Tuesday, July 2, 2019
By:
Would you like to know what really floats my goat? Steams my ham? Bedazzles my corduroys? Truthfully, many things check those boxes: nuclear power, well-fitting pants, listing a third thing; but in this week’s installment we’re talking about (and I’m pausing for effect here) conferences. While the office has done well to keep my time occupied with engaging and substantial work, I derive sparse fulfillment at a desk all day. Fortunately, as I explained back in the days of the Electric Boogaloo, a significant component of my job experience involves external exposure. Conferences, hearings, and briefings each provide an integral piece to the larger culture of advanced manufacturing whereas my days at NIST offer only a small (yet savory) slice of the great mechanisms that coordinate our national policies.
My current conference count for the summer totals to three. For those who have consumed my adventures chronologically, you’ll recall the first as SelectUSA. The remaining mavericks who take a devil-may-care approach to my blogs can find a more than thorough elaboration here (at this point, I would have a lot of Verve to go an entire post without referencing that bitter sweet symphony). The Department of Commerce sponsored conference was comprehensive to say the least, but a three day onslaught of MONEY! INVEST! AMERICA! booming in the halls like a Gregorian chant from the deep runs the risk of overstimulating. I took all I could from the DOC’s jamboree of domestic achievement, but a heavy hand tends to dull out the nuance.
One week later I found myself in a far more intimate setting: The 2019 MForesight National Summit. MForesight is a national consortium meant to facilitate input and recommendations to the government from the private manufacturing industry. Based on my experience at SelectUSA, I anticipated glitz and glam revved up to the same outrageous scale. That was silly of me. Instead I was welcomed to a much quainter affair. Where SelectUSA laid siege to three floors of the Washington Hilton to accommodate its hordes of attendees, MForesight entertained a smaller group of 80 or so in a single room. I learned quickly however that the cozy quarters belied just what a powerhouse lineup they had in store: Florida Senator Marco Rubio, Michigan Senator Gary Peters, California Representative Ro Khanna, Undersecretary of Defense Alan Shaffer, Willy Ross’ speech writer Richard McCormack. Whew, somebody call an ambulance, because I just got a case of the vapors.
Looking around the room, I realized I recognized many of the attendees too. Not out of fame and fortune but rather through our encounters at past events. Why over there was Dr. Glenn Daehn from the Congressional briefing. And who’s that sitting next to me? Oh hello, David Vasko from the VCAT. To my surprise, I was suddenly struck by a sense of community; a community unlike any I had experienced before. Around me gathered individuals whose interest, for many, extended beyond professional to personal. Though the work day ended, their personal stake in America’s manufacturing infrastructure did not.
Barely three weeks in, and there I was in the middle of it all. 21 years old, fresh to the fight, and yet seamlessly transitioning to an eager and accepting group. The familiar faces bobbed by interested in hearing my thoughts and genuinely valuing my perspective.
The day ended as all conferences of comparable size do, a reception. The already easy atmosphere recharged with a new dose of alcohol. Attendees mixed, mingeled, and munched amidst a steady stream of tasteful hor dourves. The mood was light and enjoyable, though the air of relaxation that thickly permeated throughout the room could not disguise the professional transactions still taking place. See, that’s just the thing about DC, folks. You can be anywhere doing anything, and yet you’re always networking.
My conference this past Thursday followed the same formula. Though perhaps a few times larger than MForesight, its relative quaintness to SelectUSA allowed a more targeted focus to a single field providing many informative observations so very useful to a young pup. This conference was the 2019 NIIMBL National Meeting. NIIMBL is one of our advanced manufacturing institutes, and it’s the only institute directly sponsored by the Department of Commerce. Engaging talks about the progress, future, and the woes of the biopharmaceutical manufacturing industry (NIIMBL’s focus area) filled the itinerary, and, in keeping with tradition, we concluded with a reception.
For the sake of the uninitiated, these post-event mixers rarely disappoint in their assorted selection of hoity-toity nibbles. The hor dourves are fancy, tasty, and substantive (for some reason, a difficult combination to master). They’re good, but, after a few rodeos, you realize they’re often the same. Still enjoyable, just not surprising...or so I thought until I saw those scallops. Oh, sweet mercy, I could barely contain myself as they cooked the fresh sea critters right in front of me. Sayanora, public swimming pools, I’ve reached the pinnacle of elegance.
I encountered another surprise at the reception, though this one was of a bit more lasting worth. I met a young man only one year older than myself named Edward. I had marked him earlier during the conference as the only attendee close to my own age. However, it wasn’t a particularly positive mark. Ever since the congressional briefing I attended the second week on the job, I had begun the practice of avoiding the throngs of congregating youth at these types of events. Initially at the briefing I was excited to see some young peeps. I quickly joined them in the hopes of exchanging relatable tales and receiving advice. Unfortunately (with the exception of our very own Gia Jadick whose determination and motivation speak for themselves in her blog posts) I came away disappointed with the interactions. Many of those who didn’t leave after scavenging for the provided lunches turned phoneward to indulge in social media. I decided then that sticking with interns was likely to do more harm than good for my professional development. I put Edward in the same hole until our chance encounter waiting in line for the meat and cheese spread (which included fried calamari...or hog bung; you never can tell). We struck up a conversation, and immediately I was glad we did. Graduating only a month ago with a degree in chemical engineering, Edward was the sole representative of a small silicon nanotechnology start-up. Working with only four other employees, Edward’s responsibilities were as diverse as doing bench lab work one day to pleading the company’s case for membership in NIIMBL the next. His experience engaged and fascinated me. I left convinced of the value of working for a start-up straight out of college and a refreshing realization of hypocrisy. I was refusing to do for others what the veterans of manufacturing were doing for me. They recognized the value in listening to a very alternative, outsider (different takes on the words “young and inexperienced”) perspective, and I was not extending my peers the same courtesy.
So here’s the skinny. We are now halfway through this internship, and my time “out in the field” has taught me that everyone in DC is here for a reason. This city is a hub of interests and specialties attempting to centralize and coordinate their efforts. Conferences offer that rare chance to interact with so many of these interests and backgrounds simultaneously. Do not squander those opportunities, because even the group of young interns assuming defensive positions in the corner have something to say. All you have to do is go up and ask.
And you can take that to the bank.
Nicholas Stubblefield