Presented my latest research at a conference in Minneapolis, and received some really nice feedback. It was my first visit to Minnesota. Nice city, but I didn’t see much of it.
I was there for the CIC conference of Big-10 music schools; music education faculty and grad students. I don’t know that the other “athletic conferences” get together within departments. If they don’t, they should. Year after year, you get to see the same professors, getting new and different viewpoints, making contacts and developing friendships with them, and the doc students who will eventually be your colleagues. It’s a great system.