I think at previous EAGs I always had the sense that I had a âbudgetâ of 1-on-1s I could schedule before Iâd be too exhausted. Iâd often feel very tired towards the end of the second day, which I took as validation that I indeed needed to moderate.
This EAG, I:
scheduled 1-on-1s in nearly every slot I could over the Saturday /â Sunday (total of 24-ish?)
still had plenty of social energy at the end (although definitely felt a more intellectual exhaustion).
I think itâs very possible this is a coincidence, that this is because of other ways Iâve happened to change over the last year, or because of circumstances around the conference that I didnât notice were relevant
but
it also seems possible that I was wrong about 1-on-1s being costly for me? I think that actually my most socially challenging experiences at EAGs have often been the ones where I feel at a loose end, wishing for some serendipitous meeting with someone who happens to want to talk, monitoring the people around me to figure out who would welcome the company and who would rather be left alone. Feeling like the time I have at the event is valuable, and worrying that Iâm wasting it.
In comparison, during 1-on-1s, I know the other person wants to be there, I know a bit about what they want from me or what Iâm trying to get, so I get to shelve all the ambiguity and just dispense or receive opinions or leads or whatever. Itâs very straightforward, and for me thatâs much less stressful.
My EAG strategy going forward is going to be to try harder to fill space as much as reasonably possible. (I think this has also become easier over time as the event has become larger.) As things worked out this time, I had an empty slot every 4 meetings or so, which was probably about the right amount of time to make notes that I hadnât made in the meetings themselves and remind myself of what was coming next.
That said, I think a perfect event would have involved a little more random encounters with people I knew, with whom didnât really have much to talk about, but could spend 5 minutes saying âhi how are things hope youâre wellâ. Sorry to those I didnât see!
I think at previous EAGs I always had the sense that I had a âbudgetâ of 1-on-1s I could schedule before Iâd be too exhausted. Iâd often feel very tired towards the end of the second day, which I took as validation that I indeed needed to moderate.
This EAG, I:
scheduled 1-on-1s in nearly every slot I could over the Saturday /â Sunday (total of 24-ish?)
still had plenty of social energy at the end (although definitely felt a more intellectual exhaustion).
I think itâs very possible this is a coincidence, that this is because of other ways Iâve happened to change over the last year, or because of circumstances around the conference that I didnât notice were relevant
but
it also seems possible that I was wrong about 1-on-1s being costly for me? I think that actually my most socially challenging experiences at EAGs have often been the ones where I feel at a loose end, wishing for some serendipitous meeting with someone who happens to want to talk, monitoring the people around me to figure out who would welcome the company and who would rather be left alone. Feeling like the time I have at the event is valuable, and worrying that Iâm wasting it.
In comparison, during 1-on-1s, I know the other person wants to be there, I know a bit about what they want from me or what Iâm trying to get, so I get to shelve all the ambiguity and just dispense or receive opinions or leads or whatever. Itâs very straightforward, and for me thatâs much less stressful.
My EAG strategy going forward is going to be to try harder to fill space as much as reasonably possible. (I think this has also become easier over time as the event has become larger.) As things worked out this time, I had an empty slot every 4 meetings or so, which was probably about the right amount of time to make notes that I hadnât made in the meetings themselves and remind myself of what was coming next.
That said, I think a perfect event would have involved a little more random encounters with people I knew, with whom didnât really have much to talk about, but could spend 5 minutes saying âhi how are things hope youâre wellâ. Sorry to those I didnât see!