In het spoor van Ad van Goor

On November 2nd, I attended the conference 'In the Footsteps of Ad van Goor,' which we discovered thanks to Eva during a SEP class. Eva suggested this conference as it covered both logistics and artificial intelligence (AI). With a small group, we attended the conference, which lasted about 4.5 hours, excluding the network drinks.

The content of the conference was not only very interesting for my general knowledge of AI, but it was also good to observe how the conference was structured. My main task was to pay attention to the sponsors, who were prominently featured on social media, in slides, and mentioned during presentations.

The location of the conference was unique, but unfortunately, the benches we sat on were not very comfortable. The conference had two sessions, one for 2 hours and the other for 2.5 hours, which seemed long enough for me. Any longer, and my attention would have waned, especially given the uncomfortable seating. The sound in the church-like venue echoed quite a bit, which was distracting, and the organization of the Q&A was lacking. A woman had to navigate through the audience to hand over the microphone, which took a long time and was awkward, diminishing the overall professionalism.

Afterward, there was a well-organized network drinks. Live music created a pleasant atmosphere, but the volume was way too high, making it difficult to converse. I found this conference informative, and I gained insights into various aspects of conference management. I particularly took away the importance of comfortable seating, considering the acoustics of the venue, and optimizing the organization of Q&A and sound levels.