BeFunky CollageI went to ALA Annual 2015 in San Francisco. It was overwhelming, hilly, and surprisingly cold.

There is no insightful blog post about this experience. Just a list of things I wish I would have known:

  1. Talk to the people outside of the meeting room. The most interesting conversations I had happened in line for a book signing or waiting for a session to start.
  2. Learn names so you don’t forget the name of the awesome guy who brought the cups when he introduces you to HR person of your dream job.
  3. It is okay to not attend every meeting, session, dinner, or after party. Keeping yourself sane and finding time to recompose yourself is just as important.
  4. Handle school work before you go. I had two group projects due and waking up at 4am to work on a project was not pleasant.
  5. Pre-plan as much as possible and set an intention. My intention was to find a job so I spent Saturday and Sunday networking and in the Job Placement Center.
  6. Come with a cover letter and resume ready (Yea, I know this is pretty common sense but I was certainly not prepared)
  7. I thought people were lying about the insane amount of free/so cheap they should be free books at ALA (I was handed a free book in the airport). IF you are the kind of person who can NOT walk away from a book/throw a book away/donate a book  leave room in you luggage/ bring money to have all that crap shipped.
  8. Have fun. Pride was the same weekend as the conference and I would have done myself a real disservice if I wouldn’t have joined in with festivities (an 8 hour parade and more public nudity than one can imagine). Go to dinner with friends, spent time with classmates, or go to beach its okay to take some time for some fun.