Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Making the Most of MLA '14

Edit: Transcript at http://bit.ly/1lUgCGe 


Making the Most of MLA '14
Thursday, April 10, 2014 
 9:00 pm Eastern/6:00 pm Pacific time 

Please join #medlibs chat this Thursday for a lively chat about the important things to do at a Medical Library Association Annual Meeting aka #mlanet14. Never participated in a #medlibs or other Twitter chat before? Check out this overview and come on in, we're a supportive community!

Of course, everyone's idea of important is different so experienced meeting goers need to join us to make sure the new attendees know your favourite part of the MLA experience.

Michelle Kraft has already made some annual meeting suggestions on her blog.

And the MLA '14 blog is already up and running, and suggestions for things to see and do are already appearing.

Be sure to consider joining Colleague Connection to expand your network.  New and returning attendees are matched up - and you get a free breakfast.  (added 4/10/2014)

Hopefully some people familiar with Chicago and the area around the Hyatt Regency Chicago (the conference hotel) will be able to suggest some good places to eat, drink, and shop.  Lunch suggestions are especially welcome.  And if anyone know if there are drug stores or grocery stores nearby, that would be helpful too. (Edit from @eagledawg, #mlanet12 Local Assistance Committee CoChair - also keep an eye on the #mlanet14 LAC webpage to have more details as the meeting gets closer!) 

But this is about more than just local information.  Networking is important at the conference and outside of regular conference hours, so we want those suggestions as well. And of course, some people will want to know where all the free food can be found.

I hope you will join us as I make my first attempt at hosting a #medlibs chat.

Margaret Henderson
@mehlibrarain

P.S. I expect an extra special threat from Kimberley Barker (@KR_Barker) this week.

EDIT

Here is a compilation of the advice and comments from the #medlibs chat on April 3.  Names have been removed to protect the innocent and guilty.

Don’t forget to register and look over the conference web pages: https://www.mlanet.org/am/am2014/
Advice for everyone:
  • Follow the official blog, new things added daily http://npc.mlanet.org/mla14/
  • Set up the online scheduler before you go http://www.eventscribe.com/2014/mla/
  • Make sure to rest a little in between networking, presentations, and plenary sessions!
  • Take a break when needed. Impossible to DO ALL THE THINGS
  • Attend events where you can network & sessions that interest you
  • Don't forget you have access to video afterwards so you can miss things
  • Sounds a bit silly, but try to be "in the moment" when you're in a session- don't worry about where you're going next, etc
  • It's okay to leave a session and go to another if you are so inclined
  • My goal this year is to attend more talks on topics I don’t know-By the end of #mlanet13 I decided I had paid too much attention to familiar topics.
  • Went to sessions that I had no knowledge on. That's probably the best thing to do. Challenge yourself.
  • Don't forget to put your twitter name on your cards and your name tag!!!
New attendees:
Food:
Lodging:
  • Try Airbnb to find a place to stay
  • The LGBT Sig has a block if rooms usually quite affordable you should look into that
  • Medlibs-L is a good place to look for roommates. Or tweet for one

If you can't attend: think about the econference package. AND you can still participate in Party w/ Purpose

Here's an idea for future. Badges should have an area to automatically list twitter handle like name, employer, etc.

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