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[tyroscholar]

I'm attending MLA for the first time this year and looking for advice on how to navigate the conference.  I'm not on the job market (already have a TT job), I'm presenting a paper, and I've never been to Seattle before, either.  I regularly go to big conferences in my subfield, but I'm wondering if MLA veterans have tips on how to make the most of a convention this size, when nothing to do with interviewing or hiring is on the agenda.

[tuxedo_cat]

God it's such a zoo, and I hate being at a conference unless I have a colleague or someone I know pretty well to hang out with.  The majority of us in this field are horribly socialized in my experience.

for socializing and general survival: I would email a few colleagues or former grad school friends (perhaps in your field) to see if they're going, ask them if they would like to get together for coffee or drinks early on in the conference, see if they might like to attend some panels together.  Attending panels with famous speakers is so much more enjoyable if you can scribble snarky notes to one another during the talk ("gah, those shoes look uncomfortable!" "do you think s/he wrote that on the plane out here last night?" "I heard him give this exact same talk at Fancy Pants University two years ago.")

for networking:  review the program and locate a few presenting scholars who work on topics related to yours, people who might be interested in exchanging work, research techniques, or collaborating on something.  Go to the panel, maybe ask a friendly question, introduce yourself at the end if you liked their work.  I would be more inclined to seek out peers (at the assistant or recently tenured level) rather than Super Famous Scholar, who will likely forget who you are the moment you've finished pronouncing your name.   

for observing the performance of rarified creatures (aka Super Famous Scholars):  get to the cavernous lecture hall 20 min. early so that you can sit for the whole thing.

And for heavens sake, if Zizek is giving a talk, go!  And come back and tell us all about it.

[seniorscholar]

Scope out the fine print in the programs for the dinner hour times, and the daily update the MLA puts out, and the cards on the publishers' tables to see where there are cash bars (usually quite a bit of decent free snacks) and "receptions" in your subfield or in one of the caucus groups you're interested in. These are the best places to encounter people you know or would like to know who are more or less your contemporaries, and some of them will introduce you to whatever big names they happen to know who are there. Also the place to discover one or two people to go out to dinner with if (like most of us), you've had enough of papers by 5 p.m. and don't look forward to paying attention to a couple more in the evening.

[lizzy]

Tuxedo_Cat and SeniorScholar give good advice.

A couple of additions that have worked for me:

Keep some time open to scope out new books and talk to publishers that are producing good work in your areas of interest.

I usually bring a draft of whatever I'm working on--all the energy in the air inspires me. It also gives me something to do during down time. I've honestly made breakthroughs while sitting in the hotel bar, alternating between people-watching and revising my work.

I also make it a practice to smile at random strangers in hopes I might cheer up the desperate and disconcert the snotty.

[tuxedo_cat]

I also make it a practice to smile at random strangers in hopes I might cheer up the desperate and disconcert the snotty.

Excellent!  You sound like you would be fun to hang out with : )

[lizzy]

I also make it a practice to smile at random strangers in hopes I might cheer up the desperate and disconcert the snotty.

Excellent!  You sound like you would be fun to hang out with : )

Maybe at an MLA one of these years...

[tyroscholar]

Thanks, all.  These are very helpful tips!  Lizzy, thanks for the suggestion to bring work along - I hadn't thought of that idea.

(and I confess to being just as horribly socialized as any other MLA'er out there...)

[tijuanafina]

Any good, real, dive bars nearby, to drown away the sorrows of everyone else getting interviews and such?

[tuxedo_cat]

Well, yelp would suggest these fine establishments under the category of "dive bar."

I love how the image for Joe's Bar is a *toilet.* 

Rabbit Hole looks like it might fit the bill.

[tijuanafina]

Yes, thank you tuxedo, any bar with a picture of its toilet on yelp is a good start.

[bevo98]

Get to a Blue C if you can.  The best sushi this side of the Pacific!

[tuxedo_cat]

Get to a Blue C if you can.  The best sushi this side of the Pacific!

Oooh, thank you for this suggestion!