[Eg-oversight-board] Final conference thoughts

Tue May 23 12:43:00 EDT 2017

Hi,

I haven't read the document closely, but some pieces (new 
sponsor/exhibitor rates) may be something we can implement sooner while 
# of rooms, food expenditures, and other contract items can be planned 
out for 2019. Another thought I've had is that we might want to consider 
putting out the call for the 2019 conference earlier this year. Although 
we put out the call about 16 months ahead of time, I know some locations 
are already fully booked by that time. Maybe we can plan for putting the 
next Call for Proposals out in August / September and plan on resolving 
these questions by then so that the 2019 planners know what the new 
requirements are.

In addition to reducing costs, the other advantage to reducing the 
number of rooms is that it increases the number of conference hotels 
that can accommodate us.

Kathy

On 05/23/2017 12:28 PM, Amy Terlaga wrote:
> These are some very intriguing suggestions for future conferences.  
> I'm all for reducing the overall cost to help the project make money.  
> Unfortunately, contract signing with the conference venue for 2018 is 
> wrapping up today or tomorrow.  I followed this year's plan.  I stuck 
> with the formula.  I needed something to go on and felt the pressure 
> of locking in the venue as the local committee has been working out a 
> plan with them since before the 2017 conference.
>
> I'm sorry some of this can't be executed for 2018, but the work has 
> been laid out for 2019.
>
> Grace, you've done so much work - it is much appreciated. Your 
> insights and expertise are invaluable..
>
> Amy
>
> On Tue, May 23, 2017 at 11:39 AM, Grace Dunbar 
> <grace at equinoxinitiative.org <mailto:grace at equinoxinitiative.org>> wrote:
>
>     I thought it might be useful to provide my suggestions for the
>     Evergreen conference and changes we may want to consider for the
>     future. Apologies in advance if this is either rambling or
>     redundant, or both.
>
>     The conference operates on thin margins.
>     Every year the conference committee is confident (perhaps overly
>     confident) that this year they will increase attendance numbers
>     and increase sponsorships.  The problem is that we can't increase
>     our sponsorships without increasing our attendance.  And our
>     attendees who increase our numbers are generally just employees of
>     a library in an existing consortia.  This exact complaint was
>     brought up by multiple vendors - essentially, the Evergreen
>     conference is really only between 8 and 10 "clients" and having
>     more circ or cataloging staff attendees at the conference doesn't
>     increase their ROI.  And that's fair.
>
>     And the attendees who can increase our numbers (local staff) seem
>     to want very specifically targeted information related to them at
>     the conference.  The conference surveys have been pretty clear
>     that end-user staff want and expect *training* from the
>     conference.  But that hasn't traditionally been the aim of the
>     conference, nor can we reliably provide that since the programs
>     are solicited from volunteers in the community. Also complicating
>     things for "training" on Evergreen features is that Evergreen is
>     so customizable that "training" or explanations of how to use
>     certain features may not jive with local policy for their
>     consortia or library system. Regardless, I believe we can, to some
>     extent, provide that kind of training in the pre-conference
>     sessions.  However, we will need to be very selective in the
>     process of recruiting the pre-conference presenters (trainers) if
>     we're going to try to actively meet that need.
>
>     Also, I firmly believe that the conference should make money for
>     the project.  With that money, the project can provide outreach,
>     build infrastructure, and promote the community.  We want to
>     provide a good conference with stellar programs and a welcoming
>     environment.  But the conference is also for building
>     relationships, allowing developers and community leaders to
>     conduct business and brainstorm, as well as providing space for
>     the EOB, committees, and interest groups to meet.  IOW, we're
>     trying to meet a lot of needs and there needs to be balance - we
>     can't make everyone happy all the time.  If you look at the
>     breakdown of attendees, systems administrators and developers are
>     roughly 1/3, end-users are roughly 1/3, and admin/consortia
>     leaders are roughly 1/3.  Those are all stakeholders that are
>     important but their needs are very different.
>
>     To reduce overhead for the conference and to try to give
>     _everyone_ the best experience we should at least look at making
>     some changes. Based off of my experience and the results of
>     conference surveys, I have some suggestions for changes to the
>     structure and the sponsorships.
>     Note that the proposed reduction of the conference to two tracks
>     had wide support in the survey and the track reduction and changes
>     to pre-conferences and when/where IGs, etc. meet, should reduce
>     the overhead for costs associated with meeting rooms, A/V,
>     signage, labor, etc.
>     See attached doc for details.
>
>     Thanks for sticking with the rambling...
>     And as always, this is just a suggestion based on my experience -
>     I leave it to y'all to decide what to take away from the
>     information and what direction to go.
>
>     Cheers!
>     Grace
>     p.s. Exhibitor and attendee surveys also attached.  For anyone who
>     prefers visual representations, just let me know and I can share
>     the Google form with you.
>
>
>
>
> -- 
> +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
> Amy Terlaga
> Director of Member Services
> Bibliomation, Inc.
> 24 Wooster Avenue
> Waterbury, CT  06708
> (203)577-4070 x101
> terlaga at biblio.org <mailto:terlaga at biblio.org>

-- 
Kathy Lussier
Project Coordinator
Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative
(508) 343-0128
klussier at masslnc.org
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kmlussier

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