivers license amd the other with my Australian DL, I wish I'd thought of this earlier!
As i was leaving at 18:30 a friend asked if i was going to the party. What party? Turns out "the Scandinavians" were hosting a reception upstairs. Free booze!
I don't know why, they don't need to "wine amd dine" us, they already have the next Apimondia in Copenhagen 2025 locked in.
Speaking of wine amd dining, I was recounting in the presence of a Slovenian how the Russian delegation had literally taken every voting delegate out to dinner in 2017 to secure the 2021 conference, amd he said Slovenia actually had it more or less locked in until an hour before the vote the Russians started slipping voting delegates envelopes of money!
I'm really concerned Dubai will do something like that this year to beat out the Tanzanians, who have a much bigger friendlier delegation but I'm sure Dubai has deep deep bags of money.
After only half an hour Doug asked me if i was ready to go yet. I rather think not! He then went home. I was a bit surprised i thought he'd love mingling at the event but he is 74 after all and i think feels pretty tired after a long day of conferencing.
I stayed, it turned into quite the dance party. It was funny seeing a tall Dane in a horned viking helmet amd cape dancing away with a Tanzanian woman in maasai robes, the moderator of one of the sessions who had seemed so serious amd professional now totally rocking out, etc etc people from all over the place amd a wide range of ages, among the top people in their industry from around the world, totally rocking out to the latest Latin hits (the Scandinavians really restrained themselves amd only played one Abba song).
Took an uber back to the hotel, arrived at first 12:00.
Friday, September 8th - Doug declined to get up when i did at 7, saying he didn't feel like going to the conference today, would rather go play table tennis somewhere. Packed my stuff amd came here to the conference center with all my luggage.
Arriving, asked the young man at the front registration desk if there was somewhere i could put my luggage, he said not officially but he could watch it unofficially for a tip of any amount ("even just a dollar, whatever"). I think I'll leave him with all my extra pesos over what i need to get to the airport, which might be as many as 10,000 ($12), I'd rather give them directly to someone who has done of a favor than re exchange them at a huge loss. If he doesn't run off with my bag!
Amd that brings us to now, it's 13:00, middle of the day. This evening there's closing ceremonies (amd the Tanzania vs Dubai vote!) then i go to the airport to fly just after midnight to Auckland (14 hours) amd thence on to Melbourne (4 hours)
Amd anyway i absolutely hate rewriting the same thing twice so as happens in this case you'll get a severely shortened version of what I'd just written.
Thursday, September 7th - at the conference all day. I had written several paragraphs about it but well you can look at some slides https://photos.app.goo.gl/ikvMDsSFTXVsktRM7
One cause of frustration for me had been that you needed a different pair of translation headphones for the upstairs two halls versus the downstairs two halls. You needed to give your ID card as collateral for the headphones and re exchange them between floors. But this day i realized i could get one pair with my US drivers license amd the other with my Australian DL, I wish I'd thought of this earlier!
As i was leaving at 18:30 a friend asked if i was going to the party. What party? Turns out "the Scandinavians" were hosting a reception upstairs. Free booze!
I don't know why, they don't need to "wine amd dine" us, they already have the next Apimondia in Copenhagen 2025 locked in.
Speaking of wine amd dining, I was recounting in the presence of a Slovenian how the Russian delegation had literally taken every voting delegate out to dinner in 2017 to secure the 2021 conference, amd he said Slovenia actually had it more or less locked in until an hour before the vote the Russians started slipping voting delegates envelopes of money!
I'm really concerned Dubai will do something like that this year to beat out the Tanzanians, who have a much bigger friendlier delegation but I'm sure Dubai has deep deep bags of money.
After only half an hour Doug asked me if i was ready to go yet. I rather think not! He then went home. I was a bit surprised i thought he'd love mingling at the event but he is 74 after all and i think feels pretty tired after a long day of conferencing.
I stayed, it turned into quite the dance party. It was funny seeing a tall Dane in a horned viking helmet amd cape dancing away with a Tanzanian woman in maasai robes, the moderator of one of the sessions who had seemed so serious amd professional now totally rocking out, etc etc people from all over the place amd a wide range of ages, among the top people in their industry from around the world, totally rocking out to the latest Latin hits (the Scandinavians really restrained themselves amd only played one Abba song).
Took an uber back to the hotel, arrived at first 12:00.
Friday, September 8th - Doug declined to get up when i did at 7, saying he didn't feel like going to the conference today, would rather go play table tennis somewhere. Packed my stuff amd came here to the conference center with all my luggage.
Arriving, asked the young man at the front registration desk if there was somewhere i could put my luggage, he said not officially but he could watch it unofficially for a tip of any amount ("even just a dollar, whatever"). I think I'll leave him with all my extra pesos over what i need to get to the airport, which might be as many as 10,000 ($12), I'd rather give them directly to someone who has done of a favor than re exchange them at a huge loss. If he doesn't run off with my bag!
Amd that brings us to now, it's 13:00, middle of the day. This evening there's closing ceremonies (amd the Tanzania vs Dubai vote!) then i go to the airport to fly just after midnight to Auckland (14 hours) amd thence on to Melbourne (4 hours)
