Today was the final day of TechCrunch. I was on booth duty and as an introvert this is my own personal hell because people come up to you all the time and then it’s 2 hours of talking to strangers with no way out until your life is over. I like doing booth evaluations better because at least you’re walking and you can pull the emergency lever and dip if you have to but that’s a lot harder when they’re coming to YOUR house and you’re trying to boot them out.

I was already worn out AF from spending two straight days talking to people. Luckily the third day of TechCrunch is mostly chill so after my shift was over I went to check out more booths. Since it was the last day people started packing up pretty early so I just poked around at the ones that were left. It was going to be hard to beat that fatty AT-ST win from yesterday but maybe I’d find some random cool swag? My kid wanted to know if I could help him build it after breakfast today but I couldn’t because I would be fighting for my life on the third day of introvert nightmare.

I was still working so Natalie and I walked around and talked to booths about partnerships. Everyone was down but FBL has 25k followers so it’s a big group. At some point we went to watch the pitches which were amazing. My favorite is always Q and A. NEVER SKIP Q&A! I went to this pitch event once where this guy skipped Q&A so that he could continue pitching and then got upset when everyone passed. Like, sir, you eliminated the chance to make someone feel safe about things they are worried about. Also, your idea is bad.

I needed a break, and lunch, so I went across the street and got some Hainanese chicken. After that I literally sat there for 40 mins doing nothing because I didn’t have to talk to anyone. When I finally managed to make it back inside there was a booth that had minifigs you could make. In true last day booth fashion the guy said we could make as many as we wanted and I threw a bunch of pieces into a box. Will this beat the AT-ST? I don’t know…

There was a VIP Party that I was working at and I thought I could take a break and go home before the party. My kid wanted to play video games so I did and then I had a meeting which was fruitful AF and then it was time to go. At the party someone from earlier said, “Hey! Remember me from earlier? This is my cofounder!” I barely remembered I had to be here and I talked to the equivalent of a small village in the past three days so no I don’t remember you, but you can’t say that so I just said, “Hey!”

My social battery was kaput so I didn’t network very hard, like seriously I exchanged information with three people and then mostly sat down until I had to clean up. When I was in the kitchen apparently there was some kind of incident and we started shutting down early. And honestly, I’m glad I happened to be in the kitchen and missed the whole thing. Like they say, it’s better to be lucky than be good.

Entire interactive cybersecurity workshop designed while fighting for my life at a VIP Afterparty: 1
Minutes sat in food court doing nothing so that I could escape conference reality for actual reality: 40
Friends that I got to see after not seeing them in forever: a lot
Times I wanted to take a nap: a lot
Times I got lucky: a lot