Quirkyalone: It’s a mindset

Just wanted to give you a report-back from the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Conference on World Affairs, where I went to represent Quirkyalone. The name of the conference is a bit of a misnomer. It started 59 years ago as a gathering to promote the UN but over the years it has grown into an amazingly eclectic free-for-all, with panels ranging on topics from immigration to space exploration, and of course, quirkyalone/quirkytogether!

I’ve never seen a community and the students at a university pull together so much for an event. I stayed with a lovely Boulder family and the students drove the one hundred-odd panelists to and from events. Every night a community member threw a party. It was inspiring to see people work together on something so cool, diverse, and intellectually stimulating. All the events are free to the public, so even if you don’t live in Colorado you should consider making a trip there for this weeklong extravaganza next year.

I was psyched to meet a range of characters, from the creator of Dallas, David Jacobs, to Michael Laine, a guy who wants to build an elevator to space! I also got to talk to neoconservatives, including the head of governmental relations for the Heritage Foundation, the libertarian/free market think tank, which I found fascinating. So yes, now the right-wing knows about us! Watch out for attacks on quirkyalones as the next evil group dividing the nation. (Just kidding–he was actually very nice.)

The Quirkyalone panel was fun–although it did start to feel like a panel about online dating at one point. Brian Hollywood of the BBC was on the panel and he was moving, talking about how he felt bizarrely just as satisfied as a quirkyalone as he is now as a quirkytogether. . . The Lipstick Feminism (I’m not sure that’s a real term) panel was very cool too. We had a great sense of camaraderie among the panelists trying to decipher what the hell the term meant. The Marriage in the New Millenium panel was really great–Amy Fox, a playwright and screenwriter (The Heights) told a sweet story about how she tried to reinvent the proposal ritual with her boyfriend (she didn’t want to feel passive, waiting for him to propose), a gay man (ex-priest and scientist) spoke about his wedding in Massachusetts, and a sociologist opened up a debate about whether children do better with married rather than cohabiting parents. I of course extolled the benefits of being quirkytogether.

Here are some pics. ..

The Quirkyalone Panel (sorry, a bit dark, but you get the idea)

Me and Stephanie, the publisher of Travelgirl magazine, at a dance party after a long day of conferencing

Related posts:

1. Quirkyalone in Boulder at the Conference of World Affairs, aka, the Conference of Everything Conceivable
2. Quirkyalone at the Conference on World Affairs
3. The Coolest Barnes & Noble Ever (Lynwood, WA)
4. Are You Too Busy to Fall in Love? And other dispatches from recent panels
5. National Conference Call for Quirkyalones