#SLAChicago: Sarah Wolfenden’s reflections

SLA Europe DigiComms

My Early Career Conference Award (ECCA) was sponsored by the Leadership and Management Division and SLA Europe) and I’d like to start this post by thanking them both for giving me the opportunity to attend the Special Libraries Association (SLA) Conference in Chicago.

Sarah's badge, with ribbonsBelow are a few of my key highlights:

It was friendly, inclusive and welcoming:

From the First Timers and Fellows event to the Open House sessions and the many lectures, discussions and events in between, people were friendly, engaging and interested in what I and my fellow ECCAs had to say. I have made many contacts who I really hope to stay in touch with and I felt genuinely welcomed to be there.

It was organised and connected:

I attended a range of events from some run by the Leadership and Management Division to some not, from some very specific to my work and others not. It was a varied programmes and all incredibly well organised; everything seemed to run seamlessly and events stuck to time. It was often very difficult to choose which events to go to as several good ones seemed run at the same time; however, it was easy to stay connected with what was going on in other sessions as people were making good use of the #SLAChicago hashtag and @SLAChicago retweeted every message sent using it.

It was professional and proud:

I was very impressed by how proud people were of their profession and of their fellow members within it. This didn’t mean that people were too formal, far from it. From the slickness of the opening ceremony to the genuine pride people had in receiving their awards and the passion with which people spoke about what they did – it made me feel pleased to be part of it.

My favourite sessions:

I enjoyed many of the sessions put on but my favourites have to be the Mary Ellen Bates ones (From Info Pro to Info Hero and Marketing for the Rest of Us) – she is definitely someone I will be paying close attention to in future. Even though she is a consultant and researcher, much of what she said was transferable to other sectors. Another session which I found to be particularly of interest to me was a panel discussion featuring Bethan Ruddock which focused on developing key skills and competencies.

A fantastic opportunity:

Attending SLA Chicago was a fantastic opportunity for me as not only was it the largest conference I had ever attended but it was also my first time in Chicago. I’m very pleased to have won the award and I hope it will lead a much closer working relationship with SLA. There were lots of people there who made my attendance a thoroughly enjoyable experience but I’d particularly like to thank Sara Batts for keeping an eye on us throughout the conference, Helen Stein for writing a lovely letter of recommendation and Ella Mitchell for supporting it, my mentor Lyndsay Rees Jones for taking the time to check up on me, Tracy Z.Maleeff for being incredibly friendly and welcoming not only at the conference but once we returned (and despite most of us not being law librarians),and Bethan Ruddock for being a fountain of knowledge and also keeping an eye out for us. I was also very pleased to share the experience with fellow award winners; Ruth, Anneli, Marie, Simon and Giles – we all looked out for each other and I’m sure we’ll continue to do so throughout the rest of our careers.

 The ECCAs at the Info-Expo

L-R – Giles, me, Marie, Simon and Ruth

About the author

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