A case study, an interview and a rap (Thursday)

Today was the final day of CHI - Industry Day - and the day I was presenting both my Case Study in the morning and an interview in the afternoon.  The interview ended with a wrap-up in the form of a rap.  ;-)  Here's a (poor) video of it:  Wrap-up Rap

The opening and closing Plenary sessions were both fabulous.  Elizabeth Churchill (who also interviewed me in the afternoon) gave the morning one on things to make us cheerful.  It was full of great ideas and synthesized things very well.  Scott Jenson was our closing Plenary, talking about the Internet of Things.  Both were wonderful and I'm glad I got up (for Elizabeth) and stayed (for Scott)

However, I'm totally exhausted and am heading to a very early evening.  I remember partying until late into the night (or early into the morning) but no longer.

BLUR!!!!!!!!! (AKA Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday)

All of my good intentions to blog every night regardless of how late it was have evaporated.  Both because it was very, very late and because I was always completely and total exhausted.

Totally.

That's the way things are at conferences of course. Even if you aren't going to sessions, the pace, the people, the walking, the carrying/lugging, the being "on" - it is all just plain exhausting.  And many conferences are 2 or 3 days - but this one is 4 days PLUS 2 days ahead with Workshops.  And I had a workshop on Saturday and SIG today, so it's been a very long week.

And I'm not even done.  Tomorrow is my main day to present.

I'm presenting a case study in the morning on an ethnographic study I did in South Africa.  It's bittersweet since Gary was so much a part of this.  But it was a very interesting study and I'll be discussing how we made trade-offs as we dealt with the challenges.

Then, in the afternoon, I'll be doing an interview session with a good friend, Elizabeth Churchill.  She will be asking me questions about 5 lessons I've learned during my career - things that have relevance for practitioners today.  I've spent quite a lot of time thinking about these and am excited to have this opportunity to share them.

My wrap-up summary is going to be a bit different, though, since, honestly, how many people do you think will still be awake during the last session before the closing Plenary?  Not many.  And I really DO want people to remember these.

So, "the Other Dr. Dray" is making another appearance.  I/she will rap the wrap-up.  Complete with my backup dancers and beat boxers (aka Student Volunteers)  I did a first run through with Kami, who is a fabulous beat boxer, today and I must say I'm VERY excited!

Stay tuned.  Tomorrow at this time, it'll be done and I'll either be happy or deeply embarrassed.

I'm sincerely hoping it is the former!