So I just got back home from a week long tech convention and I feel that a field report would be a good way to go over what I did right and what I did wrong.

Let me start of by saying conventions are a great way to work on your conversation skills. If you're manning a booth, it is your job to talk to people and get them interested in your product or your research. There are a lot of opportunities to work on making eye contact with attendees and to initiate conversations. Anyone who slows down to look at your booth is a perfect candidate to just go up and ask how they are doing or if they have any questions. 9/10 times that opener segues easily into a conversation about your product. Ok, so let me get into my personal convention experience.

Sunday

I have all my bags packed and I'm waiting for my limo service to the airport. I know that I'm going to be interacting with a lot of people this week so I give myself a few goals for the week. One is to work on my conversational skills and talk to as many new people as I can. The second is to work on my eye contact. Hold eye contact with people walking down the street and convention attendees and don't be the first to break eye contact. So with those goals, my trip begins. The limo picks me up and we have a nice conversation on the way to the airport. We talk about the city I'm traveling to and what I'll be doing for the week. I mention that I'm going to be presenting some of my work on Thursday and we get on the topic of public speaking. I get the nice little ego boost when the driver complements me on my personality and says I'll do a great job for my presentation. I get to the airport, get checked in, and head to the bar to wait for my flight to board. I sit between a guy and a gal and I know that I have an opportunity to start a conversation. Unfortunately, AA got a hold of me and I sat drinking my beer and watching tv. By the time I finished my beer I was over thinking openers and was getting frustrated. It got to the point where I just said "fuck this AA and just say something". I turn to the gal and ask her a question about her tablet keyboard that she was working on. We talk for a minute about it and then the conversation slowly dies and we go back to watching tv in silence. I get up and head to my gate to board my flight. I sit next to a coworker whose going on the trip as well and we discuss plans for the convention and joke around.

We get to our destination and split a cab to our hotels. The night is still young and I decide to head to the hotel bar to see if I can meet some new people. I get there and it's practically dead. There is one girl reading a book about weed and a few other people scattered around. I sit a few seats down from the girl and order my drink trying to think of what to say. After about 15 minutes a few guys walk in talking about the convention. The girl initiates a conversation with them about her work and they get to talking. I quickly see this as a chance to get in on the conversation and I make some comments about work the girl does. The girl quickly says "then you should come over here next to me". I sit down next to her and we start talking about our work, nerd culture, and our hobbies. I did some simple kino, touches on the shoulder and such, but as we talk the topic went to her boyfriend and her 15 year old daughter. I am not one to interfere with her relationship and she definitely cared about her guy, so I stop any further kino and focus on the conversation. We talk for a while and eventually she gives me her number and tells me to meet up with her on Monday for some drinks. We say our goodbyes and I head off to bed.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday

So these days were fairly similar so I'll just hit some of the big points that happened. I attended a few talks and saw to quality of the presenters. Very few were engaging, most read directly from their slides, and the general flow of their talk was sloppy. I knew I could give a better presentation than these seasoned guys. For the rest of the week I started hyping myself up to prepare for my presentation. When I wasn't at a talk, I was down at the expo hall. I was either walking around looking at the other groups or I was at my company's booth. Keeping my goals for the week in mind, I tried to make eye contact with anyone who passed by. If they stopped to look at our work I quickly started talking to them, answering questions and talking about what my company does. This goes fairly well, and I even hand out some of my papers that I wrote for this conference. As the week goes on I have refined my conversations and keep them clear and concise. At the end of the day me and my fellow coworkers would go out for dinner. I've always had a good sense of humor but just from working with these guys for the past few years I have really been able to weave this humor into my conversation. I had moments this week where I heard a phrase and without missing a beat turned the phrase into a quick one liner. Again, another confidence booster and a realization of a new skill. On Monday, I sent a message to the girl from Sunday and tell here I'm at the bar she suggested to go to. Unfortunately, she says she's beat from the day and is going to take an early night. Oh well, I sit at the crowded bar, sip my beer and have another short conversation with one of the other customers.

Thursday

The day of my talk. I went through my presentation multiple times during the week and I felt confident. My talk was in the early morning so I got up early, got ready, and prepared to give my presentation. The time comes along for me to speak and I'm a little nervous but I keep in the back of my mind that my presentation is better than 90% of what I've seen this week. I go through it, keeping in mind to talk slowly, clearly, and to speak to the audience and not the slides. I gave a clear motivation for the work I'm presenting, stepped through my procedure, and went over my results. I consistently brought the audience back to the main theme of my presentation. I finished my presentation and handled the questions that were given to me. I had moments where I stumbled, but overall the presentation went great. My coworkers and my boss complemented me on presentation and I'm still riding that high today. The rest of the day was similar to the previous days and I ended up staying in for my early flight this morning.

Friday

I get to the airport, check in, and wait to board my flight. Again, I saw a few people that were by themselves but I held back and didn't initiate any conversation. I board the plan and sit next to a woman who's a few years older than me. I get that voice telling me to just nut up and say something to her. I asked her if she enjoyed her trip and we have some small talk before the flight takes off. The conversation begins to die down but I am persistent to not let it end. Despite my efforts, she would constantly be glancing at her iPhone, even while talking to me, so the conversation did not last much longer. We land, I grab my bags, and wait for the limo that's picking me up. I get in the limo and the driver and I quickly get into a conversation. Oh man, this guy was great. Outgoing, talkative, and knew the social details of body language and conversations. We talked about hiking trips, famous people that he drove around, and a few social games that we would play. In fact, he told me of how he got an eye for body language. He would park his car at a busy train station in the city and people watch. Anyone he saw, he tried to build up a story of what they did in the past 24 hours just by watching their body language. I will definitely be playing this game in the future. The rest of the drive back home was great. By the end he gave me his card and his personal number and said if I ever need a DD when I go into the city to give him a call. It may be his pitch that he gives to everyone but damn, he's got me sold.

So that was my trip. I made some good progress with eye contact and public speaking. I still need to work on approaching strangers and holding conversations. The past few months have been a big buildup to this convention and now that its over I have a moment of no deadlines and pressures. I am going to take full advantage of it tonight and hope to work on my weak points from this week.