Strange things that might happen at a conference

At a conference last week I met two people I should have already known and ran into two people I haven’t seen in over a decade.

I spent the last three days at a conference.

Conferences are weird.

Early in your career, they’re mostly places where you hover for too long over the coffee station. You try to locate the only person you know so you don’t have to stand alone or try to make awkward conversation with the one other person no one else wants to talk to.

It doesn’t take you long to figure out why no one wants to talk to this guy: he has nothing to say about anything.

Neither do you.

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The shy person’s guide to work travel

Guinea pig
This guinea pig is shy, but you wouldn’t know it to look at her.

I was travelling for work this week, and I learned an important coping strategy for shy people that I’m about to share with you.

Despite your shyness, you’ve been a stellar employee at the unicorn feather wholesale firm where you work, and you’ve been promoted. Congratulations!

Enjoy that corner office with the leather couch (not unicorn leather), the personal assistant, and the extra zero in your pay cheque (hopefully at the end, not the start).

But before you pop open a bottle of champagne, you might want to consider the downside of your promotion: you’ll be expected to travel for work.

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