Re differentiating social from professional spaces, do you think (unofficial, non-CEA-sponsored) dating events around the time of EAGs is a step in the right or the wrong direction?
Arguments that it’s unhelpful: it sets an expectation that you can/should be viewing the conference and adjacent socials as a way to find partners, which isn’t true of the conference proper; you may encounter people you’ve had professional 1-on-1s with at the dating event which may make things blurry/awkward.
Arguments that it’s helpful: it quarantines all the flirty energy in one place so people feel “less of a need” to hit on each other at the conferences and general afterparties; by making that space be explicitly social, it helps the conference itself be more implicitly professional?
I do personally think it would be helpful to have explicit dating events, so that people who are in to that thing have an explicit place to be and go and people who are not in to that thing can know to steer clear.
I personally think that people are personal and professional people, so it shouldn’t be weird or bad to see people in personal and professional contexts and to interact with them very differently depending on the context.
This all seems right!
Re differentiating social from professional spaces, do you think (unofficial, non-CEA-sponsored) dating events around the time of EAGs is a step in the right or the wrong direction?
Arguments that it’s unhelpful: it sets an expectation that you can/should be viewing the conference and adjacent socials as a way to find partners, which isn’t true of the conference proper; you may encounter people you’ve had professional 1-on-1s with at the dating event which may make things blurry/awkward.
Arguments that it’s helpful: it quarantines all the flirty energy in one place so people feel “less of a need” to hit on each other at the conferences and general afterparties; by making that space be explicitly social, it helps the conference itself be more implicitly professional?
I do personally think it would be helpful to have explicit dating events, so that people who are in to that thing have an explicit place to be and go and people who are not in to that thing can know to steer clear.
I personally think that people are personal and professional people, so it shouldn’t be weird or bad to see people in personal and professional contexts and to interact with them very differently depending on the context.