Rudai23 Thing 12: Attending Conferences

The event I recently attended was the DPASSH, 1st Conference for Digital Preservation.

The heritage council are extremely good at leaving staff attend conferences, however, most of the staff here would be presenting rather than attending.
Having approached one of the members of staff to see if she intended on going both days, she suggested that I stay on for both! Thinking the prices of hotels in Dublin I suggested maybe it might be good to go the day she would not be there, so we could then swap notes.
In solving the problem, they not only paid for my ticket but also to stay in a very nice hotel! I never want to leave!

What to do at a conference?

1. The main aim for me is to see which presentations I am interested in and pick one or two (depending on the length of the conference) that is different.
2. Network - I haven't made a business card and I feel it is something I would do in a few years I don't think now is a good time for business cards maybe when my skills and profile have grown.
3. Chatting to people after the conference - if library drinks have been added to the event, - GO! It is so much fun, you do talk about different things and you do talk to different people, you make friends with like minded people, what is not good about that!
4. Note taking - I do write notes during the important presentations, and with the others I will tweet, having the presentations afterwards is a huge help. The most important part for me is to write a blog post, and I would usually contact Libfocus to see is they needed a guest blogger for that event.
5. Reflection: if there has been a number of new people presenting or at the event I will search for them on twitter or do some research into their background and add them to my list of "People to watch" list.

The aim of this conference was for the heritage council as they hope to begin a new project so I needed to link in with a few organisations to get their thoughts and advice on the process. In turn, I helped out a few people regarding library issues and put various people in touch with others that were not there, all through twitter of course.

It is a conference I will go to every year as the quality of the presentations and presenters were second to none!

Next event for me is NPD event in Rathmines Library!