I have so enjoyed reading everyone’s posts about their experience at NCLA! This year’s conference was a bit different for me, since as Chair of the Programs Committee, I wasn’t able to sit down and enjoy many sessions. But, it was incredibly gratifying to hear so many positive comments from attendees about the sessions and our keynote speakers, which absolutely made all the time and effort that went into the conference worthwhile! I’m also so grateful to the other members of my committee (including Kyle!) and the planning committee for everything they did to make the conference run smoothly. I learned A LOT about conference planning through this process, and my hope is that the conference when it’s back here in 2 years!
Here’s a quick rundown of how I spent my time at the conference:
Monday:
- Before-Conference Meeting with Twin City Quarter and the Conference Planning Committee to go over last minute details for the conference
Tuesday:
- Pre-Conferences
- Checked on A/V setups, placed signage around Benton, made last-minute updates to Sched
- President’s Dinner for the Planning Committee and Executive Board
Wednesday:
- First full day of the conference!
- Checked on A/V setups, including the keynote
- Introduced Melanie Huggins, our opening keynote
- Attended “Sharing the Responsibility: Librarians and Faculty Developing a Community around Information Literacy” presented by Meghan Wanucha Smith (UNCW) and David Hisle (ECU) about a LSTA-funded programs where faculty were given iPads as an incentive to work with a librarian to redesign a course/assignment to better incorporate information literacy; see their LibGuide here
- Attended Meghan Webb and Steve Kelley’s session on “Comics in the Academic Library” – great job, you two!
- Stopped by the posters to check out Ashelee and Jess’s poster – again, great job!
- Hung out with some of the therapy dogs
- Endowment Book Trivia at Bookmarks/Footnote (our team won!)
Thursday:
- This day typically has the highest attendance at the conference, so I stayed busy making sure everything was running smoothly!
- Checked on A/V setups
- Attended the Ogilvie Lecture featuring Wanda Brown and Timothy Owens
- Checked out the posters
- Made more changes to Sched (seriously, how do people do a conference without an online schedule?!)
- Visited with colleagues from around the state
- Attended the CUS Wine and Cheese Reception and the All-Conference Reception & Awards Ceremony
Friday:
- Almost there!
- Checked on our A/V setup for the closing keynote with Jaki Shelton Green
- Attended “Critical Friends” presented by Amy Harris Houk and Jenny Dale from UNCG (Mary Beth provided a great overview of this session!)
- More therapy dog time!
- Attended the closing keynote and luncheon
- Helped with break down and cleanup
WHEW! It was a packed week, but so worth it. Thanks to everyone at ZSR who attended and presented and volunteered! Now for a bit of break before we start planning for 2021…
5 Comments on ‘Kathy at NCLA 2019’
Kathy, THANK YOU for all that you and your fellow committee members did to make NCLA a success for all! I’m glad to know that you were able to catch the keynotes and a couple of sessions while juggling all your responsibilities. And of course your team won trivia!! I’d expect nothing less. 🙂
Glad it all went so well! You worked hard!
Kathy, it was so inspiring to watch you handle all of the conference planning stuff. You rolled with all of the punches, even (especially) those caused by some… um… email hiccups. Filling the walls of 477 with post-its will be a favorite memory for a long time to come!
Glad I wasn’t the only one who visited the therapy dogs every day. Congratulations on a well-run conference, thank you for helping make it a great time for all attendees!
Wow! I bet your commitment to running a strong conference showed up on your fitness tracker results! You were busy! Good work on honing those skills that it takes to make a conference run smoothly. It was evident.