Conference Follow-up

After reading this entry, you can call me a dork since I deserve it. :) I love to attend conferences and be engaged in thought provoking conversation/discussion.

Over the weekend, I attended the International Society for Performance Improvement conference in Dallas, TX. It's one of my favorite conferences since I can learn what I'm interested in and talk about my interest with people who really care about that matter for Hours.

It's been already 3 years since I first attended this conference and was surprised to see I met many presenters already and knew how this conference works. Those are the things you learn unconsciously.

After the intense three day stay at the conference, I feel intellectually charged. Also, I had a chance to think about my career and what i want to do in a long run. The problem is I want to be in Academia and Consulting at the same time and it's not easy. However, there are quite a few people, and they are the proud FSU IS alumni, who do the both successfully. It was inspiring to meet them and learn about what they are doing and how they did it.

To me, conference became an annual reunion with colleagues, friends, and alumni. Once again, I learned that FSU is still a big name at the ISPI; I met so many FSU graduates who are now in Coast Guards, HRD centers in Korea, and professors in universities. I even met a friend from college in Korea at the conference. We haven't seen each other over 5 years and she came to my session. What a surprise!

Ahhh... After attending the conference, I had to deal with the feeling of "Publish or Perish," which I tried to avoid for the last several months. Yes, I was a bit burnt when I finished my dissertation but it's time to go back and write an article. *sigh* Well~ I can do it! I just have to find my time between working full time, rock climbing, and attending my friends' events. :)