Planning For Chicago

I am a planner especially when it comes to travel. I don't want to waste one moment at destination trying to decide on what attractions to visit. Time is short, so I plan beforehand.

This is the approach I took as I considered the ALA Conference I will be attending in Chicago beginning on July 9. I had one brief look at the preliminary program and was immediately overwhelmed. I obviously should have started planning long ago.

According to the ALA Conferences Q&A, a typical ALA annual conference includes over 2500 separately scheduled events, including 250 - 300 programs. It includes the largest library-oriented tradeshow in the world with typically 1500 booths (approximately 950 exhibitors). Approximately 25,000 attend an ALA Annual Conference, and I was going to network!

I peruse the preliminary program like I'm reading the newspaper as it is the only way I can cope. I make note on paper of my must-attends. The first challenge I face is that many of my must-attends are offered at the same time.

My must-attends concern either Community Development (CD) or Rural Libraries (RL). There are two on rural libraries and two on aspects of community development. There is another program at the same time which is to die for: a panel of well-known Science Fiction/Fantasy writers on the visionary aspects of their craft! I'll leave that enormous decision for later.

On the ALA Conference web site, there is an event planner accessed by your ALA registration information where you can choose the programs you plan to attend. It translates into an attractive pdf print-out, listing the titles of the programs you have chosen plus the time and location.

Enough blogging ... choices to be made!