Thing 12 - Attending conferences

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As I work for the local council, conferences are neither tolerated nor paid for! However, a couple of years ago  (23/11/13) I did attend 'Speak Up For Libraries' organised through CILIP at their offices in London. I had to take the day off as annual leave and pay for the ticket & travel myself. It was worth it just for the speakers and contacts made, although it did leave me a little disillusioned about the future of public libraries.

 

The speakers were:

• Yinnon Ezra, Advisor for Libraries at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)
• Brian Ashley, Director, Libraries at Arts Council England (ACE)
• Janene Cox, President, The Society of Chief Librarians (SCL)
• Alan Gibbons, author and founder of Campaign for the Book
• Phil Bradley, President, the Chartered Institute of Library & Information Professionals (CILIP)
• Heather Wakefield, Head of Local Government, UNISON
• Steve Davies, Lecturer in Social Sciences, University of Cardiff

and through linking up with some of them on Linkedin/Twitter I now have further insight into current issues and agendas, which has been really great. This actually proved more helpful than the scribbled notes I had made on the conference handouts. I remember distincltly the speakers that inspired me, and my subsequent research on topics they spoke about was very helpful in understanding the overall picture of public libraries.

There were tea breaks and moving to different rooms for different speakers so it was quite easy to just chat to people and everyone was very friendly.

Next time I go to a conference I may take some business cards with me and do a little research before hand so that I can ask more specific questions.