Last year was a first: I had a stay-at-home vacation a week before flying out to a big conference. We took the kids to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and did a lot of relaxing. It worked so well I’m doing it again.
Mood music:
The kids are on their February school vacation, which was my main reason for choosing this week. That it fell the week before RSA — one of the biggest security conferences of the year — was pure luck. That it’s happening two years in a row is even luckier.
I always run myself ragged the week before a conference. A couple years ago it caught up with me. This time I have a chance to soak up some quality family time and rest my brain before getting on the plane.
That should allow me to be at the top of my game in San Francisco next week. It certainly did the trick last year.
Conferences have always brought out the the good and bad sides of my OCD. On a professional level it gives me the extra push to write more, network more, stay awake later for said networking, and get up and at ’em early. It also takes over the parts of my brain that manage my pacing and ability to stop and breath.
Not helping is that usually, the week before, I work in overdrive mode to get as much business out of the way as possible. In doing that, I’m already half burned before my plane takes off.
I won’t always get to vacation right before RSA like this. So I’ll be making the most of this week.
I’m especially going to need it this year, because a couple hours after the plane lands Sunday, I’ll be darting back and forth between BSidesSF, the hotel, the Moscone Center registration area and quite a few evening events.
