[Eg-oversight-board] Final conference thoughts

[scott.thomas at sparkpa.org]

Hi Terran,
   You make some great points here. I especially agree about the Keynote and the merchandise. When you go to a conference in a distant city, many people want to bring back a souvenir that represents the city. Regarding promotion, I wonder if we could get an article in Computers in Libraries? The November issue of CL will ve about “Hackers and Coders,” but, of course, the one message we don’t want to send is that the EG Conference is just for coders.

Scott

From: eg-oversight-board [mailto:eg-oversight-board-bounces at list.evergreen-ils.org] On Behalf Of Terran McCanna
Sent: Wednesday, May 24, 2017 6:06 PM
To: eg-oversight-board <eg-oversight-board at list.evergreen-ils.org>
Subject: Re: [Eg-oversight-board] Final conference thoughts

Sorry for my late reply:
- Tracks: I know we've already signed the contracts for the numbers of rooms, but what if we considered different ways of using the rooms? For example, what if we changed to two tracks of sessions, but then used the third room for an ongoing hackfest/digfest that shifted to game night space in the evenings? I noticed quite a few people perched around the lobby working furiously on things in between sessions - it might be nice to have a dedicated workspace. Maybe even with it's own coffee / soda service?
- Wi-fi: Perhaps we can look into getting some wi-fi hotspots that don't rely on the hotel wi-fi?
- Food: The snack breaks were awkward this year. I ended up skipping almost all of them because I wasn't hungry that soon after meals and most of the options didn't appeal to me. Perhaps we could consider spending more of that budget on all day service for coffee/soda/juice/water and take-and-go type snacks (fruit, chips, bagged nuts...) that are replenished throughout the day rather than having catered snack breaks?
- Keynote: Maybe it's just me, but I don't think we really need an outside keynote speaker. I get much more out of hearing people in the community speak.
- Merch: Someone on the survey suggested having some merch that is locally-themed or library-themed along with the Evergreen-themed merch, and I love that idea. Big conferences like ALA always have booths that are just selling library-themed t-shirts and mugs, book-oriented jewelry, etc. that rake in the money. (It might also be another sponsorship opportunity to offer.)
- Vendors: Several vendors suggested the idea of vendor showcases, and I really like that idea. I've been to a number of conferences that have vendor-sponsored breakfasts and lunches where they get to present while people are eating. Or, perhaps combine vendor spotlights with snack breaks, so they get 15 or 20 minutes with a dedicated snacking audience?
- Types of Programs: I noticed there were several requests in the survey for more cataloging / acquisitions / technical services sessions. I think one of the reasons we have few volunteers to do sessions on these topics is that cataloging policies and procedures aren't tied to a specific ILS. However, there are probably topics that we could encourage community members to do that aren't 100% tied to Evergreen but still relevant to our users. For example, a panel discussion on data quality and things to think about when moving from being an independent library to part of a consortium with a union catalog?

- New and Potential Users: I like the idea of having a dedicated session for libraries that are new to Evergreen and libraries that are considering Evergreen as well. Maybe have it be in the form of a moderated interest group, perhaps with a representative from a few different types of libraries that are well-experienced with Evergreen to answer questions.
- Promoting the Conference: Does anyone have any ideas on ways to promote the conference outside of the Evergreen lists and our existing communities? Would it be worth purchasing ads in library magazines or on social media sites?


Terran McCanna
PINES Program Manager
Georgia Public Library Service
1800 Century Place, Suite 150
Atlanta, GA 30345
404-235-7138
tmccanna at georgialibraries.org<mailto:tmccanna at georgialibraries.org>

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