sb4.0 - what's a technocrat to do?

I am second-guessing my decision to forego SB4.0 in order to attend a research administration conference going on at the same time. Sure, I'm an administrator who doesn't always understand the science very well. And intuitively, it seems too costly for me to travel to Hong Kong to listen to science talks. But maybe I'm just not making a strong enough effort to "get it." I feel like I need to understand what these (mostly) guys and (sprinkling of) gals are talking about. In a way, I also feel like I need to go to the research administration conference to teach people that, um, it's about the science.

It's disappointing to me how the research community draws such a striking line between "research" and "administration". Where are the people who straddle that line? Why isn't there a greater effort to educate administrators like me about science? I feel that I have to do backflips to get understandable science info out of researchers. I have to be willing to be talked down to. Maybe I need to be trained to do backflips, and trained to be talked down to. Maybe researchers need to be trained in communicating science to "regular" people.