It’s the morning of the last day of the conference (well, more like half-day – it ends at noon). I sometimes have heard the complaint that not enough people stick around for the Sunday events – and I do feel for the presenters who have worked just as hard as the Friday and Saturday folks, but get just a fraction of the attendees. But does ACRL contribute to the feeling that the conference is already over on Saturday night? When I got to the convention center this morning the difference between Sunday and the other days is visibly noticeable. All of the booths are gone in the lobby. It looks like a ghost town. The exhibit hall is boarded up. There are more moving company workers than employees. Is it any wonder people kind of get a feeling that it’s over before it’s over.
How about coming up with some ideas for making the conference center look more alive when we come in on Sunday morning. How about an early risers’ brunch (yeah, I’d pay if it was reasonable)? How about at least with booth with something going on – you could pack it up during the final keynote? ALA provides incentives, through prize drawings on the last day, to encourage folks to hang aound. There are other ideas we could come up with. I’m going to leave it up to the next Innovations Committee to work on this.
I think the half-day on Sunday is not the best use of time and doesn’t offer the optimum audience to the presenters. I usually miss it because I’m trying to get home.
Could the conference start earlier on Thursday instead of flowing into Sunday? I think ACRL could offer only two keynote speakers, instead of three. I hope these ideas are considered while planning for the next conference.
I agree with you, Steve. It was very quiet on Sunday morning,, and although we had a small audience at the panel I presented on there were many others who told me they would have attended but were headed home. I think we should look into either starting earlier on Thursday or even Wednesday afternoon and wrapping things up on Saturday. With everyone’s busy lives, maybe it is a bit much to expect everyone to devote an entire weekend to ACRL. I know I had staff who got home after midnight on Sunday and were pretty stretched on Monday morning.
I had grand plans of attending on Sunday morning, eventhough it was a half day. However, I came down with a horrible illness (fever, severe gastic upset) which I heard other people got too. Then again, I think that things should have started earlier on Thursday, so people would not have to miss anything on Sunday.