Can you keep it down, please?
Sep 23, 2009 Wednesday, 02:42 PM
Joanne Lee gets a bee in her bonnet about multi-taskers at conferences.
I WAS at an industry conference earlier this week. It was a great opportunity to observe people in such a setting and, I must say, there was a lot to be learnt.
Conferences are one of those unique circumstances when a bunch of people from different work backgrounds come together. You get the Speed Networkers who make it their business to collect as many namecards as they can in record time, the Non-Environmentalists who open bottles of mineral water but don't drink a drop, and the "Garang-Guni"s who collect entire sheaves of handouts and assorted materials.
The one which struck me the hardest at this particular conference, however, was the Busy Bee. These are the ones who set up their mobile offices and work furiously away in their own little bubble.
Don't get me wrong. These days, it's perfectly acceptable to bring your laptop to conferences and multi-task while listening to the speeches. Too many of us have work spilling out of our ears and the odd few hours to clear out our email inbox are always welcome - especially during a one-way conversation (like at a conference or a group call) when you can multi-task.
But the Busy Bees took things to a different plane altogether. They sat down, whipped their laptops, phones and documents out, punched their keyboards noisily, shuffled stacks of papers obviously unrelated to the conference, and even took work-related calls quite audibly.
It's one thing if they sat themselves at the back of the cavernous ballroom. (I'll admit, I brought my laptop in on the second day. I didn't take calls though, nor did I shuffle stacks of non-conference-related papers.) At least, at the back of the room, your incessant keyboard-pounding won't be heard by the poor speakers.
Alas, at this particular conference, the event managers situated one set of power points at the back of the room... And one set in front where it was a little too disturbing to have a swarm of Busy Bees.
It would have been fine if they weren't so oblivious to others, but, you know, if I were a speaker or panelist, I think I would have been rather annoyed indeed. I won't even mention how I'd feel if I was the poor event manager who spent lots of effort to arrange for a perfect do, then have attendees blatantly not pay attention.
Bottom line: If you have to work, or use any sort of technology, do so discreetly and don't assume other people will understand or tolerate your exigencies of duty!
