Thing 15: Attending, presenting at and organising seminars, conferences and other events

Don’t worry - we’re not now asking you to organise a conference. Instead, think about your experiences attending/speaking and/or organising professional events.

I am very lucky with the jobs I've been in recently that I have been able to attend a large variety of events and organise my own.  In terms of events I've attended the one of the things that makes or breaks it for me is the surroundings.  You can have the best speaker in the world but if the room is too hot/cold, big or small I find it hard to get enthusiastic about what they are discussing.  So getting the environment right, shortly followed by the catering, is very important. Based on my experiences you have more of a chance talking with people over coffee breaks than at any other time, have a walk around and I always try and introduce myself to at least one person I haven't met before.  If I can I try and chat with the speakers, they often have more to say on a subject than what they could fit into their presentation!

Since 2007 I have attended the CILIP Wales, Libraries, Archives and Museums Conference and plan on attending for as long as I can!  I find it interesting each year and a great chance to meet up with library colleagues from all over the country.  I would at some point like to attend one of the larger conferences like LILAC or Umbrella too.  But this is just attending, I'm not a confident public speaker and the thought of presenting on a subject in front of my peers fills me with dread!

As I said before I've been lucky in my recent jobs to be able to help organise events and at the moment I'm leading on organising a series of online webinars as well as a conference event for next year.  The online webinars are an excellent way to reach people all over Wales (and beyond!) without the expense of travel, time away from the office etc.  These webinars can be simple and effective ways to meet the needs of a variety of people without major hassle and expense.  Although their are still many considerations when organising an online event (i.e. technical support, welcoming participants, feedback) their are a lot more to larger face to face events.  I'm looking forward to leading on these over the next year, if a little nervous!