Will your bag win the LIANZA Competition?

As you know the 2008 LIANZA Conference Committee are being environmentally responsive by introducing some green initiatives. One of these initiatives is to do away with the conference satchel.

LIANZA are encouraging you to recycle an old conference bag or create your own unique bag from recycled materials. They will be awarding two LIANZA memberships as prizes for the oldest LIANZA Conference bag and the most interesting creation so come by the LIANZA stand #45 and lodge your entry.

If they have more than one bag of the same year entered which is deemed to be the oldest they will draw a winner.

(Seen on the LIANZA website today - just in time for the weekend! kris)

I've been reflecting on the benefits of being involved in organising a LIANZA conference - perhaps belatedly after 10 months of working on the conference, but predictable given that I have moved to a strategic role at Rodney District Council. Whilst it's proving a challenge to balance my work load (what's new in that?) I am glad that convening the 2008 LIANZA conference keeps me in touch with professional issues - while my new role has given me the opportunity to see that working in libraries (including organising library conferences and being involved in LIANZA) has provided lots of opportunities to develop a wide range of skills. One particularly useful at the moment is the ability to keep a straight face when people say "but haven't you always worked in libraries?".

Why I am sharing this with you? Well, I think it is easy to underestimate the skill base we develop in libraries and to forget that our skills are marketable and transferable. Barbara McKerrow - CEO of New Plymouth District - is one of the many people who have worked in libraries and now use their skills and knowledge in a different role. Barbara will be speaking on "After librarianship" at the Conference. Those who know Barbara know she is a lively, entertaining and thought-provoking speaker.

While Barbara's session will take us from libraries to other work opportunities, a number of speakers will contribute knowledge and experience from outside libraries, and the programme includes a wide range of speakers with in depth professional knowledge to share with you. I hope you take advantage of the chance to participate in sessions that are not in your speciality area as well as those that are - after all, who knows in what role you will be applying your skills in the future?

The Conference Committee had a hectic start last year with weekly meetings of the full committee plus additional meetings of all the subcommittees. We have now got the programme structure outlined, an agreed budget, a draft social plan, and a tentative list of keynote speakers. And no, we can't yet tell you about the potential keynotes - we are making contact and waiting to see if the people are available and interested.

The full committee is now meeting monthly - in part to allow the Programme, Social and Sponsorship Committees time to get their crucial work done.

We've had lots of feedback from previous conferences to consider - and lots of suggestions about how other industry or special event conferences have been done. I'm wondering if there is a conference industry rule of thumb about how many conference particpants you can expect to please? If we provide the challenges to you that we hope to, it probably won't be everyone!

Keep an eye on the blog - it will be the place that new information about the conference will be released first.

Update from the Programme team

Thanks to those who have posted to the blog over the last few days - if you haven't taken a look for a while, zip through the comments and see the ideas coming forward. Others emailed to us include:

• hybrid library models - what's the potential, what has worked, what are the learnings?
• copyright and rights management - what are the myths and what are the facts? What do libraries need to know?
• making contact with research communities
• service development using web 2.0
• maintaining registration - how will it support or change professional development?

Keep blogging....

Last night I went to one of the many "where to from here for LIANZA" meetings that have been held around the country. There weren't a lot of people there, but those who were seemed to be passionate about LIANZA conferences and the benefits of attending (little mention of the economic benefit to LIANZA, though!).

This morning I came in to work knowing that I had a varied day in front of me. Some LIANZA Conference stuff to do, next year's budget to draft (it was only due last Friday and as I am in a new job I have no idea of my starting point), a summary report to Council on the latest publication in the Quality of Life project, a Leadership Development Forum meeting, a farewell for the CEO, one of the fantastic North Shore Libraries Foundation author events ... you know the kind of thing. And all the while outside my window there are trees dressed in green and gold - reminding me that I would love to be home in the garden.

However, there are benefits in being at my desk and writing this is one of them. It's my first post to a blog and therefore a step into a new future - just as I hope the 2008 LIANZA Conference will help you (and me) step into a new future. New ideas, new opportunities, and the recognition that though we all change and adapt at different paces, change and adapt we must.

This Conference Committee has about a year less than most conference committees to deliver a conference to you. We have chosen to use the additional focus that shorter time provides to see what we can do differently. Look out for information about the programme framework, the social events, and the sponsorship packages in early 2008 - so the earlier you let us know about your suggestions the more chance you have of them being incorporated.