

Does Our Industry Have a Drinking Problem? - webista
http://alistapart.com/column/does-our-industry-have-a-drinking-problem

======
ezl
No, our industry has a blogging problem.

Tech (is that our industry?) is not unique in it's practice of hosting happy
hours, _especially_ after conferences.

People like drinking. We could ask more conferences to host 5k jogs as an
alternative meeting event, and it would be novel and fun, but it likely
wouldn't ever be as inclusive as a happy hour (Also, it's hard to get 5 people
in a circle talking while on a jog).

Not everyone drinks or likes drinking, but as a practical matter, it's:

    
    
        1. convention
        2. inexpensive for organizers
        3. easy to organize
        4. likely to encourage mingling and conversation
    

Which are important goals for organizers that aren't as easily met by
alternate activities.

~~~
wcummings
Has anyone considered that blogging might be a disease?

~~~
enoch_r
Commenting on comments about a blog post, on the other hand, is the highest
form of human expression.

------
twoodfin
Is this phenomenon unique to the information technology industry? I don't know
what they do for fun at pharmaceutical conferences, but I suspect alcohol is
often involved.

~~~
fennecfoxen
Society has a bit of a drinking problem. (Some other societies, like Russia,
have a bigger one. Some have less.) Next question? :P

~~~
pbhjpbhj
The next question is that if it's a problem how do we solve it?

> _That said, I am still struggling to find good alternatives to the pub
> meetup, particularly in the UK. Other than taking over the corner of a
> larger coffee shop for a daytime meet, what kind of things are possible and
> inexpensive for small groups?_ //

So ditch alcohol and go with caffeine instead ... hmm.

Maybe with the right groupings gaming could be part of the solution?

You need something that people can share, that requires communication and so
initiates conversation. (That gives people something to do with their hands?
That fosters a sense of shared experience?) Some types of gaming can do that
and in certain sectors gaming may be as universal as drinking.

So, everyone back to my place for a game of tiddlywinks then?? [I did mean
computer gaming but ...?]

~~~
tbrownaw
_You need something that people can share, that requires communication and so
initiates conversation. (That gives people something to do with their hands?
That fosters a sense of shared experience?) Some types of gaming can do that
and in certain sectors gaming may be as universal as drinking._

It also needs to be sufficiently unstructured that people can drift in and out
as individual conversations move past small talk.

------
mattdeboard
Does our industry have an anxiety problem?

Does our industry have an overgeneralization problem?

Does our industry have a busybody problem?

Does our industry have a problem with emotional overindulgence?

~~~
badman_ting
"Hey, don't look at me, I'm just asking questions!"

------
joezydeco
Every trade show I've ever been to has some kind of "reception" near the end
of the first day, if not the night before the opening. Everyone is finally in
one place and there's a bit of socializing going on at this point.

European trade shows tend to have fully stocked bars and bartenders _in the
booths_.

------
LeafStorm
Here's a point that gets forgotten in a lot of discussions of this issue:

> We’re also underlining that our events are for over-18s, maybe even
> over-21s, by holding them in licensed premises. Most of us know students or
> even those who are working professionally in our field long before they are
> “adult.” Should they be excluded?

~~~
philbarr
Under-18s can still enter licensed premises. At least here in the UK they can.
And they often do, if my local that is more "5-year-old's playground" than
"pub" is representative.

~~~
nraynaud
the former UK prime minister forgot his daughter at the pub.

~~~
radio4fan
Former?

Do you know something I don't?

;-)

~~~
nraynaud
[http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/jun/11/david-
camero...](http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/jun/11/david-cameron-
daughter-behind-pub)

~~~
jasomill
Right, but David Cameron has been prime minister since 2010, and still is, so
"former" doesn't yet apply to this case.

~~~
nraynaud
oops sorry I thought the story was older, I didn't check the time frames.

------
bluedino
People _drinking_ at a social event? Who would have thought.

------
yodsanklai
I would say it's our society that has a drinking problem. It seems to me that
overall, people drink less in our industry.

~~~
misiti3780
I agree - if you are go to school in the US you're exposed to binge drinking
on a weekly basis - also - software engineers seem to drink a lot less than
other industries like Finance, etc.

~~~
xradionut
Real courses require more time to study. :)

You could tell which dorm rooms had business majors by the number of beer cans
in the trash.

------
tbrownaw
_Almost every conference’s second day opens with attendees being asked how
their hangovers are. Second day early-slot speakers joke that no one will turn
up anyway, or they’ll all just be staring into their coffee. It has become
normal, in fact expected, that drinking and staying out late is what we do
while at conferences._

There are a number of issues here: drinking (to excess), staying out late, and
scheduled events early the day after these are known and expected to happen. I
would think that drinking is actually the least of them.

 _Of course it’s possible to attend these events and not drink, but being the
sober person at a party gets tiresome._

It's also possible to drink without ending up drunk, by not drinking too much.
Alcohol is metabolized at... I think it's around 1h20m/drink or so.

 _I attended Monitorama EU recently, where one attendee had proposed a 5K run
around the Tiergarten in Berlin on the morning of the second day._

It sounds like this actually worked, which I find surprising (really, talking
while running?). Something to note tho, is that it was a "small group" that
did this which sounds even less all-inclusive than leaving out underage
participants is.

 _Photo or history walks around cities can be attractive to a lot of people in
our industry_

Yes.

 _These are all good examples of simple things that can be organized around
conferences to create alternatives or additions to the parties._

Something to keep in mind for these is that they're _outdoors_. Which means
they're subject to weather and to daylight hours. They also involve moving
around / doing things in an organized fashion.

 _That said, I am still struggling to find good alternatives to the pub
meetup, particularly in the UK. Other than taking over the corner of a larger
coffee shop for a daytime meet, what kind of things are possible and
inexpensive for small groups? In particular I find it hard to organize
alternatives for the type of meeting where the numbers that might turn up are
hard to predict._

The thing about coffee shops and pubs is that everyone is in one place with no
organized activities to pay attention to. This is the important part, and the
drinking only comes in because that's what society says to expect when you
have a group of people "hanging out" with no agenda in the evening.

------
russgray
The only drinking problem I see here is that people are drinking whiskey out
of plastic cups. Philistines.

------
ranit
Conference (a.k.a. Symposium) is “by definition” a place for such activities.
:-)
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symposium](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symposium)

------
jjoe
Interesting. Drinking isn't confined to "this industry." But, aren't most
technical people control freaks more or less? Wouldn't they rather keep tight
control of their thought process? Maybe being tipsy is the only way out of the
exhausting, taxing aspect of continuous over-analysis and wanting to remain in
control; the occasional forced-break that would otherwise be consciously
difficult to attain.

This is veering a tad bit on the ironic side...

------
enoch_r
Personally, as someone who has a strong aversion to drinking to excess and has
never been to a conference--the fact that I hear so much about drunken
partying at these events is the single biggest reason I have never attended
one. I keep hearing about fascinating conferences. Then I hear people talk
about their experiences at conferences, which sound essentially like stories
about partying in college, and think--well, if the main social activity is
"partying," then I'll miss most of the social aspects of the conference. So I
just watch videos of the talks online instead. (Maybe this is dumb, so I'm
open to suggestions that my impressions are incorrect.)

The reactions here--which range from "everyone does it" and "there's no
solution" (which may well be true!) to "stop being a whiny busybody," are
unfairly dismissive. The author didn't say that drinking should be banned. She
simply suggested a few alternative activities that didn't involve drinking,
many of which can be organized by attendees themselves, and pointed out that a
culture of partying may turn off some people, which is certainly true in my
case.

------
Dirlewanger
Nice link bait by the author, wow.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
It's a curated collection of articles with only a byline to the author. It
seems a worthy subject of introspection. So do you think it's really link
bait?

~~~
Dirlewanger
Yes I do. She merely just says she'd rather find another meetup spot that's
not a pub and offers suggestions. Doesn't go into boorish drunken behavior
that she witnessed at these meetups or something equally alarming that one
would expect from someone who presupposes 'Does our industry have a drinking
problem?' That's a pretty weighty title, but unfortunately in today's world
where it's all about getting page views, people will now dilute once-weighty-
sounding titles for to increase clickthrough rate.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
A drinking problem doesn't need to be drunken rowdiness. I just take it that
she's saying "the focus of our social time appears to be consumption of
alcohol, is that true, is that right?".

------
Leander_B
Uff.. I haven't read A list apart in some years now as my interests shifted.
But, is this what a once quality website/blog has become? Don't even want to
open the article with such a bogus title.

Also, I have read and heard what has happened these last few weeks and can't
seem to change my mind that the US folks are much more 'sensitive' to this
kind of things then in EU.

------
arprocter
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines)

------
epo
Betteridges Law of Headlines is applicable here. What a remarkably silly and
sanctiminous piece.

------
g8oz
I've concluded that white people from Anglo cultures have a drinking problem
in general.

