July 14th, 2009
Though I had a great time at TAM, I was pretty disappointed in most of the actual presentations themselves. Overall, I don’t think it would be worth it to pay to attend just on the strength of the lectures and panels – the real value comes from the community and socializing. On those strengths I will probably attend again. It wasn’t all bad of course, but I wouldn’t rate it better than a B.
To start with, the keynote speaker was terrible. He said he hadn’t prepared his speech much in advance and I believe him. I am always insulted and irritated when people don’t take my time and interest (and financial investment) seriously, but to top it off, he pulled a classicly thoughtless, insulting manouver and trotted out stupid, misogynistic jokes in the guise of advice. I paraphrase: “Geeky men, don’t try to impress a woman you meet at the bar by speaking intelligently to her, rather you should offer compliments as a better strategy for getting laid. Experiment and see if I am right.” I hate that shit. Women are for being fucked, and anything you can do to increase your odds of getting that – which most certainly does not include intelligent discourse! – is perfectly okay. As a woman, who is for more than just being fucked, and who can certainly engage in intelligent discourse, I say fuck you to the keynote speaker.
The most face-slapping part of his whole address was when he was asked by an attendee about sexist content in his product (he is involved with The Big Bang Theory sitcom), he waved off this concern and insisted the show is not sexist.
!
As a friend said, he might be more believable if he hadn’t had the shitty “how to trick women into laying you faster” part earlier in his talk.
The panels were fun but not particularly informative or thought provoking. For me the best part was just being in the room with some famous people. Adam Savage’s talk was great, and I enjoyed the memorial speech. I liked the talk about personalized medicine and genes. But other than that, the presentations were basically a blur. I didn’t take any notes and I didn’t experience any breakthroughs.
So… it was okay. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I feel I didn’t get as much content as I should have. I wasn’t challenged and I didn’t learn anything new, personalized medicine talk aside. edited to add: the talk by the pediatrician on vaccines was also very well done. Seeing some big names in skepticism was fun, but you know, I am not sure I should be paying what I paid in attendance fees just to be in the same room as some big names. You know? The blogs written by many of the speakers are much more interesting and useful than what was presented at the conference.
But I will say this: the community is great and I support the mandate of the group, critical thinking and science education. Getting together is tremendously validating and encouraging, and that has value. The conference organizers clearly worked very hard and I think they did a great job. I met some great people and that wouldn’t have happened without TAM. I do feel I paid too much for too little in actual conference content, so maybe next year I won’t attend sessions and will just hang out in the TAM hotel to meet people.
And the meals that were provided were, of course, entirely inadequate for vegetarians and vegans alike.
All in all a very mixed report.
We should plan better for next year. The speakers may improve – there have been much better ones in past years, and my survey reflected the ‘meh’ feeling we all seemed to share. If they don’t… you know, I didn’t see anyone checking registrations at the door to any of the basic sessions, only the extra workshop stuff. I’m not in any way advocating an attempt to defraud James Randi himself… I’m just thinking it might be possible.
Knowing the paucity of vegetarian meal options, we can bring/buy our own and not have to rely on casino fare.
And of course, we know to make a B-line to the pool bar. Although there’s something to be said for mingling with the other attendees, who seem to have made a unanimous choice in the Del Mar Bar.
All in all, despite the lackluster official lectures, I came away with a renewed motivation and a list of new ideas and new contacts (particularly the ones in Canada).
I must agree. I am trying to keep in mind that I did have a lot of fun overall. Just… I wish the sessions were better. I hope next year there are some improvements.