MLA 2008: Social Networking Still Needs A Network
I have to applaud the LAC and all the people behind finding MLA Bloggers to help cover the conference. You all did a great job. Unfortunately, we as an organization still have a long way to go. Despite having Official MLA Bloggers, the first webcast of a plenary session, MLA twitter feed, and what appears (to my eyes) more laptop toting and iPhone clicking people milling about, there was very little social networking (blogging, twittering, or texting) going on. The reason, there was no freaking network on which to be social.
Me and my fellow laptop toters were using laptops almost as divining rods to search for that elusive Internet access. There was no Internet access available in the conference rooms. The MLA wifi router gave out a very weak signal that allowed us to access wifi within a few hundred feet of the MLA LAC booth. Somebody had mentioned to me that I didn't need wifi access I just needed an aircard. Of course that means I would have needed a cell phone signal for the aircard to work. The conference rooms were underground therefore there were no cell phone signals. On the first day of the conference it was actually quite humorous to watch almost everyone stare at their cell phones and do the cell phone dance/contortion to try and find a signal. Although I didn't see anybody go to the lengths this gentleman did, there were many a librarian running up the escalators popping their heads above ground like gophers with cell phones checking voice mail and messages. Two positive things came out of it, I didn't go over my texting plan this meeting and I found out folks with Verizon were able to get some reception as one person lent me a Verizon aircard.
I am not alone in my frustrations. While I think MLA had one of its most "connected" meetings, it really could have been so much more with just a little planning and some wireless access.
It still felt as if MLA treated wifi access as an after thought. Have you ever gone to an ALA? For the past two years (2006 and 2007) free wifi was included. I realize MLA has made deals with the hotel room rates and conference room usage rates years in advance, but let's start thinking of ways to make wifi available. Why have we not investigated having a vendor sponsor free wifi for the meeting? I would gladly give up my meeting bag for free wifi. Why can't we have a few more routers (or stronger ones) strategically placed through out the conference hall so that we can get wifi within the actual meeting rooms? Why is it that while the presenters and speakers are talking about social networking tools, the participants within that same meeting room can't use the very tools the they are talking about?
We have come a long way since my first conference blogging experience in 2006, and with a little planning and creativity we can go even further.
Labels: MLA2008, Social Software, web2.0
posted by The Krafty Librarian @ 11:45 PM
13 comments
13 Comments:
You were not alone in seeing the irony. However, I think it was more about the Hyatt greediness than MLA's lack of vision and planning. $300 a day per network connection??!!
Though my tote bag collection will suffer, I'm with you.
The MLA wi-fi/cell situation was Sisyphean -- just as I started talking for a few seconds, my phone (T-Mobile) would cut out. Then seconds later, two bars again. Repeat until you finish a two minute conversation in 15 minutes.
Although this will not help you in any way, and in fact serves only to make it look as if I'm gloating insufferably, I had a Verizon mobile broadband card and it was great--I had service everywhere I turned on the computer.
I will certainly consider signing up for that long-term if I start traveling a lot more.
I will also consider hiring out as a Verizon spokesperson if they're listening. Hello? Verizon? Call me!
I could not agree more. I was not a blogger, but just an attendee. MLA cannot expect folks to be solely communicating online if 1)not everyone has access to a laptop, smartphone, etc. or 2) for those who do, the connection doesn't work or isn't avaialble or is so expensive that it's not available.
I thought it was ironic that they were trying to be "green" and limit the paper updates & reviews we used to get by saying they were online, but I'll be dammed if I'll pay the ridiculous hotel charge for access. Pretty iffy access at that, I'd told with the firewall blocking stuff. MLA's access was a joke also.
Yeah, we should have free wireless access AND in the meeting rooms where we need it (and the signal wouldn't reach).
Makes me feel like I'm back at the hospital where the firewall blocks 3/4 of the social networking and all of the pictures and itunes for podcasts, and and and...Can't we get a little more uptodate than that?
Hi Eric,
I think a majority of it was Hyatt's greediness, but MLA has got to think outside of the box to get access available. Or perhaps...gasp they stop negotiating with Hilton/Hyatt for conferences. I know they are "booked" with that company for a few more years for MLA conferences, but perhaps when that contract expires we go with another hotel chain.
As Eric says, not lack of planning, lack of money. We talked about it a lot among the board of directors and the headquarters staff, and we'll continue to try to do better. We all find it extremely frustrating that the big conference hotels see ridiculously expensive wifi as a moneymaker (I paid $13+/day out of my own pocket -- no university funding for me this year) while the midsize business hotels see free wifi as a way to attact business. But we can't put on an annual conference at the little hotels, so we're hostage. (And the 3,000 attendee MLA conference doesn't have nearly the clout that the 20,000 attendee ALA conference does in getting cooperation from the hotel.)
Putting on the conference is very much a matter of trying to balance out a lot of choices. There are still lots of members who don't travel with wireless devices and would be outraged if we invested the amount of money it would've cost to get the Hyatt to improve the infrastructure and provide free access. But as the demand for better wifi grows, it'll become more of a priority and we'll push more resources in that direction (and then, of course something else will suffer).
For what it's worth, I can tell you that when I inquired with the hotel about getting stage lights for the Bearded Pigs gig, they gave me a quote for a "simple stage wash" of $1700. We did without.
Finally, I'll harp on one of my favorite hobbyhorses -- YOU are MLA. Write to Carla, to the members of the board of directors (like me for instance!) and make it clear what your priorities are. Mary Ryan is going to kick off a strategic planning review this year -- be sure to participate in that.
I'm pretty pleased with the steps we took this year, but you're absolutely right that we can do a lot more. And we will.
Scott pretty much summed up MLA's experience with the hotel. And it's not just the Hyatt or Hilton--it's all of them, at least at this point in time. They all see wifi not as an amenity, but as a money maker. Also, keep in mind that when ALA has "free" wifi, it's not coming from a hotel (ALA is so huge they have to book about a dozen hotels, and there is no free wifi at the big hotels)--it's from a convention center. Unlike hotels, convention centers know that meeting goers want wifi. For convention centers, wifi is an enticement: "Come to our city, book our convention center, we have wifi." MLA, however, isn't big enough to book a convention center. We have to stay at large hotels, who right now just don't get it.
I'm hoping that as travel becomes more expensive, hotel chains will see the competitive advantage of not only offering inexpensive or free wifi to all of their guests, but they will also re-wire their meeting rooms, so that wifi is available throughout the hotel. Until then, this is not a matter of giving up a tote bag for sponsored wifi--unless our vendors start giving our Prada tote bags.
Michelle,
As a Canadian who can't afford to travel (well, I don't like it either), I really appreciated you and your fellow bloggers' updates. Pat Anderson 'tweets' during the web 2.0 session made me feel I was almost there. If you or your colleagues have any ideas about how to encourage more CHLA/ABSC librarians to blog and use more social software, I'd love to listen. Sometimes we lack a critical mass here - I'll keep blogging, but sometimes I get discouraged.
But, I digress. Bravo for your blogging success.
Thanks Mark and Scott for your helpful insights. One side note, Mark, if we got Prada conference bags I think even I might be a little loathe to trade them for free wifi. ;)
I think part of the confusion a lot of the times regarding wifi comes down to communication. We did not know originally where the "public" areas were and how to get the hotel to set us up with our appropriate access.
I think many of our ideas of what the public areas were in the hotel differed from the hotel's definition of public area. It wasn't until we started taking our laptop geiger counters out did we begin to know what was a "public" area.
The MLA people were wonderful with setting up access and creating the E Package for registration. The only problem is that the hotel people were completely befuddled. I spoke with several people who either were conference bloggers or had bought the E Packagae and they mentioned that the hotel/front desk was of little help regarding wifi access.
I think if we can communicate way ahead of time where the wifi hot spots (paid and free) are and where the people will and won't be able to use wifi without crazy hotel conference rates ($300/day/network connection) I think that will help. Perhaps it could be a little tab on the MLA conference site saying Computers and WiFi. That page could list the MLA Internet cafe, WiFi options locations/boundaries, and other things computer related.
I also want to thank the LAC for having a computer at their booth that people could use to GoogleMap locations and print directions. Great idea and very helpful.
Every year we learn something new. We have come a long way, this was one of the best conferences I have attended, hands down.
Scott and Mark have covered the economics (and the frustration) of providing wifi access at MLA annual meetings. I learned after I got on site that the wifi in the guest rooms and the wifi in the meeting areas is provided by two different companies that don't work together - reinforcing the points made about the hotel seeing this as a revenue stream not as an amenity for guests and conference attendees.
I can say that more wireless access and more support/facilitation of blogging and social networking was a high priority for the '08 NPC from the first meeting, and I'm pleased that we were able to do as much as we did in this area even if it didn't reach the ideal.
Feedback to the board (which now includes me as well as Mark and Scott) and to Carla Funk, about the value of this will help future committees make the case that this is a good use of association funds. Comments and feedback from non-bloggers and non-attendees who find value in the blog commentary will help overcome the perception that this is only of value to a small group.
So thanks for being one of the conference bloggers, for giving feedback on this experiment, and (on behalf of my colleagues on the NPC) for your positive and enthusiastic comments about the meeting.
What really wasn't clear is that the room Internet access was also good in the hotel's public areas and vice versa. I asked prior to check-in to see whether more economical to get room access or the MLA "deal." You had to stay more nights than I did (4) to make the deal worthwhile. This was per the assistant manager - checked with her a day early (already in Chicago trying to recover from learning overload at the MLA CE Institute). Just an FYI: the Club Quarters Hotel where we stayed for the CE Institute had free wi-fi access, laundry and coffee - NNLM Greater Midwest Region knew where to put us (although remodeling distracting). The wireless even worked in the restaurant next door.
We just had a state CE in a small city hotel with free wireless access and were able to have a hands-on session with David Rothman (great). Also at San Antonio EBP Summer Institute where meeting rooms accommodated 400+. Just a plug for state and regional meeting planners to think about this. Also, remember that we have been at convention centers in cities like Phoenix and San Antonio - should go this route whenever possible.
From some one old and rural, I'd say we've crossed the digital divide and are ready to move ahead; blogging is the next step for many.
I think Krafty's right about searching for other solutions - would a big vendor sponsor it? Could there be a sponsorship level in which several vendors kick in to sponsor it? Could MLA coordinate with another small but related conference to book at the same time? (I'm picturing MLA over here, a small techie conference over there, with combined booking power and co-registration opportunities.)
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