Conference and Zoom fatigue have well and truly kicked in.
Over a four week period, I attended four multi-day conferences (presented at three of them, and was on the planning committee for one) and a handful of other workshops hosted by our Graduate School. All I can say is it seemed like a good idea when I was registering months ago...
The big commitment was being on the committee for Emerge, the WSU Humanities postgrad conference. Despite our disappointment that an in-person conference wasn't possible, a virtual conference opened up some exciting opportunities. We hosted a record number of papers (40 student papers, 2 keynotes, and 2 keynote panels) and attendees (170 people registered for one or both days). As the staff convener acknowledged on the first day, being online allowed us to open up a public institution to the external public in ways that physical iterations of this event have never managed. Being online also overcame issues of state and national border closures. We had presenters and attendees battle some unfriendly timezones to join us from across Australia as well as from England, America and France. We were also able to record the keynote presentations and upload them on the conference website.
The overwhelming feeling for the committee when the conference closed was exhaustion. Most of us had also presented our own work at the conference which, in hindsight, may have been overextending ourselves. But by the next week, we were better placed to reflect on the conference and engage with the great feedback we had received from the students and academics attendees. It was particularly gratifying that the student presenters enjoyed the experience. Even the first-time presenters seemed to find it a comfortable, engaging environment. The last few months have been busy getting ready for it and I am glad it's done but I am also glad that I was part of the team and am proud of what we achieved.
This month I have also attended the BSANZ conference, presented a pre-recorded 5minute lightning presentation at the ACHRC "Humanities and..." symposium, attended a few postgrad workshops offered by our Graduate School, and was a co-facilitator for a Digital Humanities Down Under workshop. Being online again had its benefits. I was able to dip in and out of each program in between other commitments. In particular, being able to attend BSANZ was a bonus because I wouldn't have been able to get to Adelaide this year. And being involved in DHDU (talking about Heurist, the program I am using to build my database, alongside its creator) was both a privilege and an incredibly useful learning experience.
All of these things did, however, add up to a lot of time online. Reading about why these Zoom meetings are so tiring was reassuring - a reminder there was a reason I was feeling just so exhausted and flat at the end of this year, beyond of all the obvious reasons. And a reminder that perhaps four conferences in as many weeks isn't the greatest idea. I have a few final meetings to wrap up 2020 but I'm looking forward to hitting "end" on that final Zoom call, closing the laptop, and not hearing 'you're muted' or seeing myself on screen for a few weeks.