PharmaSUG

One of my professions big annual conferences – PharmaSUG – is going on in Seattle right now.  I’m not really one for conferences – I’m more interested in exploring the city where the conferences are held, so I’d rather attend one that is somewhere I’ve never been before – but I’m kind of disappointed that no one in our department encouraged us to attend this one.  It wouldn’t have been costly – there are not that many potential attendees in the Seattle office, and we obviously wouldn’t have any expenses for travel or accommodation.  But nope, no one said anything.  I don’t know exactly how many, but quite a few people have travelled up from California from our company to attend.  I happened to bump into a few today who showed up wanting to check out our office.  But for the most part, I don’t know who is here and I won’t see them.  I think there may even be some from my group who I work with, but naturally my manager has said absolutely nothing about who is here so, stupidly, I will miss saying hello to them – the inability, and missed opportunities, to strike up better personal relationships with the people I work with continues to be a big issue with my current position, and just one of the many criticisms I have towards my current manager and working with a bunch of Chinese.  But turning back to the positive, I am meeting up with an old colleague from my time in California later on today who is also here for the conference.  Be good to see a rare fellow US-based Brit in our profession.  Probably won’t be a late one, I had totally forgot that today is May Day and hence loads of protests and activity downtown.  I don’t imagine there will be any serious violence – I think the Seattle police have learnt their lesson from several years ago – but could still be a lot of disruption, so I want to get home before it’s too late (especially with another early teleconference tomorrow morning – damn European team members and their time differences).