... discovery in Seattle...

The first photo is of SLA Europe's four Student Conference Award winners L-R: Hanna Lewin, Sarah Hammond, Emma Dhesi and Sandy Peterson.  All four all attended the International Reception on Monday evening - and all have business cards too!  Kathy Ennis and I have a mantra when we talk to librarians (and particularly students), that if you take nothing else away from a session then please go and get yourself a business card. Sarah and Emma remembered that we intoned the message when during our recent University Visits. They are a delightful group, enthusiastic (this might end up being my 'conference word'?) and happy to jump right into what could be quite a daunting experience.  Read more about them on the SLA Europe website. 

The second photo is of Dennie Heye of Shell , the SLA Europe Information Professional 2008, Clare Hart, President of Dow Jones Enterprise Media Group made the formal presentation during the International Reception.

Tuesday already and a ‘diverse' start to the day at the Annual Diversity Leadership Development Programme Breakfast. Diversity Breakfast for short - and especially before you've been able to upload sufficient caffeine to make the memory function! There were awards and a presentation from Clara Chu who spoke eloquently about the challenges of ensuring a diverse society, and the need to break and change rules.  When asked to share a snapshot of her own journey, Clara described herself as a "Peruvian born, Chinese Canadian, living in the US", who often forgets the various twists and turns that her career journey has taken her on.  From working as a strawberry picker when she was 11yrs old, to her role as a Professor at UCLA she wants to remember that what she has achieved is starkly in contrast to her mother's experience, but that there are still real challenges.  Clara challenged SLA to be even more active in ensuring that inclusion is integral in all of the Association's activity and in supporting library educators to effect change at the beginning of their students professional lives.

First - the four Diversity Award winners

I followed the Diversity Breakfast with a Knowledge Cafe (KC) that provided plenty of intellectual stimulation but no actual caffeine.  David Gurteen ran a session on how to use the KC concept to improve knowledge sharing.  I have attended quite a few KCs in London over the past few years (CILIP has even hosted a couple) and I wanted to hear first hand how SLA members thought the concept could help them.  The room layout proved a real challenge, but I had forgotten about the librarians' inate creativity and so regardless that the chairs were linked into tight rows we just stood, leaned, twisted and conversed.  We then fed back some of the discussion- and enthusiastically too!

I followed the KC with a session on Word-Of-Mouth Marketing WOMM).  I had no idea that there is actually a Word of Mouth Marketers Association!  Now I have been on the other side of the generally astonished reaction to learning that librarians have a professional body, and that there a numerous national bodies and even an international federation....

Debgra Aho Williamson of eMarketer gave a useful overview of the range of WOMM, how it can be used, the pitfalls and the consumer perspective.  She couldn't avoid an up-front sales pitch for eMarketer, but then maybe it provided her talk with an authority for the research that she had done..