Things will be a little different for MLA’s 2010 Annual Meeting and it all centers around keeping members connected.
MLA President Connie Schardt’s email to Medlib-l and her post on MLA Connections, discusses our Keynote Speaker, Daniel Pink author of “A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future.” She describes the book as a “ground breaking guide to surviving, thriving, and finding meaning in an outsourced, automated, upside down world.”
As Connie mentions, Pink is a little outside of the box for MLA Keynote speakers, because “for the first time, the National Program Committee has selected a common book.” Additionally, Pink wants to try to connect with us (the target audience for his keynote speech) before, during and after the meeting. Specifically he wants to hear from us BEFORE his talk so he can “frame his presentation within our context.” So take a few minutes and go to Dan Pink’s invitation to MLA ’10 and share what you would like to discussed at the conference. Several librarians have already shared ideas, and you can browse through them and share your own.
Another change to MLA is connectivity. This meeting will be more online allowing for more people to attend virtually and view things remotely. This is the first time the annual meeting will have an online conference community portal. According to Eric Schnell who will be helping out with coordinating the portal, “conference community is an online experience being built around MLA 2010 that allows attendees (both in person or virtual) to interact and share through various online social tools. Some of the content on the site will even be made available for association members that are not attending the conference.”
In the past we have used many of these online social tools but now MLA is pulling them together, adding new owns, and making them part of a cohesive conference community portal. One of the things that will be in the portal will be Daniel Pink’s presentation. It will be videotaped and available within 24 hours.
Several weeks AFTER the conference Pink will participate in a live Webcast to continue the discussion and reflect on how we might apply things in our libraries. (I am not sure if this will be in the portal or if we will link to it through the portal.)
What else is going to be in the portal? Well I am sure the MLA portal people (like Eric) and the NPC have ideas, but they are looking to hear from you to learn about what you think should be in the portal or what other neat online conference-ish things have been done elsewhere that might work in the MLA ’10 portal.
Some neat new firsts for MLA for the annual meeting. This is one giant leap toward connecting with members. Hopefully members will take the opportunity to connect with each other and with MLA because this the only way we can make the organization more relevant and work best for members. So reach out and connect.
Does this mean that librarians who are not able to attend MLA in person can participate from their “home base?” Please let me know how this will work and what I need to do – if I’m reading your post correctly. Thanks.