At 6 a.m., are you a penguin or a bear?
Today is Sunday, August 6. This will be my busiest day of the American Accounting Association annual meeting in Denver. My highlight? Conducting two workshops.
My day starts at 6:15. Why do hotel wake up calls sound like sadistically played cymbals?
Sunday is CPE workshop day, a favorite part of the AAA annual meeting. Everything revolves around professional development. CTLA (Conference for Teaching and Learning in Accounting) has encroached upon Saturday and Sunday CPE, and has almost destroyed it. This is a crying shame. In my opinion, CTLA should be discontinued. Down with CTLA!
My first workshop is “Using Social Media in the Classroom,” My actual attendance is 9. We spend four hours talking about why and how to use various social media in the classroom. The participants are pretty much informed, and we have great conversations. My second workshop is “Blogging for Professors.” My actual attendance is 4. Where were the others that signed up? Can you believe that I was charged $300 for wireless Internet so I could present the two workshops?
Much of an academic conference revolves around rekindling friendships with former colleagues. On my way to a reception I ran into professors Ramesh Narasimhan (Montclair State) and wife Shifei Chung (Rowan), and new professor Meng Ju Lee (PWC). Ramesh and I were doctoral students together at Virginia Tech.
Ramesh Narasimhan, Shifei Chung, Meng Ju Lee
Then, in quick succession, I attended a preliminary job interview (do you remember that I’m looking for a new job?), the career fair, new member reception, and the Virginia Tech reception.
Receptions are difficult work and very exhausting. An uneducated outsider would look at and condemn the collection of professors eating free food, drinking free alcohol, laughing and joking around. But a lot of complex, difficult work actually goes on. At the Virginia Tech reception, John Walker inspired several of us with stories of some legendary accounting prof who had 100 refereed pubs in two years (52/48). Walker’s department chair would roam the halls late every Friday afternoon asking each professor how many submitted articles had been accepted that week. After the reception, I went back to my hotel room and wrote two papers. I woke up early the next morning and wrote yet another paper.
Professors John Brozovsky (Virginia Tech), Susanne O'Callaghan (Pace) and husband John Walker (Queens).
Debit and credit – – David Albrecht
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