Life as an addict in EEAA

My social life revolves around business, entrepreneurship, and technology events, and I’m okay with that.  You may have spotted me recently at E-Club, Tech Meetups, Scottish Enterprise, SIE, Business Forum, Business Gateway, Informatics Ventures, Edinburgh Coffee Mornings, Twestival, BarCamp, Cloud Computing Camp, Partnering for Innovation, Winning through Innovation or several other talks in town.   

Unlike AA, where “the only requirement for membership is a desire to stop” the addictive behaviour, EEAA is about making the most of the experience.  This blog is a way of sharing the highlights, jokes, and insights from the latest events related to entrepreneurship as well as a support group for all of us who feel our lives have become dominated by these happenings.

So, how do you know if you’re an addict?  I have yet to come across a diagnostic test, so I decided to start constructing one.  Below is a list of alarm bells that have all gone off in my head over the last few months, but please add to it if more comes to mind from your own experience…

10 obvious signs you might be an entrepreneurship event addict:

1. You ask a friend what brought him to an event, and he replies ‘stalking you’

2. People that have known you for several months just assume you’re an MBA student, when you’re not actually a student at all and never did an MBA

3. You recognise someone at a bar and ask what events you’ve met him at, only to be corrected that you were actually flatmates once upon a time

4. You think an event is the ideal pre-party scene before hitting a gig or club

5. You view unemployment as a chance to catch all the events that work got in the way of

6. Your colleague a generation older than you orders you to get a social life (and then apologizes for being so blunt – that’s how you can tell he really meant it!)

7. You find yourself tipsy on free booze 4+ nights/week

8. You make a new years resolution to reintroduce non-business hobbies back into your life… and fail to keep it

9. You show up to an event even after the free meal has finished (but you’re relieved to hear you’re just in time to catch the talk!)

10. When you excitedly tell your parents about the latest business/tech events you’ve been to, they respond with dating advice

Might sound like a frightening life to lead, but TV assures me there are worse addictions – a show entitled ‘Wedding Addicts: Hidden Lives’ just came on Fiver.  Being in EEAA doesn’t seem so bad now!