Environmental Economics: I survived NOLA

November 20, 2012

I survived NOLA

I'm back from attending the Southern Economic Association meetings in New Orleans, LA. I got back home Sunday night at 10:30 and was in the office around 8 on Monday morning. Thank goodness I'm administering exams this week as my head and nerves are shot. Here is the debriefing:

I arrived in NOLA after dinner time on Thursday night. I still managed to eat some spicy shrimp, a half dozen broiled oysters and a bowl of gumbo with Abita Amber to wash it down.
Thursday was filled with 4 sessions. As I recall, I drew random numbers for ordering the AERE sessions for submission to the SEA. The SEA proceeded to place the sessions associated with my research agenda all on the first day. No complaints, but it made for a long day.
- The 8 am session was good with about 25+ attendees.
- I missed the 10 am session to discuss a paper in a teaching session. Buy me a beer sometime and I'll tell you about the odd reception one of my comments received.
- I presented one of my papers in the 1 pm stated preference session (lunch involved finishing up my presentation). There were, again, 25+ attendees and I received a large number of questions and comments that will help focus my paper on the relevant issues. I continue to be amazed at the usefulness of AERE sessions at the SEA meetings.
- The 2 pm was another stated preference session with 25+ attendees. Many of these had attended all four AERE sessions that day. The number of useful comments was lower than the previous sessions as exhaustion set in.
Friday night was the UK cocktail party with a moving tribute to Bill Stober (note: I always called him Dr. Stober). It was also the annual dinner with my dissertation advisor (and our spouses). We ate at the Red Fish Grill where I had the grilled grouper with BBQ oyster appetizer (NOLA pale ale). The waiter was 90% sure it was black grouper. It was a great time.
With only about 45 minutes of downtime on Friday, I missed the 8 am session on Saturday (and ate a big breakfast - "free" since the first room we went to on Thursday had not been cleaned) but put my head down the rest of the day:
- At 10 am I participated on a teaching panel and discussed my experiences with community based research in the benefit-cost analysis course. I was genuinely surprised to get a few interested questions. Apparently, other schools are putting the pressure on people to do this sort of thing. My experience has been good but it is like having kids: high benefits, high costs, positive net benefits but the benefit-cost ratio won't blow anyone away.
- I skipped lunch to exercise (after a long hallway conversation about Hausman's JEP paper).
- I attended a non-AERE environmental session at 2 pm since the papers more closely aligned with my research interests. The presentations were good ... but I don't understand why one would choose to submit to a regular SEA session instead of one that is AERE sponsored. Even if you are not an AERE member, the submission fee is waived so AERE membership is subsidized (membership is a requirement for participation in AERE sessions). Wouldn't you be willing to pay $42 for all of the benefits of AERE membership, plus great comments on your paper from interested audience members (and not disinterested discussants) and an overall sunnier mood in an AERE session?
- At 4 pm I attended the AERE session and heard two great papers. Two other papers had dropped out for various reasons, an epidemic at this year's meeting according to the SEA people.
- I heard that the AERE sessions that I missed were all good. Attendance was in the 15-20 range. This still represents an AERE premium over regular SEA sessions (both of the ones I attended had less than 10 in attendance).
Immediately after the close of the last session was the AERE happy hour in the Sheraton lobby bar (I had Abita Amber). We had great attendance. It was cool to see all of the new assistant professors getting to know each other (I regret that I wasn't able to get in on that conversation) and several groups formed for dinner. I had dinner (fried flounder and oysters at K-Paul's) that involved three couples celebrating three economists' last SEA meeting before they turn 50. I had a Makers Mark (rocks) in celebration of the life of Bill Stober (note: Dr. Stober is the source of my preferred nickname, "lonewolf"; I think this was the password to the copy machine at UK in the late 80s, or something like that).
Sunday morning? Yikes, I'm exhausted and skip the 8 am session in order to eat pancakes in the room and finish off my last presentation. The session was one of those oddball, miscellaneous applied micro sessions. Nevertheless, three presenters and three discussants showed up and tried to do an admirable job. The audience consisted of co-authors and a stray economist or two. The total number in the room reached 9 at one point.
In order to get back to Boone before midnight I had a 4:20 flight and had to miss the last two sessions of the today. On the way out of the hotel it seemed like this was very common. I wandered the halls around 1 pm and it seemed like a ghost town. Sorry to the poor saps in those sessions. There must be a better way to end a conference (but don't ask me for any ideas).

Posted by John Whitehead on November 20, 2012 at 09:54 AM in Research, Travel | Permalink

Comments

I arrived in NOLA after dinner time on Thursday night. I still managed to eat some spicy shrimp, a half dozen broiled oysters and a bowl of gumbo with Abita Amber to wash it down.
Thursday was filled with 4 sessions. As I recall, I drew random numbers for ordering the AERE sessions for submission to the SEA. The SEA proceeded to place the sessions associated with my research agenda all on the first day. No complaints, but it made for a long day.
- The 8 am session was good with about 25+ attendees.
- I missed the 10 am session to discuss a paper in a teaching session. Buy me a beer sometime and I'll tell you about the odd reception one of my comments received.
- I presented one of my papers in the 1 pm stated preference session (lunch involved finishing up my presentation). There were, again, 25+ attendees and I received a large number of questions and comments that will help focus my paper on the relevant issues. I continue to be amazed at the usefulness of AERE sessions at the SEA meetings.
- The 2 pm was another stated preference session with 25+ attendees. Many of these had attended all four AERE sessions that day. The number of useful comments was lower than the previous sessions as exhaustion set in.
Friday night was the UK cocktail party with a moving tribute to Bill Stober (note: I always called him Dr. Stober). It was also the annual dinner with my dissertation advisor (and our spouses). We ate at the Red Fish Grill where I had the grilled grouper with BBQ oyster appetizer (NOLA pale ale). The waiter was 90% sure it was black grouper. It was a great time.
With only about 45 minutes of downtime on Friday, I missed the 8 am session on Saturday (and ate a big breakfast - "free" since the first room we went to on Thursday had not been cleaned) but put my head down the rest of the day:
- At 10 am I participated on a teaching panel and discussed my experiences with community based research in the benefit-cost analysis course. I was genuinely surprised to get a few interested questions. Apparently, other schools are putting the pressure on people to do this sort of thing. My experience has been good but it is like having kids: high benefits, high costs, positive net benefits but the benefit-cost ratio won't blow anyone away.
- I skipped lunch to exercise (after a long hallway conversation about Hausman's JEP paper).
- I attended a non-AERE environmental session at 2 pm since the papers more closely aligned with my research interests. The presentations were good ... but I don't understand why one would choose to submit to a regular SEA session instead of one that is AERE sponsored. Even if you are not an AERE member, the submission fee is waived so AERE membership is subsidized (membership is a requirement for participation in AERE sessions). Wouldn't you be willing to pay $42 for all of the benefits of AERE membership, plus great comments on your paper from interested audience members (and not disinterested discussants) and an overall sunnier mood in an AERE session?
- At 4 pm I attended the AERE session and heard two great papers. Two other papers had dropped out for various reasons, an epidemic at this year's meeting according to the SEA people.
- I heard that the AERE sessions that I missed were all good. Attendance was in the 15-20 range. This still represents an AERE premium over regular SEA sessions (both of the ones I attended had less than 10 in attendance).
Immediately after the close of the last session was the AERE happy hour in the Sheraton lobby bar (I had Abita Amber). We had great attendance. It was cool to see all of the new assistant professors getting to know each other (I regret that I wasn't able to get in on that conversation) and several groups formed for dinner. I had dinner (fried flounder and oysters at K-Paul's) that involved three couples celebrating three economists' last SEA meeting before they turn 50. I had a Makers Mark (rocks) in celebration of the life of Bill Stober (note: Dr. Stober is the source of my preferred nickname, "lonewolf"; I think this was the password to the copy machine at UK in the late 80s, or something like that).
Sunday morning? Yikes, I'm exhausted and skip the 8 am session in order to eat pancakes in the room and finish off my last presentation. The session was one of those oddball, miscellaneous applied micro sessions. Nevertheless, three presenters and three discussants showed up and tried to do an admirable job. The audience consisted of co-authors and a stray economist or two. The total number in the room reached 9 at one point.
In order to get back to Boone before midnight I had a 4:20 flight and had to miss the last two sessions of the today. On the way out of the hotel it seemed like this was very common. I wandered the halls around 1 pm and it seemed like a ghost town. Sorry to the poor saps in those sessions. There must be a better way to end a conference (but don't ask me for any ideas).