USITT 2023 St. Louis
I’ve been to a few conferences since the lockdown, but I feel like USITT 2023 in St. Louis was the first show where it really felt like we were back to a pre-pandemic normal. I always enjoy this conference because it’s more about ideas and passion than about sales; this is the show where you really get to have conversations with people, and I must have talked with 100 people, many of whom I hadn’t seen in years. My talk was fun and people seemed to enjoy it; I gave away and actually ran out of my network cheat sheets at the session. My book Introduction to Show Networking seemed to sell well, and the signing was fun. The award ceremony for David Budries, who taught my sound design class back at Yale long ago, was touching.
There was apparently a record number of students at the conference which was great to see, and brought me back to my first conference, way back in 1984. Outside the conference I got to hang out with a bunch of old friends, went back to the always great City Museum (which I first visited back in 2019) and came away from the whole trip inspired and with lots of ideas for the future. I took the Metrolink train from and to the airport and recommend it—I paid $2.50 today to get from downtown here to the airport and it was a nice ride.
Here’s a photo gallery of selected highlights; click any for a larger version. I’m looking forward to being back for the conference next year in Seattle.
