You will be proud to know i met one of my favourite writers, and I did not, I repeat not breathlessly praise them and have them autograph all their books in my possession and then proceed to ask for their email address. Instead I was cool and mildly interested in all they said, made a few, brief points and left with dignity intact.
After each conference I invariably leave with a single point. At 'roel of a critic in the arts' I left with Keval and Shanta's point: you're not there to make a laundry list 'lights - good, sound- bad, acting - average' and so on... you're there to capture the essence, the one integral idea and once you've got that you have every right to agree or disagree with it as long as you justify your explanation.
At the North East one, I left with Sanjoy's point about journalists in the NE contributing to the stereotypical coverage: by sending back stories they assumed people wanted to read from the NE. Stories of guns, abductions, extortions and terrorist outfits. No development, progress, govt. etc., thus further contributing to the limited coverage.
