So, this happened yesterday. I will be using some different online spaces to write up a couple of the workshops I attended (links to follow in the coming weeks!), but some quick overall impressions:
- It was worth the price of admission just for being able to witness so much awesome make up, hair styling, and tattoos. I am not really a person who is generally wowed by these sorts of things — but the creativity and self-expression on this front, solely from conference attendees, was astounding.
- The positive atmosphere and energy in the conference were amazing. Like, people were truly happy and eager to be there, which is something that’s a bit hit or miss in a lot of conferences.
- There was a huge variety of options for breakout sessions. I ran into a local friend at the conference, someone with whom I share a fair number of body-related interests. We ended up having completely separate self-selected schedules because there was simply that much to choose from.
- Small piece of accessibility fail — Dear University of Arizona, when there is a conference where rather a lot of bigger people are attending (though I did see all body shapes and sizes represented), lashing together long strings of narrow chairs into closely packed rows (no aisle space!) is not your best choice today.
- I did not think this would be the case, but I literally spent all of Tess Munster’s keynote address crying. In that, “OMG, I am watching Remember the Titans for the twenty seventh time!” level of transparent emoting type of crying.
- Sitting here typing this on Saturday night — I am fucking exhausted. Physically, mentally, and emotionally. It is not a bad thing, but it is a thing that reminds me how vital these issues are to me.
