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The Library & Information Science Professional's Career Development Center |
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Tips and Tricks for Conference Attendance |
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Attending conferences is a great way for information professionals to learn about new technologies, network with other librarians, and stay up-to-date on issues facing the profession. Conferences can also be a great deal of fun. Attending your first conference, however, especially if it’s a large national conference like one hosted by the American Library Association or the Special Libraries Association, can be a daunting prospect. There are many things to think about when planning to attend a conference – what you’ll need to carry, what to wear, how to afford conferences as a student or on a new librarian’s salary. Collected here are some tips and tricks from a number of librarians that can help you get prepared for your first conference, whether it is a smaller regional or state conference or a large national conference. How to make a conference affordable Conferences, especially national conferences, can be expensive for those of us who are students or just starting out in the profession. It goes without saying that if your institution provides assistance with conference and travel expenses you should take advantage of it! But if you are like me and work for an institution that does not provide assistance for conference attendance, there are a number other ways to help decrease what you will spend out of your own pocket. First, look for grants and scholarships or work programs that will provide free or reduced conference registration fees. Check around! You may find that there is money available from local and state associations, your graduate program, and there are grants available from the various divisions, round tables, and special interest groups of the national organizations. I received a grant from ALA’s New Members Round Table and 3M for the 2002 annual conference in Atlanta. This grant provided for my flight, a five-night stay in my chosen hotel, conference registration fees, and a small stipend to help defray other costs, such as food. This is only one of two grants that NMRT provides each year for annual conference attendance, and these are only two of the many grants available for members of particular associations or divisions or individuals working in certain areas of librarianship. Apply for everything that you are eligible for! Of course, we can’t all get a grant every year or for every conference, so we have to look for other ways to reduce expenses. Transportation and lodging are two of the big expenses that you incur when attending conferences, but there are tons of ways to reduce what you’ll spend. As far as transportation, if you feel you are close enough to the conference location to drive, carpool with colleagues or look for librarians in your area that might want to help share this expense. If you know that you have to fly, shop around for a good price. Check discount sites like Priceline, and look at the fares offered directly by the carriers. Many times those will be cheaper than using a travel agency or the conference’s travel services. It’s also a good idea to investigate prices with budget carriers such as JetBlue, Southwest, or Frontier. Teri Switzer, Assistant Director of HR and Budget at the University of Colorado in Denver, once took a Greyhound bus to a conference. She said of the experience, “It was fun, I met interesting people, and saved a bundle.” When you go to the large national conferences you’ll find shuttle services from the convention center to the conference hotels. If you are staying in a hotel that is not on the shuttle line, stay where you can walk to one of the conference hotels and pick up the shuttle, or use public transportation to get to the convention center. Lodging is another area that can be expensive but where you can save money in any number of ways. Sharing a room is the most obvious way to save money if you stay in a hotel. As with airfare, check around for better prices and discounts on hotels. Don’t assume that the conference rate is going to be the best. (I booked a room at the conference rate and when my reservation was later lost I was able to reserve the same type of room for $30 less per night. A mistake definitely worked in my favor, and I learned a lesson about checking for specials and discounts at multiple times.) If you are a member of an organization like AAA, check there for discounts, and don’t forget about discounts that you might be able to get because of membership in professional organizations or other organizations like alumni associations. Many of the large conference cities are home to hostels where you can get private rooms with shared kitchen and bath facilities, or you can share space in a common room for even less. If you’re attending an ALA conference there will be dorm housing that is substantially cheaper than a hotel that you can book through ALA’s travel services. For state and regional conferences there may be similar options. The Kentucky Library Association often has meetings at the state parks where the rates are cheaper than in nearby hotels. Food is another expense where you can sometimes save money. Carry your own snacks and drinks and don’t purchase food in the convention center, where it is often a lot more expensive. Find a hotel with kitchen facilities where you can prepare your own meals. Receptions and happy hours or cocktail parties are also good ways to score some free food. Vendors always sponsor great breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, although these are often by invitation only. A great way to get invitations is by talking to vendors in the exhibit halls. As Teri Switzer says, “Visit the exhibits booths for more info on exhibitor events AND when you register, don’t “opt out” of having your name sent to exhibitors. Yes, you’ll get a slew of postcards promoting different products, but you may also get invitations to attend breakfast/lunch/social hours.” Entertainment, if you have time for it, can be expensive, especially in larger cities. Most of us are likely to want to do a little sightseeing, eat dinner at a local restaurant, or spend the evening somewhere other than our rooms on nights when we don’t already have plans. Again, look for discount coupons to attractions at your hotel or through AAA, and check the exhibit hall for opportunities for free entertainment. In Atlanta I ran across a booth where free tickets to a movie were being given away. We were all transported to the theater by bus and had a great night watching a movie that had not yet been released to the public. One last expense that many of us are beginning to have during conferences is childcare. Check with your organization about childcare options if you have to take your children to the conference. ALA will reimburse attendees a small amount for childcare expenses, and other regional or state organizations might do the same, or might even provide on-site childcare at smaller conferences. What to wear All of us want to make a good impression at the conference, but large conferences also require a lot of walking, and you’ll often find yourself sitting in meeting rooms in hotels with widely varying degrees of temperatures. Nanette Wargo recommends comfortable shoes, and says, “I cannot stress this enough. You’ll be doing tons and tons of walking, and if you don’t wear comfortable shoes you’ll be limping by your second day.” As far as clothing, it’s important to wear layers or to carry a light sweater or jacket. Sarah Andrews, Library Assistant at the University of Iowa, says, “Conference rooms can be very crowded and hot or over air-conditioned.” In order to be comfortable it’s important to be able to adjust for extremes in heat and cold, and being able to remove and add clothing will make the difference between enjoying a conference program and being miserable throughout one. This is great advice for those who are going to Orlando this year, where it will likely be very warm outside and extra-cool inside in many of the meeting rooms. What to carry It’s essential to have some sort of bag to hold items that you need for meetings and programs as well as items that you pick up I the exhibit hall. I personally prefer a backpack so that I can carry it on my back and possibly pick up an extra tote bag or two if there are a lot of great giveaways. For meetings it’s a good idea to have a pen and some paper. I also like to take some manila folders so that as I attend programs I can label and separate information that I am given and have everything ready to file when I get back home. Another item that you should always have is an umbrella, and it’s never a bad idea to have a bottle of water and a snack, just in case. Last but not least, make sure that you have business cards. Heather Cannon, Acting Serials and Electronic Collections Librarian at the Loyola University Health Sciences Library, says, “They get exchanged all over the place and are used for a lot of the raffle drawings.” Even if you are a student, not currently employed, or aren’t provided by cards at your current job, make some of your own. You’ll be happy to have them. This is a good time to mention that at large national conferences you will definitely have the opportunity to pick up all sorts of free items. There will be books, posters, pens, marketing materials for items that you might be interested in purchasing, and many other items. You’ll be able to load up on lots of things, but carrying these items all day can be a real chore, and getting them packed and back home can also be difficult. Take advantage of mailing services if available. At ALA’s annual conference there will be a post office set up in the exhibit hall where you can purchase boxes, pack up the items that you pick up, and have them mailed back to your home or library. This is a great way to get all this stuff back to your institution. Planning your days Even at smaller conferences there will often be more sessions available than you can possibly attend, and at large conferences you have to take into account the time it takes to get from one conference hotel to another on the conference shuttle. It’s a good idea to choose the sessions that you want to attend and plan your days ahead of time. Heather Cannon, after attending ALA, now always carries a small planner with her to conferences. She recommends the planner so that, when you get the official, and sometimes very large, conference program and choose the sessions that you would like to attend, you can “…copy the information you need into a separate notebook or planner…it’s much easier to find that information later than it would be looking through the HUGE official book.” As far as choosing the sessions that you want to attend, Christina Williams recommends that you “…find out about the session ahead of time so you don’t waste time in a session that isn’t what you thought it would be,” while Katherine Green, Acting Automation and Acquisitions Librarian at the University of Kansas School of Law’s Wheat Law Library says, “Try a session out of your main interests – you might get a different perspective on what you do.” Teresa Copeland, Information Services Librarian for the Yuma County Library District, agrees, saying, “Don’t go to sessions about things you already know a lot about, even if they are of great interest to you – you’ll end up bored.” One of the best pieces of advice that I got before attending my first ALA conference was to leave a session if it wasn’t turning out to be of interest. If you’re not getting something out of it, move on to something else that might be more interesting, even if the session has already started. Don’t feel bad about leaving early or coming in late. When sessions are scattered so far around a city it’s inevitable that you will arrive at something late, or want to leave something early in order to get somewhere else. One last tips for first-timers If you’ve never attended an ALA conference before, I highly recommend the New Members Round Table’s Conference Orientation, held on the first morning of the conference. At the orientation you’ll get more tips on navigating the conference, information on local attractions, and can meet others who may also be attending their first conference. Check out the New Members Round Table’s web site prior to any ALA conference also, as much of the information presented at the orientation will be available on the site as well. Whether you are attending a small local or regional conference, or attending a large national conference, make the most of the time! Network, learn, make friends, and get out and explore the area! You’ll be happy that you did! Tanzi Merritt is the Senior Reference Librarian at the Kentucky Virtual Library. She wishes to thank all the librarians that sent it their favorite conference tips and tricks for this article. Article published March 2004 Disclaimer: The ideas expressed in LIScareer articles are those of their respective authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the LIScareer editors.
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Page last updated
10/03/2005
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