ASTC Long Edition

Ok, so I promised a conference recap. You would think after being home for a week I would have finally digested, but you would be incredibly wrong. There was just so much going on that I find that I discover/remember new things everyday. Scary I know, but true none the less.

I spent an entire week with “my kind” as a few friends have put it and we covered all sorts of issues relevant to museum life.

I spent the first day of the conference a little terrified and out of sorts…surprisingly I still find these sort of professional events terrifying (and in case you read my previous post the escalators were no help with this issue). ASTC kicked off for me with the fabulous NEON (National Education Outreach Network) session, and coffee (tea if you’re me) with a person I mistakenly thought was from Denmark. In actuallity Ruth, as we will call her, was from a Denver museum though she had a heavy foreign accent I swear and since none of you were there you cannot discredit this claim. NEON was basically a room full of people that love to travel around and present science of some sort to kids and adults alike. This was an awesome intro to the conference and I met some pretty cool people, some of whom will make later appearances in this post, however names will be changed to protect the innocent and because I didn’t ask if I could talk about them.

I also learned that conferences are occasionally just an excuse to go out and get drunk. I only managed that feat one night…I am certain the singular occurrence was something that made Eric very grateful.

As the days went on I am not sure I could recount every event that occurred, but I met some awesome people, traded business cards and will be in touch with all of them. I learned that it is always better to get support, even if external than go it alone.

However, going back to my drunk comment. Saturday was the big day for most things ASTC. The conference officially kicked off with a free breakfast and Key Note Speaker. If you’ve ever worked in the non-profit world then you know the best way to get attendance is to offer something free and food is one of the best somethings you can offer in my opinion. This seemed to be a shared opinion because the conference hall was packed. We were welcomed to Philly by none other than Benjamin Franklin. For those of you that believed he was dead you have not been to Philly recently. He was present to welcome us and yell “Huzzah!” a lot. Then we moved into the business meeting, which I claim most people ignored and talked to the others seated at their table, or maybe that was just what I did. Then we got to the Key Note Speaker. I was actually looking forward to this talk. We were supposed to be hearing about Global Sustainability and the Science Centers Role. Please take note that I said supposed to be in the last sentence because what we really learned about was his book that was recently published and all about the cholera outbreak in England. While I now know never to drink water from the Broad Street pump and that who you know has throughout history proven to be just as important as what you know, I have no idea what my museum’s role in global sustainability should be. From there I bought concealor with a friend, Bob, and then attended back to back sessions all day. I have notes and will refer to them when work calls for that, bur for now let us just say I sat around and listened to a lot of people talk and took a lot of notes. Then it was off to the PARTY! The Franklin Institute opened their doors to any and all of us offering free food and drink (including alcohol). In case you missed the comment earlier free anything is a good way to get people to attend and now I will admit to you that free ALCOHOL is one of the best ever. So…imagine packed museum with many drinking people. I’m not sure how this became a good idea, in fact I blame the alcohol consumed, but after the party a group of us headed out to a local night club. While the atmosphere was dreary when we first arrived after mass quantities of drinkage being consumed and many other people arriving it turned into a fairly enjoyable night/early morning. Unless you are Eric and then you lost sleep because I called for no reason other than thinking it would be a bad idea for me to go to sleep at that exact time. He was however fabulous and put up with me being both crazy and drunk and seems to still like me after I have arrived home.

Sunday was another packed day with sessions and more sessions, again I could recount them by looking at my notes, but what fun would that be for everyone else. Monday was more of an exploring day than anything else. I spent the first half of the day at a school in Philly observing Outreach programs. Some were fabulous and some were not so fabulous. Even the not so fabulous were decent but could have used a nicer presenter. We’ll call her Jerky McJerkface and she nearly made a child cry. Jerky McJerkface was not my favorite person and I think she is a bad example of outreach, but the program itself was incredible. Then we walked to The Franklin for another free day of exploring the museum. If you have never seen the American Museum of Natural History’s Mobile Museum you really should get yourself on one. They are amazing! It’s a huge ass Winnebago that is decked out from front to back inside and out with everything they need for the exhibit. I was in dorky heaven! After that I met up with another friend, let us call him, Eagle Eye. I will admit that Eagle Eye was quite possibly one of the coolest people I met at the conference and we’ll probably keep in touch the most, but otherwise there are some fun stories to be had from this day. Eagle Eye and I decided it would be wise a decision to let the all knowing iPhone tell us where to get lunch. After a couple shakes of the fancy gizmo we discovered a little gem of a place called “Hot Tamales” (I kid you not that was actually the name.) and though I can truly call it a gem now after spending a mere $6 for lunch (drink included) and enjoying it I honestly decided we HAD to eat there because it had an awesome name. Eagle Eye is partly awesome in the fact that he agreed to eat at some random place my phone found for us and for other reasons as well. I spent the rest of the day watching random shows, some involving always cool and always exiting, FIRE and others being totally cute 3D cartoons with flies. I fully endorse and recommend you see Fly Me to the Moon if and when you get a chance for sheer cuteness factor alone. After spending the day doing nothing I had worked up an appetite and it seemed that only Ealge Eye and I were left in the museum. We made plans to meet up a little later for some dinner. We again let the all mighty iPhone choose a place for us. However, I am sad to admit that this time the iPhone let us down not once, not twice, but three times. Finally after wandering the city for two hours we found the restaurant we had initially set out in search of and had a great vegetarian dinner.

Tuesday involved saying Good Bye to everyone and wishing I had booked a flight home as well. Strangely enough when you see someone everyday you begin to miss them after a week. I had to hold out however until Wednesday afternoon when I flew home on one of the most empty flights ever. The rest of the week was a whirlwind of catching up, cleaning, and events at my place of employment and home.

We capped off the week with a Halloween Party. I will attempt to find some pictures and possibly post them at a later date. I have sadly discovered that pictures are also not my strong suit because I get caught up in the action and forget all about the camera. You’ll all have to forgive me. It seems like a billion other things have also happened since I returned home. I however do not believe I can handle putting anything else in writing and I am certain none of you can handle reading more. Hopefully I have not bored you to the extent that you will never stop here again. If I have I greatly apologize and you will be missed.