By Acadia Otlowski
On Thursday night, I was crowded into a presidential suite in the middle of Philadelphia with approximately 35 other student editors in an atmosphere that felt oddly similar to a frat party. But replace beer with newspapers and rowdy drunkards with those who have an affinity for puns.
We had been invited to a critique session where each and every one of the newspapers in the room would be ripped to shreds.
It was wonderful.
Maybe not in an esteem-boosting sense, but it was certainly constructive.
And while to many it may seem that sending college students to conferences is a waste of money, it is experiences like this bizarre critique session that is what makes conferences worthwhile.
After I watched the newspaper get critiqued, I sat down with the managing editor of a daily newspaper in upstate New York.
Our newspaper had similar issues and a small group of us sat and talked about the problems we face every day in the newsroom.
There is no way to relate these experiences with people who do not spend hours of their free time crowded around computer screens.
It is these shared experiences that make going to conferences so refreshing and inspiring. Not only are some sessions created for the sole purpose of commiserating, not only with your peers, but with professionals, but also they have classes that teach skills, or simply just inspire.
To those on the outside, it may seem like a waste of money, just to learn things that are probably contained in a book somewhere. But the real value of these things is sitting cross-legged in a stuffy hotel room, huddled over a stranger’s newspaper.
Just reading the work of someone else, taking in the product that they have created and asking them about the process, new skills are learned.
These lessons are priceless. I cannot count the number of times that I have been talking to someone, only to have them say, “I know how those conferences are.” What is being implied is that nothing educational is gained from conferences.
But even if students neglected to go to any sessions, there is still so much educational value in the travelling without an chaperon.
Getting from the university to the airport or train station, then getting to the hotel from those destinations provides students with real-world experience that they would not get from many course abroad experiences.
The beauty of these conferences is that most plunk students down in the middle of a city and they are, for the most part, left to their own devices.
Many students do not have the opportunity to go to conferences such as the one attended by the newspaper staff in Philadelphia. This is a shame because the experiences students have at these events can shape them for a lifetime.