Items in the Lib2LMS conference "bag"

We ordered blue bags labeled with the Library-2-LMS logo and the College at Brockport.
Each one included:

• a list of participants
• Brockport notepad
• Student Government pen (blue)
• Conference program
• Lib-2-LMS puzzle
• Small envelope with:
• a raffle ticket
  
• 10% coupon for the college bookstore
• Small sheet with instructions for wireless computer access
  

"Choosing presentations"

When I sent out the call for proposals to several library listservs, I never expected so many GOOD responses. We had an overwelming number of proposals and could have done another day of workshops. I had a smaller committee of people to review the proposals, but in the end, the final decision had to be made by ME. It was tough, but we had at least 5 or 6 clear "winners" and a few more that were a "split vote" so to speak. In the end I compromised between some of the ones that favored information literacy and the ones that favored the "nuts and bolts" of adding resources to the actual LMS's. We also had some proposals that were on the periphery of the stated goals for the conference, but decided to stick to the goals that had been written in the beginning. For some of the presenters that were close by, we offered them the chance to present their work as a poster presentation. (Not all proposals were accepted.)

This was my least favorite part of the planning process because I felt "bad" for not accepting everyone. In the end, we felt that our program was strong and that there were no workshops that "bombed." That was a fear I hadn't anticipated. Because I didn't really "know" each of the presenters I had to rely on their abstracts, topics, and the way it would fit into the conference theme and schedule. It was such a relief to nail down the final presenters, and then to receive word, that yes, indeed they would come to present (since they came from areas well beyond NY State.)

Library-2-LMS Web site

The Library-2-LMS web site was an important component to planning and hosting the FACT COCID conference. At each stage during the planning process, we updated the site to reflect new developments (e.g., keynote speaker biographies, poster sessions, presenters, conference schedule of events). We kept the site simple--i.e., not a lot of “bells and whistles.” The next time around, it might be appropriate to add a few web 2.0 technologies--perhaps a blog or “micro-blog” such as Twitter as a way for conference attendees to discuss topics. (Incidentally, here’s a great site on using Twitter in libraries: “Twitter for Librarians: The Ultimate Guide.”)

Our goal was to present conference information in a clear, user-friendly format so that visitors could easily find what they were looking for on our web site. We were also very careful to check (and double-check) our site for errors in design and navigation, especially dead hyperlinks—a cardinal rule of good web design! The conference program, presentation abstracts, and poster sessions were made available in both HTML and printer-friendly PDF versions. We were pleased to receive a lot of positive feedback about the site.

One thing we couldn't have done without was the online registration option via our web site, which was actually a link to the SUNY Center for Professional Development. SUNY CPD staff did a fantastic job coordinating this part of the conference—making it seem effortless to us. We know there was a significant amount of behind the scenes work for the SUNY CPD staff, resulting in the success of our event.

The conference chair used an Angel group to organize the Library-2-LMS conference materials, from the early planning stages to the final evaluations. Once the poster sessions and presenters were selected, the participants were given access to the site to upload their materials to the Angel group. Angel was also a very useful tool for distributing the feedback survey to participants, making for easy analysis of the survey results. The advantage of using Angel for this purpose is that all of the materials are archived for the next event, should we have another opportunity to host at The College at Brockport.

Campus Connections

I don't believe it is possible to host an event on campus without involving at least one other organization and in our case, we interacted with many. Generally speaking, the sooner you can get the other organizations on-board and kept "in the loop", the better off you will be. Some of the campus connections we used were:

• Brockport Auxiliary Services Corporation (BASC) which included the following Services:
1. Garnishes Catering - food et. al. for the entire event
   
2. The Bookstore - provided discount coupons for attendees
3. Parking - which blocked off "special spaces" by Cooper Hall
• ITS Systems and Networking provided wireless access for attendees
• Media Services provided support for the presentation technology in the session rooms
• Print Shop printed the conference programs
  
• Registrar provided meeting spaces

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it does show the range of campus organizations needed to support an event like this. As noted above, the sooner the better as far as contacting these folks go. How did we do (my perspective)?

1. BASC - On-board early and definitely kept "in-the-loop"
2. ITSN - On-board early and definitely kept "in-the-loop". However, we (me) assumed that all attendees would be bringing a laptop (which was not the case), and we had to scramble a little on conference day to provide them with email access.
3. Media Services - On-board early, but not kept "in-the-loop". We needed them to address some issues and they were busy elsewhere, but they were able to provide fixes for us without adverse impact on session timing.
4. Print Shop - Contacted late, but they were able to get programs printed for us in time for the conference.
5. Registrar - On-board early and definitely kept "in-the-loop"

Moral of this story: Contact needed campus support organizations early and often.

Funding

The majority of the funding for the Library-2-LMS conference came from a FACT COCID grant in the amount of $5000. We also charged $20 per SUNY participant and $30 for non-SUNY participant. We also had vendors who sponsored the event and registered for $100 each: LibGuides, ANGEL, Blackboard, and Ebscohost.

The final payments are still being processed as we were able to provide an honorarium to each of our speakers as well as pay for travel and accommodations for our keynote speakers. Although registration was handled by SUNY CPD, the money and all details had to be handled locally by the library's administrative assistant, Robin Glazier. We are very appreciative of the time she put into this task.

If we had it to do again, we might handle registration ourselves since the bulk of the work seemed to be in handling the money and the messages from SUNY CPD were confusing. (It was also confusing to people registering when I said I had to call a different office to have them correct mistakes, etc.) However, using SUNY CPD allowed some participants to use "CPD points" to register, rather than checks. They also handled the name badges and printed a list of all participants. Because we are still completing the final budget process, it is difficult to see if the $900 we paid them was worth it in the long run.

Thoughts on: Space

Space planning can be challenging especially when classes are in session. Early on in our process, Jennifer had contacted our Registrar and was able to secure a large meeting room and two classrooms for our conference. We did an initial walk-through and figured we were OK if registration topped out at 100. Of course, once registration creeped over 100, we became a little concerned. Here's some of the issues we faced and how we accomodated them:

• During the initial registration process, we did not ask registrants to indicate session preferences and, as a result, did not have enough information to assign sessions to particular rooms. Fortunately, we discovered this early enough (the week before) to poll registrants for their preferences and used the results to successfully assign sessions to rooms.
• During the walk-through, our local catering contact indicated that small group presentations had been done in their dining room and that it was available, if needed, during our conference. We did end up switching to the dining room as it was both closer to our main conference room as well as the fact that it was nicer than the classroom the Registrar had offered.
• Our large meeting room was packed to capacity many times as we used it for the keynote, sessions, lunch, and posters. In hindsight, if we had a little more room, we would have been able to space things out better (no pun intended). As it was, we spent part of the afternoon the day before moving furniture around to try and get everything to fit and in the end, it just did. The vendors ended up around the back of the stage and we "blacked them out" during the keynote and sessions. And, if there is a next time, I will spend a little more time upfront with our catering contact as I suspect she would have been able to tell us (based on her experience) that the main room was going to be packed.

So the moral of the story is: Know your space.

My "organizer' binder

I just went through the binder that I used to organize for this conference and thought the labels for my tabs would help me format my planning process.
1. Account information (I had two accounts: one was the state funded grant account, but the other was a BASC (Brockport Auxiliary Service Corporation) account that was used for catering and to collect registration fees.)
2. Logistics: Kept track of room reservations, hotel reservations, parking, etc.
3. Contacts/Speakers: Initially, this is where I put possible contacts for keynote speakers, plus I kept track of people who had indicated they might be interested in attending. Later, I kept track of all of that info in Outlook (my email client).
4. Schedule: I saved several other one-day conference schedules, both from COCID's and venues.
5. Publicity: possible brochure ideas, plus trying to make a graphic to represent the conference.
6. Catering: We have a catering company on campus, Garnishes, who handled our catering needs. However, they had to be reserved well in advance and several contracts had to be signed and filed.
7. SUNY CPD: We used the SUNY Center for Professional Development to help us advertise and to handle registration. They too required a signed contract.
8. Examples: Several examples of ways libraries had integrated their services into learning management systems. I had done research for this the previous year, plus saved screenshots whenever they were posted on listservs or blogs.
9. Articles: My archive of print articles regarding the topic. I also have them online, but I still like to read articles that are printed out.

Just for fun:
The folders in my email (under COCID) are:
ANGEL and library ideas
COCID
COCID thanks
Contacts interested in COCID
NOT coming
Poster Proposals and acceptance emails
Presentations
Presentations that became posters
Volunteers for COCID