I guess it’s about time for me to weigh in on how the weekend went. All in all it was a good time… there were more interactive sessions this year, which I thought was a lot more effective than us sitting around and listening to lectures. We got there late on Thursday because we left CFI later than intended, and then got caught in traffic. Derek from Halifax was sooo anxious to get there, it was adorable. Anyway - eventually we did get there just in time to do an intro - I was so brain dead that my intro was basically “uh, hey. im katie kish… i run the guelph group and do a lot of radio stuff…thanks.” Slightly embarrassing but I as running on like 20 minutes sleep.
From Guelph me, Patrick and Will were there, so it was cool to have a good group repping Guelph. Especially at the Canadian section of the conference, i was glad we had a few of us there. I think the splitting of the Canadians and the Americans was the most productive time of the conference. I have absolutely nothing against the Americans, i love them all to death, but I think its really important to have that separation, and it was everyone’s favorite part of the conference. Well, everyone that i talked to anyway, it was just really productive and nice to talk to all the Canadians one on one. We did a lot that couldn’t have been done in the bigger groups and talked a lot of Canadian politic stuff, which was pretty important too. And did lists of people who can help out in different areas of stuff - so i think that will come in handy a lot in the future.
Post conference stuff was a lot like last year, lots of fun conversations and gatherings. Thats when i really got to know people on a personal level and got to see them interacting with other people out of a “professional” atmosphere. …if that’s the right word…
Max Maven was there, and he put on a performance, i thought he was more of an entertainer than a magician, but I wasn’t all…*that* entertained. Ive never really liked magicians in the first place… I thought he’d change my mind, but… he didn’t really. I think the best speaker was definitely Austin Dacey, he was moving and awesome, as usual. The guy totally has things…so elegantly right. It’s great to hear him speak.
Besides that, there isn’t much to report. The best part was meeting all the people. It was good to meet Ian and Eric from Alberta, and Derek from Halifax! It was also fantastic to see Derek from BC again, it had been years since I had seen him. Dan Riley is a super nice guy, and Im glad he got the position at CFI, he seems to be really good at it. Although I didn’t see much of them I was happy to see Lauren and Debbie again, and of course DJ. It was a whole new group of Americans this year, which was great to see! They all had their fantastic qualities to them like Lucia, Matt McClair, Dave Fletcher (!!!), Chris Olson and … and the list goes all … they didn’t dissapoint one bit.
Over all, the sessions this year were a lot better. There was a lot more productive conversations, and more time to share ideas about what works and what doesn’t work. At the Canadian session especially it was good to hear everyone talk about their specific areas of interest because they were all so passionate about it. I think it was really good to let everyone have their say in things instead of us listening to a lot of people talk… about non-student oriented stuff.
I think the only thing I am disappointed about this year… was that I personally didn’t talk to enough community members. I was really hoping Id have gotten to know them better this year, but it didn’t happen. But, thats my own fault, not CFI’s. Anyway, it was a good time! I plan on deconstructing a few things in further detail in the next couple days (because I’ll be back at a computer!! woo!)… such as:
- social gatherings after the conference
- communities helping with campus stuff and vice vers
- splitting by region
- the new podcast…
- bad words and why we can’t all think like capitalists…
I know this is a pretty positive post of me to write, but I honestly don’t have a lot of negative feedback… Last year I was very jumpy bumpy about it because it was my first year, and I wasn’t quite so cynical, this year I have a thing or two… but, that’s to be expected from me 
and i’ll get to it later. but really, it was a good time, and im glad I went.
