What Happened at FEEcon 2019

This year I was lucky enough to attend FEEcon 2019 in Atlanta.

I got to travel in a plane by myself for the first time, found a fellow Praxian to room with at the hotel, and got to meet new people.

Day 1

I got up at 2AM to catch my flight. After a 3-hour delay, I was on my way to Atlanta.

I arrived at the hotel around 3 or 4 in the afternoon, lugging my suitcase, backpack, and oversized purse on the train and walking the three blocks there. After checking in, I was able to leave my luggage at the hotel and walk around with my grandmother.

I checked in at the FEEcon table, got my badge, picked out a bag of souvenirs and a shirt, and went to rest in my room for an hour or two.

Later, I met up with my roommate, who had driven 12 hours to be there. Luckily, we clicked instantly as we made our way to the 29th floor with her luggage.

At 6:30 the welcome reception started. My roommate and I showed up fashionably late and began slowly making our rounds to the different tables, picking up pamphlets and talking to people we met, including some fellow Praxians.

Conversations were had, food was eaten, and free resources were taken. We made it back to our room where we ordered Popeyes and talked until we went to bed around midnight.

Day 2

Exhausted from the day before, my roommate and I made it to the opening Keynote Address only about 15 minutes late, and caught the end of Austin Wintory’s presentation. Though I don’t know how his speech was set up, the last 10-20 minutes I saw were fascinating. He spoke about how he didn’t think he’d ever run out of creativity, therefore he could not in good conscience keep his ideas to himself. He had a running theme of what am I actually selling? and presented a few possibilities.

After the Keynote, my roommate and I had a difficult decision to make. We had to choose an hour-long breakout room to listen to someone speak on a specific subject. The problem was, there were about 5 to choose from, and they all sounded interesting. We ended up going to listen to Mark Skousen’s “What Every Student Should Know about Money, Jobs, and Investing.” I think the most memorable thing he did was first tear up a one-dollar bill and ask us if he’d destroyed wealth (spoiler alert: he did), then held up a fifty-dollar bill and repeatedly asked who truly wanted it until someone finally leapt up to take it.

The rest of the day was filled with similar tough decisions (the second break-out room was chosen by a coin toss) and fascinating lectures. Lunch was Chick-fil-a, and though the closing Keynote Address for the evening went a bit long, it was filled with interesting insights and information.

Day 3

Day three started off a little late as well. However, this time it wasn’t entirely our fault. On the elevator ride down, we spoke to a man who asked if we would be willing to do a short interview for FEEcon’s promotional video. Though we weren’t sure what to expect, we agreed and we both got to do a short five-minute interview.

After that my roommate and I split up for a few hours. She had to work on some projects, and I chose my following breakout rooms myself.

This was also the day I met the most people and made some new friends, so it was disappointing that it was the last day. I missed one breakout room talking to people, and another having lunch with a large group.

The final keynote address was excellent. We heard from Dewitt Jones, a National Geographic photographer, which was both inspiring and visually stimulating.

The afterparty that followed was complete with a photo station, karaoke, and a silent disco. However, my fellow Praxians and I couldn’t stay long. We had an afterparty of our own to go to.

In Conclusion

All in all, it was a really great weekend. I spent the day after FEEcon at the aquarium with my grandparents, then took a flight back home to Maine. I crawled into my own bed around 2:15 AM, exhausted yet more than satisfied by my recent adventures.