Last day of the Banff festival today. Only a couple more sessions for me and then I'm off to Edmonton for part three of this road trip. I'm waiting for Blogcritics to have their way with one interview, I have one to write up, plus several feature stories percolating that will take various topics from the Festival. That means they'll take longer to write because a) the festival's not done yet and b) it means sifting through a lot of Master Class/Craft/etc. notes to come up with the points and quotes and c) I have parts three and four of the road trip to finish, plus the Nicholas Campbell/Da Vinci interview to write up.
I don't know many people here. That's natural, since I'm not part of the industry and it's an industry event. So it's a weird feeling walking around the conference centre seeing everyone peer at my nametag. It always makes me feel like saying "don't bother, I'm no one." It's gratifying how many people involved in Canadian TV series know the TV, eh? site, but that only makes it a little easier for me to break the ice with a small percentage of attendees.
My innate shyness, lack of mingling skills, and horror of cowboy hats meant that going to the Banff BBQ last night was a big leap for me, especially since I didn't know if any of the people I did know would be there. I spent the first 10 minutes thinking I shouldn't have come, the next chatting with someone I didn't know, and the rest hanging out with those I did and those I now do.
There's a lesson in there, of course, and it's one I've been pushing myself to learn all my life -- doing things that make me uncomfortable pushes my comfort zone outward, bit by bit. That, and passing up free food and drinks would just be dumb.
