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[larryc]

So what is happening out there? I am following, kind of, the #AHA2010 Twitter tag but it is all about the digital history panels.

[erzuliefreda]

For all the technology in that post, larryc, there is something vaguely 19th-c. in your query. I picture us so very far away from San Diego, connected maybe by Pony Express, asking stagecoach drivers for updates on the goings on...

[history_grrrl]

larryc, do you get the History News Network emails? They do a daily conference report. If you don't get it (but I'd be shocked if you don't), it's here:

http://hnn.us/

[airball]

larryc, do you get the History News Network emails? They do a daily conference report. If you don't get it (but I'd be shocked if you don't), it's here:

http://hnn.us/

My interview is not mentioned as one of Saturday's highlights. Should I be worried?

airball

[t_r_b]

So what is happening out there?

Lots of blue sky, sunlight, and warmth. Interview suites that looked out on either a beautiful city or a beautiful harbor. Good times with friends and colleagues.

Oh yeah, there was much chatter about protesters angry about the AHA not bankrupting itself in order to make a symbolic statement against an evil hotel owner. Meh. I didn't notice any protesters myself, but then maybe I was blinded by that beautiful sunlight.

Otherwise, there were lots of book exhibitors grumbling about low turnout and slow sales, which resulted in some great bargains Sunday morning. And I'm told there were some papers given. So all in all, good times.

Airball, each and every reception I hit Saturday night was buzzing with excitement about your interview. The HNN folks dissed you out of envy.

[larryc]

Congrats on the interview! I hope it went well?

[airball]

Congrats on the interview! I hope it went well?

Thanks! It's my dream job - perfect school, perfect place. It was my umpteenth conference interview, so I hit my marks and managed not to insult the committee or spit.

The protesters were easy to miss. On Saturday they were gathered near Harbor and Pacific Highway, but didn't have any signs, and they were chatting rather than chanting, mingling rather than marching. In truth, it looked like a cocktail party with no drinks.

Was anyone else thrilled that a Mary Kay convention was in the same hotel? Sitting in the bar and playing, "Which one is the historian?" was fun.

airball

[the_honey_badger]

HNN is like getting news direct from Authority Central!  Cleaned and sanitized form your comfort and conformity!

I prefer C. Van Winchell (since Bierce has stopped blogging).

[mountainguy]

Oh yeah, there was much chatter about protesters angry about the AHA not bankrupting itself in order to make a symbolic statement against an evil hotel owner. Meh. I didn't notice any protesters myself, but then maybe I was blinded by that beautiful sunlight.

My disciplinary association went through the same thing 2008 over having their conference at the same hotel owned by the same person. While I disagree with said owner's political beliefs, I had no desire to bankrupt my disciplinary association and crossed the protest line without much thought (it was a fairly large protest, given that Prop. 8 had passed just a few weeks before). I was very careful not to spend any money inside the hotel however.

[t_r_b]

I was very careful not to spend any money inside the hotel however.

I was not nearly so principled, I'm afraid, but then I'd made reservations there long before I ever heard about the boycott.

In any case, if we are going to start holding major conferences only in hotels owned by people who are not evil, I fear that we will have very few venues to choose from. I seriously doubt that most other major hotel owners are much better than this guy, or for that matter the ones who get boycotted for unionbusting, etc. The only difference is that the hotel owners who don't get boycotted have better PR consultants. Besides, if we are going to boycott hotels, shouldn't we also boycott airlines owned by evil people, or that buy fuel from evil people? Should we make sure that conference programs aren't printed on paper made/sold by evil people? Or that the booze served at conference receptions isn't made by evil people?

The sad truth of the matter is that most of the economic activity surrounding a ginormous conference like the AHA ends up adding to the coffers of folks whose political and social beliefs are anathema to the average AHA member. We can either accept that, or else find some way to hold a conference without hotels, airplanes, etc. Perhaps a massive camp-meeting style assembly in one of the national parks would do the trick.