ALIA biennial conference

Good questions, Tom! My suggestions: make sure you have super comfy shoes. Nothing worse than sore feet from all your standing around networking, and explorations of the vast environs of the bustling metropolis that is Perth ;) Oh, and extra socks. Yes, I like to have clean, happy feet.

Have you got a camera? You'll want to take pictures of all those librarians gathered in one place (scary).

Apart from that I always travel as light as I can.

As for eateries, what sort of cuisine do you like?

Oh, and did you want to come visit Curtin? That can be arranged!

"How ambitious should I be? At present I want to attend every session, check out every trade stand and socialise (sorry, “network”) until the wee hours. Is this feasible?"

The short answer is no. The long answer is set priorities:

- select the sessions you are most interested in and attend those. Most papers will be available afterwards so even if you can't hear two concurrent papers, you can hear one and catch up on the written version of the other. Make enquiries about speakers - if someone else has heard them you might find out whether they are a good presenter or not.

- no one ever gets through the entire trade exhibition. Set your priorities as to which stands you must see, should see, and would like to see if you can spare the time. Take a look at the list of exhibitors (http://conferences.alia.org.au/alia2006/sponsors_exhibitors.html) and check their websites. Note down which products you would like to see demonstrated, the questions you would like to ask that aren't answered by information on the websites, the things you, or your workplace, are most interested in, and use that to create your list of must, should, and want to see trade stands.

- socialise but don't try to do it from 8:30am to 3am the next morning. Sitting listening to speakers most of the day, gallivanting around the trade exhibition, lugging around the armful of brochures and other stuff you got at trade stands, talking to people at every opportunity, and going out to dinner every night gets very tiring. Make sure you get plenty of sleep before the conference because you won't get enough sleep from 19 - 22 September.

Try to spread out your networking - if you know other people are staying on for a day or two after the conference, arrange to meet them for lunch or dinner on the Saturday or Sunday rather than stay up into the wee hours on Thursday night.

Those business cards will come in handy for networking.

I hope this helps. I second Constance's suggestion about comfortable shoes.

Regards,
Camille

Thanks Camille, wise words I am sure. I got an excellent night's sleep and my shoes are feeling pleasantly snug. I do need to have a look through those trade exhibitors asap, though.