The obligations that go with Conference sponsorship…

We all know that attending Conference comes with a price.

And I know that I am the resident “‘tail-alcoholic” on these pages (socialising in SOL Square), but for once I’m not talking about the cost of panadol, water and vitamin C.

No I refer to the customary “feedback session” that you agree to speak at when you receive Conference sponsorship.  Of course this is a negligible cost if you like giving presentations…

But if like me you avoid them like the plague, you may find it useful to find out how other people report back from conferences.  Who knows what tips you could steal from them?

And guess what  – though I expect you might have suspected this all along – there just happens to be one such session being held in the near future. 

On Tuesday 15 September,  Kevin Adams, Gail Pattie and Lynsey Ainsworth, will be talking at CPIT about the conferences that they have attended recently.  Everybody is welcome to attend and the event begins at 6.15pm.  Please RSVP to erin.kimber@canterbury.ac.nz

Though I still suspect that like me, come the end of Conference, you will still be desperately thinking of ways to get out of it.  Maybe a bad headache would work??

 

 

 

Grab that cash with both hands

So by now you have worked out that you would like to hear the keynotes, definitely have something to say at the un-unconference and can’t wait to get all messy in Sol Square. The only thing left is to work out how the dickens you are going to afford it all.

There’s no doubt that LIANZA Conference  2009 is value for money, but it ain’t cheap. Luckily funding options abound. First of all try your workplace. They can only say no. Or what about your local LIANZA committee?  Hikuwai, Aoraki and Otago/Southland are all offering money for professional development. It’s worth a shot. Same goes for the Special Interest Groups. CatSIG is offering sponsorship to a member. If other SIGs or committees are offering sponsorship, maybe you could comment here?

Ok, so now you have an idea of who to ask, next up the boring bit – writing an application.  Where do you start?  Here’s a template for a Learning and Development Proposal from the ALIA New Librarians group. It gives you a rough idea of what to address when asking for money. Make sure you say you will write a report or deliver a feedback session, so others can benefit from the knowledge you gain at conference.  That makes you sound really good.

So hop to  it – deadlines are looming.

 

We have a winner…

It costs more than this to go to LIANZA Conference...

Andrew Robinson, Customer Services Manager, South Waikato Libraries is the newbie LIANZA member who’s won a free earlybird registration to this year’s conference! Congratulations!

We’ll be catching up with our lucky winner right here on the blog shortly.

If you’re currently shedding bitter, bitter tears because you thought you were in with a chance, despair not! There are still plenty of opportunities to get to conference on someone else’s coin. Just check out the following sponsorship options –