A conference is supposed to be a forum for the presentation and discussion of new ideas. Not in this country where it is often an opportunity for an after-lunch nap. The reason is that the Portuguese cannot conceive of a conference without inviting someone from government.
The success of a conference in Portugal is measured by the ranking of the public official that is invited to attend. A conference is doomed to failure if it cannot attract at least a secretary of state to deliver the opening or the closing speech. The chances of success increase if the invited personality is a minister. Success is guaranteed if the prime-minister is there.
With a government representative seating at the conference it takes a considerable risk for a conferencist or a member of the audience to question conventional wisdom, and few of them actually do. Thus, conferences usually become very formal affairs where speaker after speaker make long, monotonous presentations about what everybody knows and no one believes. This is a country where people who are often exceedingly interesting in private conversation become extremely dull when speaking at a conference. Formality takes precedence over substance and the proximity of power makes the Portuguese well-behaved, overly formal and exceedingly boring.
Do not try to put a difficult, much less an embarassing question to a conferencist or to the government representative seating at the conference. This will be interpreted as lack of respect and the audience will look down on you as a troublemaker. That is why in the period reserved for questions there are usually no questions at all. Except, perhaps, from that one man - there is usually one of the kind at every conference - that rises from the audience to ask a question and ends up making a conference himself.
If the Portuguese do not attend conferences to discuss new ideas, why do they like conferences so much to the point that they have become a sort of national sport or entertainment? The answer is hand-shaking. The Portuguese like to be in company, specially of important people. They like to be seen close to power, which they take as a sign of their own importance. Shaking hands with important people, such as a minister or a secretary of state, is an asset as they might need some favour from them in the future. In this sense, most conferences in Portugal could well be called hand-shaking conferences or conferências do bacalhau, as they would say here with typical humour (bacalhau, which translates for codfish, is a popular expression for hand-shaking).
The success of a conference in Portugal is measured by the ranking of the public official that is invited to attend. A conference is doomed to failure if it cannot attract at least a secretary of state to deliver the opening or the closing speech. The chances of success increase if the invited personality is a minister. Success is guaranteed if the prime-minister is there.
With a government representative seating at the conference it takes a considerable risk for a conferencist or a member of the audience to question conventional wisdom, and few of them actually do. Thus, conferences usually become very formal affairs where speaker after speaker make long, monotonous presentations about what everybody knows and no one believes. This is a country where people who are often exceedingly interesting in private conversation become extremely dull when speaking at a conference. Formality takes precedence over substance and the proximity of power makes the Portuguese well-behaved, overly formal and exceedingly boring.
Do not try to put a difficult, much less an embarassing question to a conferencist or to the government representative seating at the conference. This will be interpreted as lack of respect and the audience will look down on you as a troublemaker. That is why in the period reserved for questions there are usually no questions at all. Except, perhaps, from that one man - there is usually one of the kind at every conference - that rises from the audience to ask a question and ends up making a conference himself.
If the Portuguese do not attend conferences to discuss new ideas, why do they like conferences so much to the point that they have become a sort of national sport or entertainment? The answer is hand-shaking. The Portuguese like to be in company, specially of important people. They like to be seen close to power, which they take as a sign of their own importance. Shaking hands with important people, such as a minister or a secretary of state, is an asset as they might need some favour from them in the future. In this sense, most conferences in Portugal could well be called hand-shaking conferences or conferências do bacalhau, as they would say here with typical humour (bacalhau, which translates for codfish, is a popular expression for hand-shaking).
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