The AACC conference 2005

Jokes are always half-meant, or so they say. And now I believe the wisecracking person who said that. A few months back, I joked that I’ll be going to the US really really soon and visit the Kennedy Space Center and DisneyWorld, and see my family in California. Then, in June of this year, this joke came true when my paper was accepted for oral presentation at the annual meeting of the American Association of Cereal Chemists! With only a few short weeks to prepare, I hurried to organise my travel documents, my presentation, and my itinerary to visit all the places I’d liked to visit. Finally, on September 9, I took off for Orlando (which I think was posted in another of my blogs).

Anyway, I finally arrived at the conference. The venue was breath-taking! Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center was so huge I got lost while exploring it! The pictures in the website were deceiving… there was more to the hotel than what was in the site!

On the first day of the convention, I attended the orientation for first-time attendees. It was a great way of meeting people, especially for me, because I didn’t have an idea of what to expect from the conference. Then there was open gala event when the exhibits were opened for public viewing. The exhibition site was really big… I haven’t seen an exhibit that huge when I attended the PSM or the FCSSP conferences in the Philippines. I also didn’t expect to see so many Filipino attendees. Many of them were students while the rest were working there (right after graduation). One of Mommy’s friends was there, and I had dinner with him and another of his colleagues. We ate at Pacino’s Italian Restaurant somewhere along W. Irlo Memorial Road. The food was delicious… and the serving size was big!

The shock of how big the conference was did not sink in until the second day (September 12). On that day, I realised that there were four plenary sessions going on in four huge ballrooms simultaneously! Plus, there were sixteen technical sessions being held at sixteen different meeting rooms. And that was only for the AACC conference. There were two more events taking place with it. My co-adviser, Dr. Melissa Fitzgerald, presented her paper that day. I then knew why everyone was impressed by her… she was able to present her topic with as much technical jargon without overdoing it, and she infused humor to sustain audience attention. I hope someday that I’ll talk that way.

And so the second day wound down into night. Since I was presenting the next day, I started suffering from the usual pre-presentation jitters. I had diarrhea and lost my appetite; thus, I opted to stay in my room and watch the season enders of CSI:Miami and Desperate Housewives (or was it on the plane?). Finally, I got calm enough to sleep and dread the next days’ activities.

September 13 broke bright and early. As I prepared to calm my nerves, Melissa asked to see my presentation. After an initial look, she decided that we have to revamp it… tweak it… overhaul it, more like it! So, barely an hour before my talk, we were busily typing all the rewrites for my presentation.At the same time, she was dictating… no, reminding… me of what I was supposed to say about this topic and that topic. Whew! That was indeed a blessing in disguise because due to this distraction, I was more worried about being on time for the presentation than on what I was supposed to say! Twenty minutes later, after my talk, I felt relieved. I was done… I was no longer in suspended agony. It was time to eat ice cream!

On September 14, I discovered that there was an ice cream bar called Ben and Jerry’s inside the hotel. So I grabbed a cup for breakfast… I think it was choco chip flavored. For lunch, I met a Filipina working for the USDA. She invited me to join her and a friend go to Universal Studios after 5pm. And I obliged. After lunch, we went our separate ways and I listened in to some more lectures. There was a guy from Ghana who was so intrigued by how much rice was eaten in Asia, and decided to talk with me at length about it. I attended the Young Professionals’ Event at 4pm where I met one of the attendees of the meeting orientation. Plus one of the Indonesian students from Purdue. There was also a girl from Honduras (I think) who was studying also in Purdue. It was a great way of networking. They had so many stories to tell. Though I couldn’t say that I could relate entirely with them… after all, I am studying in an Australian University and all of them are either enrolled in the US, or in Canada.

Finally, it was time to go. I packed my suitcase and my backpack with all the goodies I have hoarded during this trip. I promised myself I’ll create a scrapbook of all the adventures I’ve had in this trip. This is one way of reliving and preserving the memory. Though I know that so many words can never match the pictures in my head.

I’ve met so many good people and attended a very informative conference this year. I’m going to try my best to attend again next year… at the World Grains Summit at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.