I got back from ALA Midwinter yesterday around 3–with about an hour delay so the plane could be de-iced. (I also discovered Frontier’s, um, interesting policies regarding standby for earlier, not-full flights…amusing.)
I think it was around 12F when I left, and snowing fairly heavily (from my perspective, at least).
It’s currently 57F, clear skies (boo! we need rain!).
I’m finishing a load of laundry, getting ready to print double-spaced versions of speaking notes for the two upcoming presentations, and then getting ready to pack…
To go off to Toronto tomorrow for the Ontario Library Association SuperConference, Canada’s largest library conference. And the Weather Underground suggests it will be, well, about the same in Toronto as it was in Denver, maybe a little warmer but with possible snow every day. I can handle that (assuming safe flying conditions). I really am looking forward to the conference itself.
At this point, I should have clever comments about Midwinter. But I don’t really. A few random notes:
- It felt like a relatively light Midwinter, so it wasn’t a surprise to see it had slightly fewer than 10,000 people, down significantly from last year. It wasn’t “empty” (if you tried to get a table in the Hyatt’s lobby bar in late afternoon, you could never say that)–but it was light (and, in fact, the Bloggers Salon had less than half the attendance I would have expected). The strongest indication that it was lighter than usual: Each day, I was able to check email and bloglines (at the Internet Cafe or exhibits Internet Room) without waiting in line. That hasn’t happened in years.
- The first time I’ve sat in on LITA TopTechTrends in a couple of years. Reminded me how happy I am that I dropped off the group (years ago). I was there to get some notes that might add to my OLA SuperConference TopTechTrends presentation. Not so much, actually. I think I won’t offer comments on TTT itself. There’s certainly no shortage of such comments.
- It was odd being “sidegraded” at the Hyatt Regency: They said I could have the two-bed regular room I’d reserved, but would I take an Aspen Suite at no extra cost? Which meant full wet bar, full-size refrigerator, full-size conference table, seating for at least 11 people (full-size sofa, two easy chairs, six conference-table chairs), around 1000sqft in all… oh, and what made it a sidegrade: A Murphy bed folding down out of the wall, once I moved a couple of coffee tables out of the way. And, as a result, the alarm clock about 10 feet from the bed. (It worked out fine: A PALINET colleague needed a space for a small meeting, so the conference table actually got a little use while I was strolling the exhibits.)
- Other than the loss of a wool muffler while walking to the LITA Happy Hour Friday evening, I managed: No cold or flu, reasonable sleep, some interesting discussions. Some pretty fair simple meals, some not so great.
- LITA Publications Committee…well, I’ll deal with that when I get back from Toronto.
Back offline again for another three days…
