Conferences
Posted: 05 Oct 2017, 08:35
I think we all know how tedious conferences can be. But sometimes they can unexpectedly hold us enthralled.
This happened to me about 20 years ago - a work conference which involved, mostly, people giving presentations about current projects in which they were involved in our field of work. I happened to be part of a post-lunch panel discussion: four of us plus the moderator, with short ten minute presentations each and then questions and answers. I didn't know two of the presenters, but I knew one reasonably - mostly from these sort of industry-related events, where we would often cross paths. I had seen him present a couple of times, as I think he had also seen me present, but never like this, on a panel together.
So we caught up over lunch, which immediately preceded the presentation. We were both young and adventurous at the time - in our mid twenties, but he was especially dashing. He was one of those young people who exuded confidence, but not in a brash way - just in a secure and charming way, and in a way that was to no small extent based on his extreme good looks. He had just that perfect mix between boyish good looks and the rugged young male edge that things like designer stubble, perfect shaped hair, and a killer toned body lend to a young growing man in his 20s who is successful enough in his work to have the very best of everything clothes-wise, without it ever looking intentionally showy.
It was a fairly relaxed sort of conference, and it was into the Australian summer, and so he was not suited up: just in very fashionable black jeans, a short-sleeved buttoned shirt and expensive-looking (presumably Italian) shoes. Cliched perhaps, but undeniably effective.
So, we had lunch and caught up on gossip and chatter, having maybe a little more water than usual on account of the summer and then a decent coffee to finish off with. As we took our cups back he asked one of the waiting staff where 'the mens room' is: with a sort of casualness that wouldn't have raised anyone's eyebrows except mine and it suddenly occurred to me that maybe there was a bit of urgency mounting for him.
The 'mens rooms' were pointed out to him but, as he headed towards there, some other colleague who hadn't seen him for a while stopped him (an me) for a chat. I did begin to wonder if he was feeling the need for 'the mens room' perhaps more pressingly than he would have admitted - just a few more moves from leg to leg than you would normally expect and an occasionally slightly distracted look in the direction he had intended to go.
But, no doubt partly to do with his sense of confidence and being very much in control of himself and his situations, he didn't say or overtly indicate anything.
The very first sign of panic came when the moderator for our session came out and called us in to set up - we were already running late and we needed to get started. There was a slightly incredulous 'Now?' from him and the moderator made it clear that he meant, yes, now.
I was pretty sure now that he was feeling some genuine desperation and it was pretty hard for me not to keep watching that, exspecially with looks as strong and good as his.
It was the mid 90s so people were still using overhead projectors for presentations, and that was set up next to the speaker's rostrum, and the speakers' table where the four of us, plus moderator would sit was next to that. As he bent down to get the overheads out of his case his shirt crept up and I could see that he was wearing (of course fashionable) white 2xist briefs on underneath. He cut, as I say, a pretty impressive picture in every sense.
He was to be the second speaker, and I was to be the third. I made sure i sat next to him on the speakers' table. During the first speaker he was clearly restless .... legs wavering between moments of shifting about in that scissor-like motion, or sometimes just one leg moving as if his thigh alone could stem the mounting pressure, or just sitting rigidly still, like he was trying to flex thigh and calf muscles in an attempt to maintain control.
Then it was his turn to speak. I wonder how much would have been noticeable to people who didn't know him and to me it was very obvious. Normally he would stand behind the podium, operate the slides from there, and move virtually not at all. But this day it was the opposite. He couldn't stand still at all - moving about the podium, as if to point out things on the slides or just to move about for some reason that can only ever make sense to a man when he is pretty seriously desperate.
He got through his presentation but was clearly looking flustered by time he finished. Then it was my turn and I have to say I found it equally hard to concentrate on my job ... I had become so rivetted by him. I got through it fine but was constantly aware of how much he was now moving. The table was such that he couldn't possibly grab himself without everyone seeing, so I think he was just hoping that these movements wouldn't draw too much attention and that people would just just think he was like lots of young, active men who sometimes tend to wobble around a bit. But the two looks are very different, and he was totally and unmistakeably the former.
This all continued, and continued to intensify, throughout the fourth talk and the q&a. I think the bits that fascinated me the most through it all were the times when he was still - tensing and, I suspect, maybe even slightly wetting himself. The black jeans would not have shown much and, I suspected, it would have only been small squirts anyway.
The whole session was just one hour but, by time it finished, his desperation was pretty obvious, probably to many, and definitely to me. A few small patches of wet spot were certainly visible by time it had finished and he got up and left as quickly as he could without it looking too obvious the extent of his urgency. I never found out if he knew those wet spots were showing _ he possibly didn't at the time and maybe others didn't either if they weren't looking for them: but I was, and they were certainly there.
I wish I could have followed him to the 'mens rooms' because I know the sight and sound of that would have been amazing. But it has been interesting, in the years that have followed, to think back to that whole incident, to the wettening 2-xist briefs under those immaculate black jeans on that immaculate young man's body and how the end of it all finally felt for him. I still see him occasionally, and he is still extremely good looking and fit, and it still excites me to think of the secret that he doesn't know we share.
This happened to me about 20 years ago - a work conference which involved, mostly, people giving presentations about current projects in which they were involved in our field of work. I happened to be part of a post-lunch panel discussion: four of us plus the moderator, with short ten minute presentations each and then questions and answers. I didn't know two of the presenters, but I knew one reasonably - mostly from these sort of industry-related events, where we would often cross paths. I had seen him present a couple of times, as I think he had also seen me present, but never like this, on a panel together.
So we caught up over lunch, which immediately preceded the presentation. We were both young and adventurous at the time - in our mid twenties, but he was especially dashing. He was one of those young people who exuded confidence, but not in a brash way - just in a secure and charming way, and in a way that was to no small extent based on his extreme good looks. He had just that perfect mix between boyish good looks and the rugged young male edge that things like designer stubble, perfect shaped hair, and a killer toned body lend to a young growing man in his 20s who is successful enough in his work to have the very best of everything clothes-wise, without it ever looking intentionally showy.
It was a fairly relaxed sort of conference, and it was into the Australian summer, and so he was not suited up: just in very fashionable black jeans, a short-sleeved buttoned shirt and expensive-looking (presumably Italian) shoes. Cliched perhaps, but undeniably effective.
So, we had lunch and caught up on gossip and chatter, having maybe a little more water than usual on account of the summer and then a decent coffee to finish off with. As we took our cups back he asked one of the waiting staff where 'the mens room' is: with a sort of casualness that wouldn't have raised anyone's eyebrows except mine and it suddenly occurred to me that maybe there was a bit of urgency mounting for him.
The 'mens rooms' were pointed out to him but, as he headed towards there, some other colleague who hadn't seen him for a while stopped him (an me) for a chat. I did begin to wonder if he was feeling the need for 'the mens room' perhaps more pressingly than he would have admitted - just a few more moves from leg to leg than you would normally expect and an occasionally slightly distracted look in the direction he had intended to go.
But, no doubt partly to do with his sense of confidence and being very much in control of himself and his situations, he didn't say or overtly indicate anything.
The very first sign of panic came when the moderator for our session came out and called us in to set up - we were already running late and we needed to get started. There was a slightly incredulous 'Now?' from him and the moderator made it clear that he meant, yes, now.
I was pretty sure now that he was feeling some genuine desperation and it was pretty hard for me not to keep watching that, exspecially with looks as strong and good as his.
It was the mid 90s so people were still using overhead projectors for presentations, and that was set up next to the speaker's rostrum, and the speakers' table where the four of us, plus moderator would sit was next to that. As he bent down to get the overheads out of his case his shirt crept up and I could see that he was wearing (of course fashionable) white 2xist briefs on underneath. He cut, as I say, a pretty impressive picture in every sense.
He was to be the second speaker, and I was to be the third. I made sure i sat next to him on the speakers' table. During the first speaker he was clearly restless .... legs wavering between moments of shifting about in that scissor-like motion, or sometimes just one leg moving as if his thigh alone could stem the mounting pressure, or just sitting rigidly still, like he was trying to flex thigh and calf muscles in an attempt to maintain control.
Then it was his turn to speak. I wonder how much would have been noticeable to people who didn't know him and to me it was very obvious. Normally he would stand behind the podium, operate the slides from there, and move virtually not at all. But this day it was the opposite. He couldn't stand still at all - moving about the podium, as if to point out things on the slides or just to move about for some reason that can only ever make sense to a man when he is pretty seriously desperate.
He got through his presentation but was clearly looking flustered by time he finished. Then it was my turn and I have to say I found it equally hard to concentrate on my job ... I had become so rivetted by him. I got through it fine but was constantly aware of how much he was now moving. The table was such that he couldn't possibly grab himself without everyone seeing, so I think he was just hoping that these movements wouldn't draw too much attention and that people would just just think he was like lots of young, active men who sometimes tend to wobble around a bit. But the two looks are very different, and he was totally and unmistakeably the former.
This all continued, and continued to intensify, throughout the fourth talk and the q&a. I think the bits that fascinated me the most through it all were the times when he was still - tensing and, I suspect, maybe even slightly wetting himself. The black jeans would not have shown much and, I suspected, it would have only been small squirts anyway.
The whole session was just one hour but, by time it finished, his desperation was pretty obvious, probably to many, and definitely to me. A few small patches of wet spot were certainly visible by time it had finished and he got up and left as quickly as he could without it looking too obvious the extent of his urgency. I never found out if he knew those wet spots were showing _ he possibly didn't at the time and maybe others didn't either if they weren't looking for them: but I was, and they were certainly there.
I wish I could have followed him to the 'mens rooms' because I know the sight and sound of that would have been amazing. But it has been interesting, in the years that have followed, to think back to that whole incident, to the wettening 2-xist briefs under those immaculate black jeans on that immaculate young man's body and how the end of it all finally felt for him. I still see him occasionally, and he is still extremely good looking and fit, and it still excites me to think of the secret that he doesn't know we share.