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Attending conferences, as a presenter or otherwise, is an important part of establishing an academic identity. It allows you to keep up with current trends and research in the field, make connections and network with other academics, and provides a space for conversation with likeminded scholars. But conferences can be intimidating, especially if you are attending a large national conference, or are new to conferencing. Here are some tips for successfully navigating conference-going.

Has technology left people such as Mrs. Karen Klein behind?

When it comes to marketing messaging, people generally respond to benefits rather than features.

Aaahh. It’s evaluation season. Time for the tables to be turned on you. Yes, you, the professor. You thought you were being so clever by trying to institute some kind of an email policy: Telling your students not to email you at midnight and expect an answer before the 9 am class. You thought you were teaching your students responsibility by telling them not to wait until the night before to ask questions about their papers.

The second day of the NCPR conference struck a funny note. Many of us had noticed that the persistent theme on Thursday was “here’s a study that shows that (pick your intervention) doesn’t work.” Honestly, it was a little dispiriting. To start Friday’s discussion, Tom Brock of the CCRC opened by acknowledging the relative bummer of the first day’s findings, but then suggesting that, tone aside, some consensus had emerged about measures that actually do work.

This weekend the NYTimes ran a story headlined "Apple’s Retail Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay". We learn that of the 43,000 U.S. Apple employees, 30,000 are relatively low-paid store employees. Apple's 327 stores sold $16 billion in merchandise, and have per square foot earnings that are higher than any other retailer (next is Tiffany's).

The Olympics are right around the corner. To me, swimming is a thing of beauty.

Two weeks ago we traveled to Colorado for a family wedding. The wedding was beautiful and I also appreciated the fact that this was an academic love story in every way. The bride (my niece) who holds a Master’s in Math and the groom who has a Ph.D. in Math fell in love in graduate school and their love of math was an important catalyst. What a beautiful story and it all added up to a wedding to be followed now by an increasing number of anniversaries.