Hello from Jasper!

Hello All!

Today I'm blogging away from the Alberta Library Conference at The Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge in Jasper National Park.

For the last two days I've been hanging about with my library peeps and checking out interesting sessions on what's new in the Alberta Library Landscape (for me, a lot of digital initiatives).

I also gave my first presentation this year, which was both terrifying and a lot of fun!

I've got many books and movies on the go right now, so regular blogging will return soon, but I wanted to take a quick moment to say hello from one of the nicest views on Earth (that I've seen, anyway).

An Introvert's Guide to Library Conferences

This trip to the Alberta Library Conference actually marks my fifth - two as the Librarian for a non-profit in the mid-00s, one as a student during my time at the School for Library and Information Studies and twice since then, as a conference / mini-vacation with my lovely wife.  In addition I've done four American Library Association conferences and two local day-conferences, so this marks my eleventh Library Conference overall.

In all these trip there are a few things I've learned to do to make my experience, as a bookish, introverted guy, into the best one I can have.

So here goes:

1) Relax: Library conferences actually have a pretty high number of Introverts attending, and many of them are just as nervous as you.

2) Find (and help) other nervous attendees: Look around the various rooms you are in (whether dining hall, meeting room, or exhibit hall) and find the person or persons standing by themselves - chances are these are also people a little nervous about the event and may be glad to have someone come up and chat to them - ask how they are enjoying the conference so far to begin.  Also quick tip - hit the exhibit hall early as it is marginally less crowded, but definitely make sure to swing by, these are the people who are often sponsoring the event and deserve a hello!

3) Realize you can take some time for yourself: as a guy who needs some solitude to charge up before and during large events, I make sure to get up early (where I can have some breathing room) and that I will return to my hotel room at a set time each night, as just knowing that you have an end in sight can allow you to work your way through various social events and other (potentially) stress inducing events with relative ease.

4) Do what you can to help improve other's conference experience: In my life I've gone home from excellent, fair, and terrible events, and you know what the key difference is?  At the excellent events someone took the time to help me have a better time, either saying hello over coffee, informing me of where the best desserts are, or even just asking me how my day was going.  After attending a number of these I decided to start trying to help other people leave the event thinking it was pretty excellent - doing this has increased my enjoyment of the various conferences I've attended tenfold.

5) Keep a book on you at all times: Seriously, I have know idea how this works, but if you have some reading material available, lines will move faster, people will approach you to say hello, and most importantly your day will move much smoother.  Every time I've attended with no reading material, I've ended up waiting in endless lines, often surrounded by people I don't know and desperately wishing I had something to do.  NOTE: It is very unlikely you'll ever get to read the book, so bring something lighter.

Off to Jasper!

So it's that time of the year again, I'm off to the Alberta Library Conference for the rest of the week in scenic Jasper National Park.

For the next few days I'm off to learn about new and fancy stuff in the library world, but don't worry, I'll still be blogging as usual!

Just back from Jasper

So yesterday my wife and I returned from a trip to Jasper National Park, where we took in the 2013 Alberta Library Conference, which was pretty amazing.

I took in sessions on topics ranging from leadership to storytelling and building an online presence, and my wife and I got to stay in a really nice cabin (pictured right), and eat some incredibly tasty food over the three days we spent there.

This is the fourth time I've attended the conference, but the first time I got to volunteer - I did duties as a convenor for one of the sessions (basically I introduced the speakers and reminded everyone to turn their cellphones to silent), which was a little nerve wracking but a lot of fun.

Also, on a side note, this was the first time my wife and I spent more than a few days away from our kids and they handled themselves wonderfully - Thanks Girls!

Things I've noticed: I'm a huge fan of Jasper

Not the bear (although I did fill out the costume at a Canadian Library Conference once, but the National Park.  I'm currently in a library course for the School of Library Sciences at the University of Alberta where I'm learning about networking and trend spotting.

This one-credit course is being held at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge (pictured left) for the annual Alberta Library Conference.  What this means for me is a few days of some serious work (networking is definitely not my strong suit) and a lot of fun.

What this means for my loyal blog readers is that rather than typing this up at home in Edmonton, I'm doing it up in the Rocky Mountains.

My life is pretty cool.

But don't worry, I'm still working on my genre reading, in addition to the Hellboy stuff I spoke about on Tuesday I'm reading the classic zombie anthology, The Book of the Dead, which helped introduce the sub-genre Splatterpunk to horror fans in the '80s.

Although I know an awful lot of people who are currently making their way to southern Alberta for the Calgary Expo - where you can get your picture taken with the entire cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation, I'm looking forward to a weekend of library-themed sessions on everything from comic books to social media.