Conference World

Spring                                                            Beltane Moon

 

An odd afternoon.  Drove into Minneapolis, walked a good ways through a skyway connecting the Leamington ramp to the Minneapolis Convention Center, a lonely walk on a Sunday, got my assignment for the American Association of Museums, walked back up 2nd Avenue to the Crown Plaza Hotel and sat for four hours greeting people attending the the AAM conference.

Not many requests for help, but a few.  Mostly solved with, “Yes, it leaves every 15 minutes right there.”  or “Go out the door, turn right and keep going.”

The day was raw, a Minnesota spring day, chilly for those folks from southern climes.  And cloudy.

The conference program bruits the statistic about number of theatre seats and New York City.  And our world class museums.  Didn’t say anything about the Minnesota Orchestra or the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra though I would have.

Back home, wondering why I’d agreed to do this bit.  I get a free day attendance at the conference and I may go.  Sounds like the exhibition hall might be worth seeing.  And the bookstore of course.

Recalled my conference going days.  Hotel rooms, meetings with round tables and chairs with cloth and shaped aluminum, rushed gatherings in the  hall, plotting, making our move.  Conference behavior, where the momentary becomes urgent and the world away dissolves in the fantasy realm of significance among like minded folks.

Later they will get on planes and wonder what happened in Minneapolis.  That was 2012.  Right?