Getting the Most out of Your SAA Meeting - "Make it happen"!

What is your experience like at the SAA annual meeting?  Is it overwhelming? Fascinating? Alienating? One big party?  If you have found it more alienating and overwhelming than fascinating, I have some interesting ideas for you.  Patrick Sweeney, a librarian from California wrote a blog post called "How to be Awesome at Going to Library Conferences" in early June, just before the ALA annual meeting (http://pcsweeney.com/2012/06/05/how-to-be-awesome-at-going-to-library-conferences/)  Since I really couldn’t have put it better myself, I’m going to encourage you to read his post. 

But here’s why I liked it so much.  He says that he has found a way to make what was once a lonely and scary experience into one he can’t wait for each year.  How?  He looked around at what and who interested him and he joined, talked to, and volunteered to help the people who were doing those things.  It was hard – he says he is naturally very introverted. But he pushed his own social boundaries and it really paid off.  “Make it happen,” he says, and then he does!

What is one thing that you have wanted to do at SAA that you have felt unsure or shy about doing?  Could you try it this year?  Please tell us what that one thing would be – and then tell us if you tried it!

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-- Kathy Marquis, Annual Meeting Task Force