I found completing a bunch of one-on-ones to be surprisingly tiring as well. In my last one-on-one, I literally just lay down on the floor as we chatted, I was that tired. This didn’t happen at previous conferences when I spent most of my time roaming the corridors having free-wheeling conversations.
I had three on my first day and then was emotionally done. I remember thinking “to all other people, I can either cry with joy at what you say, or cry in frustration, but no other responses are available right now”.
It involved (for me) gearing up a ton of context and interest in one person, finding something critical to say with them, and then they were gone and it was happening again.
I mean, maybe we were all just being dumb and should handle it better. I also wonder if there’s some natural way for event organizers to be like “there are set break periods where we stop 1-1s from being booked” or something, though probably that’s a bad solution and there’s a better one.
I’ll just say from the other side that at EAG x Oxford I had a lot of 1-1s and didn’t find it stressful; I’m really extroverted and get a lot of energy from things like this. I don’t never need a break or want to escape, but the burnout thing is less common for me.
Strong +1 - I accidentally ended up with a lighter Saturday which turned out to be really good, and even then ended up cancelling the final 2 meetings in the night of the Saturday and Sunday because my brain was tired.
I think what can be exhausting is wanting to bring the same energy or excitement to every 1-1, especially if it’s someone I haven’t met before or is newer to the community. I’m not sure how to address that.
I think despite the messages of take a break and go the chill room etc., there is still a strong (implicit?) pressure to want to maximize the number of people you meet, and the FOMO of missing out on a great connection perhaps.
I wonder if more could be done to encourage people to explicitly set some time after EAG to have calls, or encourage norms where people meet on a more drip-like basis over the year.
I found completing a bunch of one-on-ones to be surprisingly tiring as well. In my last one-on-one, I literally just lay down on the floor as we chatted, I was that tired. This didn’t happen at previous conferences when I spent most of my time roaming the corridors having free-wheeling conversations.
I had three on my first day and then was emotionally done. I remember thinking “to all other people, I can either cry with joy at what you say, or cry in frustration, but no other responses are available right now”.
It involved (for me) gearing up a ton of context and interest in one person, finding something critical to say with them, and then they were gone and it was happening again.
I mean, maybe we were all just being dumb and should handle it better. I also wonder if there’s some natural way for event organizers to be like “there are set break periods where we stop 1-1s from being booked” or something, though probably that’s a bad solution and there’s a better one.
I’ll just say from the other side that at EAG x Oxford I had a lot of 1-1s and didn’t find it stressful; I’m really extroverted and get a lot of energy from things like this. I don’t never need a break or want to escape, but the burnout thing is less common for me.
Woop, thank you for true but contrary datapoints.
Strong +1 - I accidentally ended up with a lighter Saturday which turned out to be really good, and even then ended up cancelling the final 2 meetings in the night of the Saturday and Sunday because my brain was tired.
I think what can be exhausting is wanting to bring the same energy or excitement to every 1-1, especially if it’s someone I haven’t met before or is newer to the community. I’m not sure how to address that.
I think despite the messages of take a break and go the chill room etc., there is still a strong (implicit?) pressure to want to maximize the number of people you meet, and the FOMO of missing out on a great connection perhaps.
I wonder if more could be done to encourage people to explicitly set some time after EAG to have calls, or encourage norms where people meet on a more drip-like basis over the year.