Traveling to a professional conference in person is a significant investment – of time and usually money. If you’re working, there are often clear benefits in return: gaining knowledge that can help you in your current job and possibly advance your career; meeting people face-to-face who are experts in their fields; and getting yourself and your name “out there”. And, if you’re fortunate, your employer foots the bill.
When I was a reporter, conferences helped me get to know talented people on my beat who were often helpful for future stories. Good conferences also re-energized me about the work I was doing.
But does that kind of investment still make sense for me as a retiree?
I decided to find out.
I attended a data science conference in Atlanta last week, even though there was the option to attend remotely (as I did for the same conference in Seattle last year). Why? I wanted to:
Get re-energized about working with R, my favorite programming language, and get ideas about cool things I can write about in the future.
See people in person in the R community again; I hadn’t traveled to a conference since 2020.
Be physically immersed in a learning environment. When I’m away, I’m not distracted by things like doing laundry, going through the day’s postal mail, and cleaning up after meals between online sessions. That means I can better focus on what I’m learning – even when sessions and other activities are over and I’m back in my hotel room. Ideas marinate better when I can step away from day-to-day life.
Speak at the conference! I was chosen to give a 5-minute lightning talk and was excited to have a chance to offer my perspective to the community.
I’m a big proponent of remote work, so it felt a little odd to decide that spending my own money for airfare, hotel, and conference registration was worth it versus logging into the much cheaper online version. I still do believe in remote work! I was much more productive doing work that needs concentration in my home office with the door closed than I was in the cubicle maze I got stuck in a few years ago after I lost my office in a company space consolidation.
However, it was also useful to see people in person from time to time, whether a few times a month locally or once a year at company “offsites.” That face-to-face bonding helped make connections that carried over to more regular collaborations via Internet.
During the weeks before the posit::conf(2025) Atlanta event, I’d go back and forth between “I’m so excited about going to a conference in person again!” and “Does it really make sense to attend in person if I’m not working full time?” Not to mention “Am I insane spending this much money on a professional conference as a retiree?”
Once I got there, though, my doubts faded away. After 14 months in retirement (plus some paid freelancing that’s 100% remote), it was fun being around people who are working hard on interesting things. The only odd thing about being a retired attendee was when presenters talked about ideas that could help advance our careers. It’s still strange to remember that I no longer need to care about that. “That’s not for me. I have no career left to grow!”
Otherwise? Learning always has value. And learning for the joy of it is awesome.
Am I really retired?
A couple of people told me that my “retirement” seems awfully busy 🤣 , between my volume of tech-related social media posts and the articles I’ve been writing. I tried to explain that the difference between having a full-time job and being retired is that I can “work” as much or as little as I want. As a beat reporter, I needed to write about all the things that were important to my readers. As a retiree, I only propose stories about things that are interesting to me – and only when I have the time and energy to write them. Big difference! And, I have much more relaxed deadlines than when I was working. Plus, no unexpected “emergencies” get added to my “work” to-do list. I have complete control over my professional schedule! (Unlike, of course, other aspects of life.)
Presenting
My conference lightning talk was on “How you can use your data skills to help your local community,” with the goal of inspiring people to think of their own ideas for public service projects. I gave a couple of examples of Web apps I’ve created:
- Full-text searching of Friends of Saxonville newsletters - and an experimental chatbot
- Full-text searching of Framingham government meeting agendas and meetings - and an experimental chatbot
- Mayoral election result analyses
- A self-updating local events calendar
- A farmers’ market searchable table and chatbot
A couple of people told me afterwards that I had indeed inspired them to think of projects they could build – which absolutely thrilled me. One of the most rewarding things about retirement (and getting older in general) is being able to contribute knowledge and ideas to younger people who are still working.
And, others’ talks inspired me. I came home with a list of things I want to learn, and a couple of new projects. I’ve already started on one: improved local election reporting for my local blog, which I hope to get done by my city’s elections Nov. 4.
Bottom line? I certainly don’t plan on traveling to conferences at the same pace I did when I was working. But I do hope to make them at least an occasional splurge. I may not be interested in career growth anymore. But I’m still very much interested in growth.
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