ILA 2013 - Nikki

I got to do two things this year that I haven't done in years past. As one of the organizers of the Soon to be Famous Illinois Author Project, I staffed a booth in the exhibit hall and got to talk with many people who stopped by to inquire about the project.

I also presented a program along side Jeannie and Caroline and two gals from Des Plaines Public Library. The program, titled Fire Up Your Staff: Using Values to Focus Your Organization toward Your Vision, focused on discussing why library staff may want to develop values in their organization, suggested steps to be taken in discovering and forming those values, as well as how to implement them once they are in place. (After attending The Secrets of Powerful Presentations at the conference on Tuesday, I came back to the library to spend a little time "beefing" up our PowerPoint for Wednesday's presentation!) I think the program was received well, as we had a standing-room-only audience who stayed for the entire program.

Two of the sessions I attended are below:

Ignite Your Imagination!
Using Volunteers Creatively to Meet Challenges in 21st Century Libraries
I was disappointed with this presentation. I felt like it was just a laundry list of what the presenters had done at their libraries (and they were big libraries!). I think I was hoping for suggestions on how to get and keep volunteers, as well as suggestions that might work with a limited number of volunteers instead of the huge number these libraries had at there disposal.

The Secrets of Powerful Presentations
This was a very useful session! The speakers were to the point and gave specific, useful and doable suggestions that anyone could implement immediately. They discussed, no, it would be more accurate to say, they showed us how to be more dynamic when presenting by using bold visuals that entertain and incorporating storytelling. I really enjoyed this session and used some ideas in our presentation the next day.