Travel Agent

You'd never guess that facutly also are travel agents.

We go to conferences to present scientific papers or, rarely, to gain some professional training (the two rarely overlap). Each trip entails selecting flights, booking hotel room and registering for the conference. That's straightforward. But, the decisions include whether to attend for more than the session at which you are presenting and how that matches with flight costs and availability, the cost of the conference hotel versus one a long walk away, and the deadline for early registration. Then, there's the issue of whether to travel with a colleague who is also presenting and whether to share a hotel room. We are friends and the budget is tight, or so the argument goes. Then, those decisions need to be communicated to the staff with access to the grant funds to pay in advance for the expenses that the university permits to be paid in advance.  In this way, I don't have to pay for the flight but I do pay for hotel and later get reimbursed. Oh, yeah, there's the reimbursement process and forms and signatures and receipts once back from the trip.

Arg. I want a personal secretary!

PS I added a photo of me hooding my doctoral student. The photo speaks for itself.