[Part I is here. The whole Certification Challenges series is here.]
Best way to loosen up panel members before a potentially tense workshop: 4 bottles of Ca’ Del Solo red.
Of course, this also meant everyone was a lil hung over, and perhaps a lil extra on-edge, at the panel the next morning. In my defense, I drank most of the stuff myself.
Anyway — It made for an interesting Saturday night when the four panelists for the “New Challenges in Fair Trade Certification” workshop @ the United Students for Fair Trade convergence met up at the Mercury Cafe, the night before the big event .
[Left to right: Jean of TransFair USA, Monika of Co-op Coffees, Julia of Equal Exchange, Dan of Univ. Wisconsin-Madison. Go here for more deets on the orgs.]
We got along so well, drinking and arguing passionately. So well, in fact, that the panelists started dancing together. Voluntarily. I got photographic proof!
I left the dancing to go back to the bar for a cosmo and chatted with local people — Oak and Dew — yes, those were really the names they went by —
No devils were dancing at the Mercury Cafe this night, however. The title’ll make more sense after the next post —
[more pics from the dinner and dancing here]
Updates: Part III: a rundown of people and orgs who felt certification standards need to change.
[The whole Certification Challenges series is here.]
If you’re looking to flesh out your resume as far as your literary studies are concerned, you should keep an eye out for calls-for-papers for UK academic conferences. Yes, the presentations are usually quality, but in the evening the conferences always devolve into total piss-ups (Our university had more than a dozen bars on campus). Nothing like hanging out with a bunch of legless academics.
Watch out for the crit theory and linguistics crowd, though. They’re even more opaque than when they’re sober. :)
Comment by Brian — February 21, 2006 @ 12:06 am
Is that Dan Jaffee or Fred Astaire? I am so bummed I missed all of this!
-Matt
Comment by mateotemprano — February 22, 2006 @ 4:08 pm
I’ve thought about applying to some conferences in the UK. The thing is, I have to pick a good time. No more winter time conferences for me in sad, cold places when I can be happily sipping wine in warm Southern Cali –
Comment by Siel — February 23, 2006 @ 10:02 pm