Are we there yet?

As those of you who know me (and many who don't) are all too well aware, I have been working for over a year on organizing a conference for SUNY faculty on the topic of "teaching creativity."

Well, after all the preparations, which have become increasingly frantic over the past few weeks, the day is nearly upon us. Friday, March 31st, from 9-6 in the John E. Reeves Great Hall at the Fashion Institute of Technology, to be exact.

I've been spending tons of time updating the conference website, dealing with technical set-up, catering arrangements, working with the budget, coordinating panels, etc. etc. etc. Last night I was up until 1 a.m. putting together a document with presenter bios, to be included in the program. I had to edit many of them, copy and paste them from dozens of separate emails and attached documents, format everything--they were even in alphabetical order.

This morning, when I went to open the document, I discovered that somehow it had not been saved to my C drive. Apparently, it had been in some "temporary" drive, and the computer had totally deleted it. Imagine my chagrin.

I have to say that I have an incredible team helping with this herculean effort: graphic designers, display and exhibit people, facilities coordinators, media services staff, print shop and graphics lab folks, and most of all, my long-suffering collaborator, Desiree Koslin, and Celia Baez, for whom the term "assistant" is a misnomer, an understatement, and so forth. They have kept me (somewhat) sane, as has my "wife" Bob. And I also must thank Beth and Steve, my Smarthistory friends, who have two conferences under their belts, and who have provided invaluable advice throughout the process. (Check out their blog--they have really cool sound files of their tandem responses to famous paintings--I tease them that they're the morning drive radio of art history.)

Anyway, I must try and get a little sleep. Teaching Prufrock tomorrow, and Spencer Reece, and Kim's "Sonnenizio on a Line of Drayton" (with the Drayton original). And Marvell's "Coy Mistress" and Annie Finch's great response. It's all about history, folks! Oh, and of course, CREATIVITY.