My current conference has a ton of people I have met before---possibly close to 50% of the people there. I have not had a chance to talk to a good number of the people I know. (By the way, I was told by one of the workshop organizers without asking that the reason I didn't get funding to come was that because I'm in CA, they knew it would be pretty cheap for me, and they figured I'd come anyway if they didn't fund me. Clearly, they PS12ed the situation rather successfully...) There are also others I recognize because I've seen them speak before. Another person came up to me from having seen me at multiple previous conferences but never having met me. Several people have come up to me to congratulate me on my job, others came up to me because they saw my application and recognized my name (or were specifically told about me), and one person I know even came up to me to indicate he looked for my application but didn't find it (their advertisement came out after I got the offer from Oxford, so I was going to apply but never did). It's also gratifying that there are several people who have been looking out for me and want to help me. So, this workshop could have been quite the whorefest for me. As it stands, it's been good for the ego, which is much appreciated given my recent mood. (More people are aware of my work now as well, so hopefully that trend will continue. Of course, this conference does consist predominantly of people in my primary area, so this isn't exactly a random group of people.)
Thankfully, however, I have a job waiting for me, so I have been able to concentrate on research for a while instead of job applications. This is obviously much preferable!
OK, so what about the title of this entry... One of the reasons I came is that one of my main collaborators is here and discussing things in person for various projects would be extremely helpful. Indeed, it has been. The M.O. has been to meet about various things, e-mail questions to our collaborators during the talks, and then go through the responses together during various breaks from the talks. Rinse, wash, repeat. Several things have advanced considerably as a result and I actually wouldn't be too surprised if we can start writing one of them up in a couple weeks. (And this is one that should have an awesome chance to get into PRL.) Being in the same place speeds up progress immensely.
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