Tag Archives: meetings

The 10-Minute International Librarian #97: Set yourself goals for participation in a conference

It’s not nothing to spend time in meetings and conferences!

Whether you’re attending in your own time, or work time, it’s worth making sure you’re getting all you want to out of it.

With conferences in particular, there can be a huge variety of sessions, exhibits and activities.

And of course with the adrenalin, the time can fly by!

It’s all too easy to miss opportunities, and then leave with regrets about what you could have done.

So for our 97th 10-Minute International Librarian exercise, set yourself goals for participation in a conference or meeting.

Before you make your final plans, write down a few things – say three – that you want to achieve.

What knowledge do you want to refresh in order to help you in your work?

What new thing do you want to know about in order to develop personally and professionally?

Who do you want to meet up with?

This can help steer you in your choices about what you attend, and where you engage most actively!

Share your own tips for making the most of conferences in the comments below.

Good luck!

 

This idea relates to the IFLA Strategy! Key Initiative 3.1: Provide excellent opportunities for face-to-face networking and learning. 

You can view our other posts in this series using the #10MinuteInternationalLibrarian tag on this blog, and of course on IFLA’s Ideas Store! Do also share your ideas in the comments box below!

The 10-Minute International Librarian #30: Think about how you can make meetings more engaging and inclusive

Meetings should be a great opportunity to share and learn from colleagues.

The shift to digital tools has made it easier than ever to connect with a wider range of people, brining huge potential.

However, of course, potential is not always reality, and Zoom-fatigue can easily set in.

While this is understandable, it shouldn’t turn us off communicating with each other, but rather encourage us to think about how to make the most of the opportunities we have to work together!

This can offer us richer opportunities to connect, including across borders and library types.

The pandemic period, for all the difficulty it has brought, should be a chance to get closer together as a field, without anyone being excluded by distance.

So for our 30th 10-Minute International Librarian, think about how you can make meetings more engaging and inclusive.

Think about the most effective ones in which you have participated, and what made them special. Can you replicate this?

What can you learn from meetings which were less effective, and what can you do about this? In particular, how can you make sure that everyone is properly engaged?

Share your ideas in the comments below!

Good luck!

 

This idea relates to the IFLA Strategy! 3.2 Support virtual networking and connections.

You can view all of our ideas using the #10MinuteInternationalLibrarian tag on this blog, and of course on IFLA’s Ideas Store! Do also share your ideas in the comments box.