Now that the dust has settled on this year’s conference, it’s time for one woman to give you the dirt behind the scenes at the big event…
Arriving at the conference venue around 7 am (that’s the ugly part referred to in the title—that, and the nylons I was wearing for most of the day that insisted on heeding gravity’s call in an emphatic and extremely unsophisticated kind of way), I noticed that we were sharing our floor with the Ontario Nurses Association as well as what appeared to be a conference focusing on fleece sweatshirts. At around 7:01 am, I started a dead sprint that lasted until around 4pm, so sadly have nothing more to report on the sweatshirt association….least of all a sweatshirt, which probably would have been better behaved than those darn nylons. That is my burden to bear.
My raves: our speakers were great—focused, on target and funny. Todd Anderson’s video of his reaction to a tiny bit of misbehaving from the Espresso Machine drew laughter—nay, hilarity—from the crowd. Stephen Abram from Sirsi-Dynix got rave reviews for a powerful keynote address first thing in the morning. The Delta Chelsea staff could not have done a better job and I thank them for handling all my requests which sometimes changed minute by minute.
My areas for improvement: hoping to not deal with temperature that alternates between doze-off warm and Sweatshirt Association-lust cold next year. Also planning to eat something during the day so that celebratory red wine does not pack quite such a wallop the next day. We got a lot of great feedback on possible speakers and topics for next year so we’ll be reviewing them in months to come and putting together a great roster for next year. We’ll also work on making it easier for out of towners to attend next year and we’ll be filling you in on that strategy soon.
My thanks: all of our speakers, all of the BookNet staff and of course, all of this year’s attendees made the BNC Technology Forum 2008 an amazing event of which to be a part. It was an honour and a thrill and as I steel myself to do it all over again next year, I will be buoyed up by the memories of you! And perhaps a contract moonlighting as a greeting card writer, if that sappy sentiment is any indication of talent? Anyone?
