Thank you for writing about this! It's really interesting to hear what these types of events are like from the presenters' side. I'm wondering how many people there are out there who come to writing conferences and don't intend to pursue publication intensively. Personally I can't imagine spending that much $$$ without serious intent, but I guess it's no more than some vacations cost.

As a librarian who occasionally teaches, I like your roleplay idea. I've done various roleplay exercises before, but the character types you describe pair up rather nicely with librarian & student-in-a-rush. Librarians are the "hopeful authors" in that we constantly have to pitch our services (novels) to students/staff/faculty who are suspicious of our value (salability).