{"id":44118,"date":"2013-10-21T14:30:14","date_gmt":"2013-10-21T18:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=44118"},"modified":"2015-06-09T16:42:19","modified_gmt":"2015-06-09T21:42:19","slug":"5-tips-for-attending-your-first-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=44118","title":{"rendered":"5 Tips for Attending your First Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Courtney Baron, Head Editor, INALJ Georgia<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

5 Tips for Attending your First Conference<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"courtneybaron\"<\/a>I just got back from my first library conference last week! It was a great learning experience and I\u2019m excited to share my tips with other library students and first time attendees. I can\u2019t stress enough how important it is to start attending conferences. Most of the people I met were professional librarians who shared their job search experiences with me and gave excellent and well-received advice.\u00a0 I also heard about upcoming job openings and got a sense of the culture and environment at various libraries.<\/p>\n

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  1. \n

    Choose wisely<\/b> – I knew I wanted to go to my first conference this fall, but I wasn\u2019t sure which one to choose. A librarian at my university recommended starting with our state library conference and it was a great choice. It was large enough to have a lot of options, but small enough that I got to network with a great group of attendees and meet some of the rising stars in the profession. I\u2019m interested in a pretty specific branch of librarianship, as well as archives, which weren\u2019t represented much at the conference, but I\u2019m attending a conference on those topics in November. I will report back!<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    Get business cards<\/b> – I posted about business cards a few months ago and you can read that article here<\/a>. I ended up ordering cards from Moo<\/a>\u00a0using a cute vintage-y typewriter template. I had to rush order to get them on time, so make sure you plan ahead! When I arrived at the conference, I was actually given a small stack of pre-made business cards for the event. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s the norm to get cards at conferences, and if I had known I might not have rushed my delivery, but I decided to hand out my customized cards anyway. They were very unique (i.e., hopefully easy to notice and reference later on!) and I got a lot of compliments, so I think it was worth it. If you are like me and feel slightly uncomfortable handing out business cards, ask other attendees for their card first and hand yours over as part of the exchange.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  3. \n

    Plan ahead <\/b>– I printed off the schedule of presentations ahead of time and circled everything that interested me. The night before each day of the conference, I made a detailed list of where to be, what to do, and what time all the sessions and events I planned to attend were held. I also included one or two more options that stuck out just in case. I did deviate from my original plan a bit, so it was nice to have one list to refer to rather than having to pull out the booklet for reference in the crowded hallways.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  4. \n

    Volunteer <\/b>– Volunteering is a great way to meet people and show your enthusiasm for the profession. I volunteered to pick up AV equipment at the end of the conference. It was an easy task, but I found out the school librarians were primarily in charge of that, so it wasn\u2019t the ideal volunteer opportunity for my interests. Next year I think I will focus on the registration desk or something more social.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  5. \n

    Follow up <\/b>– After the conference, send a quick message to those you connected with the most. Don\u2019t send out a generic email and make sure you personalize it! Examples: \u201cThank you for letting me know about that job opening at X University! It sounds like a great opportunity and I will definitely apply.\u201d \u201cIt was great to meet someone who is also interested in art librarianship! I\u2019m looking forward to seeing you again at the networking event next month.\u201d It\u2019s thoughtful and helps you stand out. As a library student, I\u2019m soaking up whatever knowledge I can gain and appreciative of everyone\u2019s advice.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Don\u2019t forget to have fun and enjoy yourself!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    by Courtney Baron, Head Editor, INALJ Georgia 5 Tips for Attending your First Conference I just got back from my first library conference last week! It was a great learning experience and I\u2019m excited to share my tips with other library students and first time attendees. I can\u2019t stress enough how important it is to…<\/p>\n

    Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":33559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[69,3592,4238,3867,3593,356],"class_list":["post-44118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-article","tag-blog","tag-conferences","tag-courtney-baron","tag-inalj-georgia","tag-networking"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/courtneyb.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-btA","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}