Randal Hale (He/Him)Sep 22, 2025
After speaking twice at the Georgia Geospatial Conference last week - burnout. I really wonder if all this traveling to conferences and talking and whatnot is worth the headache anymore. Of course it is advertising...but it's getting to be more exhausting each year.
Show thread🌎 Don MeltzSep 22, 2025
@rjhale1971
Not worth it, especially if you don't enjoy it.
Show threadRandal Hale (He/Him)Sep 22, 2025
@GeoDon It used to be more fun - but dang I'm feeling disconnected form it all at the moment.
Show threadHoward Butler

@rjhale1971 @GeoDon I find conference work doesn't generate me much in the way of leads anymore, but the visibility does have some value.

I really don't enjoy the travel part anymore, however. Avoiding FOSS4Gs this year due to trying to limit family disruption caused by my travel and not wanting to miss final high school events of kids.

Sep 22, 2025 at 5:57pmWeb
Show threadRandal Hale (He/Him)Sep 22, 2025
@hobu @GeoDon I don't have the kid thing to worry with - and the visibility helps but I guess I've gotten "old".
Show threadVincent PicavetSep 22, 2025

@hobu @rjhale1971 @GeoDon Aside from the "getting old" and "family time" arguments which I totally share, there also is the environmental impact that should definitely be taken into account.
Having hundreds of people flying to conferences to attend the equivalent of a few hours of talks is not durable. We ( and #OSGeo namely ) should favor local events more, as well as hybrid events.

At @oslandia for example, we try to find less carbonated ways of communicating.

#CarbonImpact #Conferences

Show threadRandal Hale (He/Him)Sep 22, 2025
@vpicavet @hobu @GeoDon @oslandia I'd like to see some kind of push for smaller local meetings. Have the meeting and gets speakers "in real life" and virtually.. Dunno - I've been thinking about this all year.
Show threadSean GilliesSep 22, 2025
@hobu @rjhale1971 I'm not even motivated to go to SatSummit, which is close enough for me to go on foot. Scale and AI problems don't interest me. And neither does hearing the same old project status reports (a FOSS4G staple).
Show threadMartijn van ExelSep 22, 2025
@sgillies but the cloud is the future, we’re just old men yelling at it
Show threadRandal Hale (He/Him)Sep 22, 2025
@sgillies @hobu We had one keynote which was described as saying "Paper is white" for 40 minutes and one on AI which was best described as "AI - you can do things with it".
Show threadKurt SchwehrSep 22, 2025
@sgillies @hobu "Let's do more things faster with no idea if they are even correct."