As you can tell I haven’t written much, so perhaps it should be quite newsworthy when I do because it means I have something to write about.

This time it’s the SIGUCCS conference being held in Saint Louis. It’s a conference more like an academic conference than many IT conferences with papers and presentations on those papers. And while I fond some of the presentations great (the A.R.T if CMS training being the highlight Monday ), the highlight of the conference is by far the personal relationships here.

That’s not to belittle the terrific opening session. It summarized a lot if things I have heard over the years, but put it in terms that I can remember. For instance “Do what you cannot not do”. After years in IT, I am still nit certain what in IT I cannot not do, but I do know some things I am not happy or good at doing. Which leads nicely to another of the opening points. People who are naturally better and want to do something will generally outperform those who aren’t naturally gifted at it, even with great training. His example was speed reading, but mine would be the SLU project process I hate it and don’t really consider myself good at it. Unfortunately, it becoming a larger part if my job, not diminishing.

So with that and the fact I really ate working alone, this conference has made me reflect on what I am doing (or not doing with my career). I’ve got to get back to working with people, at least on a tight team. I’m not happy with what I’m doing. When lunch is a highlight because I get to see people, I cannot do this anymore.

And perhaps that’s the big difference with this conference. I’ve gone to big conferenwcea and learned a lot about products or solutions, but this conference, I’m learning about myself. Also helping that is the people I have met here. More than the other conferences like EDUCAUSE or Macworld that I have been on, I have met people, colleagues, and I know their names and faces. In these previous conferences I’ve never met a group and gone out for dinner, but here I did. And so I found myself at dinner with 12 other people at the Drunken fish on Laclede’s landing. People from Chicago, Calgary, West Virginia, College Station Texas, Wyoming and others. I found it to be a great experience, one I did not expect at the beginning of the week.

Maybe there are more surprises today. Good sessions? And more fun tonite at the Arch.