So, do I go to femmeconne this year?

[stephbg]

At last year's femmeconne I met and connected with old friends, got to know some people better and met some bright new shiny people. That was great.



There were some confrontational aspects to the program (or lack of program), and times where I just couldn't fit in. I lurked on the fringes too much, which made me a little sad. Too many bad memories of childhood camps. I like to hang and chat, really, but it's hard to get into the mode. The screaming children thing is an issue I can't ignore.

This year if I go I will need to self cater, which is no biggie, but if I don't stay overnight and drive there and back at least twice, the costs look quite significant.

But I know that if I do go it will be a great experience and I'll be unlikely to regret it.

What are people thinking? How are you making your choices?

What's my deadline?

Comments

[transcendancing.livejournal.com]

The idea of talking about this has a lot of merit.

I will definitely put something together for this.

Is it just that we in general expect lighter subject matter? When you get a bunch of women together to talk about women's stuff, is the subject matter light at all? Will the addition of the kitchen cooking demos, and the two streams broaden it enough that those who want to pick and choose and avoid feeling personally confronted will be able to do so? I hope so.

I don't know what the answer is to this - but I've been thinking about it for a couple of weeks actually. I can see that people feel emotional, that they feel challenged and confronted. I understand that while for me personally being confronted in this way isn't a bad thing - I enjoy the opportunity to rethink things, myself, to know myself better and to grow, and also to know those around me better. Also, i hate small talk with a passion. But, not everyone feels like that... as I said, I honestly understand this.

What I keep coming back to in my wondering though is, if you get a bunch of amazing women together the way we do, you have a whole lot of intensity drawn together in on space - i can see how that would be overwhelming, on top of the stuff that we talk about if not the entire time, than for a good portion of it.

I'm not actually at a point where this is coherent, I'm just trying to be open and share the thoughts and try and find a way through them - ideally doing this program, it's important for me to do the best I can for everyone, for it to include stuff to do and talk about that people are interested in.

[stephbg.livejournal.com]

The structured bits were the best bits for me. I felt very cast adrift last year when the program basically didn't happen. I don't recall having a problem with personally confrontational content. I'm not keen on abstract academic feminism, but am quite comfortable with the idea of wandering off at those times. Fire is good.

Something else that's out of your control is the acoustics in the main meeting hall. It's so boomy that I can't understand a word if there are too many conversations going at once. So in theory when people are most relaxed and just generally chatting, I'm at my most isolated.

[transcendancing.livejournal.com]

Well hopefully adjusting the scheduling will work a bit better to make sure that everything happens.

You're right about the acoustics not being something we can do much about though...

Personal vs Academic - those are choices people will weather themselves i think, though better if I try and mix things and other less heavy stuff up in amongst it.

[callistra.livejournal.com]

Do you think if we brought in curtains and stuff to hang over the windows that might help to absorb some of the noise?

[stephbg.livejournal.com]

I suspect the suspended wooden floor would be more of an acoustic problem than the walls and windows, so rugs might be a better bet.

(a) I don't know, and
(b) I can't imagine we can do this practically.