Swagalagadingdong

Can I just tell you that I was entirely unprepared for the sheer hugeness that was the international biotech conference that I attended today (followed by a CEO dinner I worked at this evening).

I did talk with a lot of interesting people, and handed out a lot of copies of the guide I wrote and article for, and handed out and collected a few business cards.

Also I collected swag. We're talking a GINORMOUS convention center with hundreds of people giving away free shit.

Well sort of it's free. Really they want the very important people to talk to them. That is not me. The stuff is for people they can do business with. Again, not me. Althought I could sort of sell myself as a writer and someone knowledgeable about NE biotech. So, for the most part, I actually talked with people I got free stuff from because I just couldn't snag stuff. It seemed rude.

Here, then, is my chat 'em up before you grab their swag haul:

1 USB laptop light
2 panoramic sized postcards of San Diego with a hilarious image of Arnold Schwarzenegger on them
3 pedometers
1 stuffed lobster
1 tasty mint (eaten)
3 bottles of water (2 drunk)
1 nalgene bottle
2 umbrellas
2 boxes dark-chocolate covered marzipan candies
2 vacuum sealer thingies
(all of the above were graciously given me for working at the CEO dinner at which I was also fed very, very well, at a fancy restaurant)
4 tote bags
1 container Nevada steak salt, given to me by a man whose son went to Doane, alma mater of Polack Pappy
1 picture of me on a Harley and no I will not post it
2 Sees candy bars given to me by a wonderful friendly fellow from San Francisco
1 tin containing these two metal pill-shaped things that make a taser like noise when you bang them together (good for scaring protestors! said the lady handing them out. ha ha.)
2 sprayable hand sanitizer jobbies
1 carabiner keychain
1 stuffed squeezy star
3 t-shirts
2 hats
1 set of marbles
1 hand fan that spells stuff out in LED (?) when you turn it on
2 highlighters
6 pens
3 post it note pads
1 Band Aid container with Band Aids (Thank you PSNH)
1 NH magnet (Thank you again, PSNH)
1 set of retractable headphones

And in all honestly this was probably an eighth of what was being given away. Other interesting highlights included my angering the Northern Ireland people (well anger might be too strong a word) by continuing to just call them Ireland "No, it's Northern Ireland" and then telling them I didn't drink when they invited me back for Guinness and whiskey at five, watching Deval Patrick announce a billion dollars in funding, a lot of it for stem cell research, which I now know a fair amount about, and feeling bad for China, who surely are smarting from that cover article in Sunday's NY Times about their involvement in poisoning people with medicine that was supposed to help them.

Overall it was pretty swell. I wish I could go back tomorrow. And now I am going to bed.