Thursday, November 8, 2018

ILA Conference 2018 - Cedar Rapids

What an engaging and exiting time we had at the fall Iowa Library Association conference (Oct. 3-5)! This year in particular, I felt like I was constantly on the go, trying to connect with the ILA membership, helping lead or session manage presentations, and it was all worth it! You know when you get that fuzzy-in-your-forehead feeling at the end of a conference (the one that tells you you've been too much of an extrovert for too long) then it's been a productive and engaging conference! I definitely had that and needed to retreat and process to recharge after I returned home, but in a good way!

Wednesday
The opening reception was held at the always-amazing Cedar Rapids Public Library. I am constantly impressed with their staff and facilities, and basically stalk their twitter account and Facebook pages to learn about their creative community programs. Everyone was so welcoming, and it looked like everyone was enjoying themselves! I ducked out a little early to go meet with my Thursday presentation group to do one last talk through of our presentation.

Thursday
Thursday was absolutely PACKED! I began the day by being in two places at once. The Exec Board members try to have representation at the official breakfasts that kick off each day of the conference, and Thursday we had the Leadership Institute Reunion Breakfast and the New Members/New Attendees Breakfast. I split my time between the two and enjoyed meeting new people and reconnecting with old friends!


After a warm welcome from city administrators from Cedar Rapids, Hiawatha, and Marion, Thursday's keynote speaker was P.C. Sweeney, who focused on the difference between advocating for libraries and becoming an activist, creating change, for libraries through voting actions and attitudes. This means not necessarily focusing on getting people to like libraries (they already do!), but rather taking concrete steps to support libraries through funding, voting, and action.



I took a shift or two at the ILA Booth and enjoyed visiting with attendees, and braisntorming & wondering aloud together about library issues. We also gave one final push for our Adopt a Library Puerto Rico partner impacted by devastating hurricanes. In the end, we together raised more than $3,000 to help with their recovery efforts!

The awards luncheon highlighted the efforts of some amazing people contributing blood, sweat, and tears to Iowa's library communities. Congrats to all who received awards! We are truly lucky to be able to call them colleagues and friends!

The afternoon was spent connecting through subdivision meetings...

...engaging in dialogue during the Diversity & Inclusion Unconference session I facilitated...

...and presenting on culturally respectful programs and collections.


The handouts/slides for this presentation can be found using these links:
Thursday ended with a rousing game of trivia, but this year I was helping lead it rather than participate on a team. From this I learned that I much more enjoy helping with the trivia than answering the questions (for most categories. This year they had a Gilmore Girls category and I would have totally carried my team if I were playing -- I got each one correct in my head, but tried to keep a poker face to not give it away to the teams). Next year we won't have trivia because of the new joint conference with Nebraska, but hopefully in the future we can bring it back! I'd love to help again!

I loved that other attendees felt excited and inspired throughout the conference, too!


 Friday
Friday was another packed day that started out with Breakfast with the Board. Then I popped over to the Conference Tweetup to chat in person with those we'd been following online.
I was sitting at the head table for Friday's keynote from Miguel Figueroa. He focused on forecasting for libraries, identifying signals, trends, and values for libraries of the future. Forecasting isn't predicting and waiting for something to happen; rather it's an educated examination. Examples and discussion points from his breakout session that followed the keynote are below:














Cathy Cranston from University of Iowa gave an absolutely phenomenal presentation on empowering student citizens to vote! This presentation was one of my top highlights from the conference!


















At lunch we did the traditional passing of the gavel...but this year Michael misplaced the gavel, so he gave Dan a replacement... in the form of a rubber mallet.

During this time, we also recognized the incalculable contributes of Melissa Primus, the association account manager/wizard extraordinaire. Melissa accepted a new position and this was her last conference with us. She has been amazing to work with and we wish her all the best with her new job!


We tend to wrap each conference by announcing the All Iowa Reads books for the next year, and then having the current year's AIR author do a reading/presentation.




The final selection was announced Oct. 29:


See you next year in the Omaha area!
Posted by Cara at 11:47 AM

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