As we near the end of our first month in 2014 and our planning for the year ahead goes into full swing, I wanted to take the opportunity to recap the successes of 2013, and thank both our sponsors and our attendees for their support. Our events are always popular, and for that, we have you to thank!
A full twelve months ago the events committee kick-started 2013 with our annual quiz, kindly supported by Acquire Media, and saw over 100 of the best minds in the sector put their brains to the test. In February, Alacra sponsored our meet-and-greet with former Director of the US Office of Personnel Management and SLA’s current CEO, Janice Lachance. We then closed out the first quarter with two of SLA Europe’s 2012 award winners, Simon Barron and Anneli Sarkanen, rounding up 60 of the best apps and sites for information professionals at the City Business Library in association with Springer.
In April, we headed to the National Library of Scotland where LM Info helped us to learn about social media. The summer months then arrived, and we had a flurry of events! Following the SLA annual conference, SLA Europe was joined by several of our North American colleagues on our walking tour of Kings Cross with Rachel Kolsky and Justis. We returned to the impressive rooftop terrace of Nomura’s offices overlooking the river Thames with Integreon, Alacra and Business Monitor International, and finally learned about our personal branding at the offices of Perfect Information with Kathy Ennis and Lyndsay Rees-Jones before taking a break for August.
In the latter half of the year we collaborated as learning partners for two conferences, putting on evening events for both Internet Librarian International and ASLIB’s AKISS conference with the help of Springer and the International New York Times. At AKISS, David Gurteen and Allan Foster hosted a Knowledge Café, teaching us how to better justify the services that we provide to senior stakeholders in our organisations, and at ILI our expert panel explained how best to move between sectors and transfer your skills to new challenges.
We anticipate that this year will be just as successful, and remember, all the above events were either free, or discounted for SLA members. So far for 2014 we have our winter quiz with Acquire Media, some top tips for learning about new technology with The Next Web’s Martin Bryant and SWETs in Manchester, and will be heading back to the National Library of Scotland with Springer.
Further information on joining can be found here, or if you would like to sponsor an SLA Europe event, please do get in touch with our events committee.
Yours,
The SLA Europe events committee team