I will never use Travelocity again

Was I ever surprised when I arrived at the New Orleans Airport to go home after the SLA conference. Seems the booking made on travelocity.ca (leaving at 4:05 pm) was changed at some point and I was now supposed to be on a 9:55 am flight.

I had to pay $50 to rebook. Delta agent pleasantly told me I would have had the same price if I had used their web site directly. Also that I need to get the $50 back from Travelocity.

Oh Joy

Oh Bliss

 

At least there were still seats on the original flight and  I am headed home.

SLA2010 – New Orleans – Day 3 – Monday June 14

Business Research

• All US sources
• All US everything
• Slides online – note to self – look for them

Left and went to another session…

Knowledge continuity and Opportunities – Future of knowledge Managers

Speaker Patrick Lambe, Straits Knowledge

• Interstitial library -  books that fall through the gaps
• KM needs to work in the gaps and help close them
• His study is available for purchase
• 15 roles for Knowledge Managers – many are or should be general management competencies
• He has written articles on this
• beware success stories- concentrate on daily experiences and patterns
• quick wins are temporary
• easy wins are not scalable

Embedded Librarianship in the Field

Reese Dano and Gretchen McNeely

• not really relevant
• too many buzzwords
• what does “dimensionality” really mean??
• how many times can a speaker say “disparate” and “overarching” in the same talk?

Left and went to exhibit hall …

Success Stories of Solos

Patrick Clapp moderated and organized this session. His speakers all had to cancel out on him, so he asked me if I could talk about my success at negotiating my termination and my new job. So, I did.  Calling my part “everything is negotiable” I quickly reviewed

asking Xerox for more than the offered severance package and asking ArcelorMittal Dofasco for more than what was offered when I got my new job there.

And then the rains came down. View from my hotel room.

 

SLA 2010 – New Orleans - Day 2 – Sunday June 13

The temperature has gone down a little – only about 101 today. Breakfast buffet in hotel was much better today as there were not 100 teens in the line-up.

Fedex Kinkos

As secretary of the Solo Librarians Division I had to make sure this morning that I had the agenda and minutes printed and available for the group. To this end, I went online to the FedEx Kinkos site as there is a location right in the hotel where the meeting was going to be held. I uploaded the files and found out that they don’t accept Canadian credit cards. After being transferred around on the telephone I found someone who told me how to at least submit the job and then I could go over later and pay. I did this, however, the job was all screwed up and I only got half of it. I will need to do it all over again for the business meeting.

My message to American companies -- the world does not end at your borders. Not by a long shot.

Solo Division Board Meeting

The Solo Librarians Division Board Meeting was at noon today. We had a great discussion on the future planning for conferences and conference sessions. We hope to see a lot more people at the luncheon tomorrow. I think I volunteered to be a speaker on a panel session :0

Exhibits

I spent all afternoon at the exhibit hall. I had not intended to do so, but there were a lot of people to talk to. Swag is pretty good this year.

Keynote

Mary Matalin and James Carville were the keynote speakers. She was very interesting and articulate, he was very funny and very driven to improve New Orleans. I could have listened to them much longer.

 

Solo Librarians Division No Host Dinner

Nine solo’s went to dinner at “The Gumbo Shop” in the French Quarter.

 

The food was very good. I had Shrimp Gumbo, Crayfish Ettouffee, Macque Choux Corn, and a Praline Sundae. YUM!!

SLA2010 – New Orleans – Day 1 – Saturday June 12

Hot Hot Damn Hot

104 F – glasses fog up every time I leave a building!

2011 Philadelphia Planning Session

• Four Solo Division participants
• Still on track for a Lean Six Sigma session with yours truly organizing it.
• SOLO is the host for the Joint Reception in 2011 – must find a local solo to help
• Keynote speakers announced - Thomas Friedman (opening), James Kane (closing)
• Variety of room layouts planned. Some good, some not so good.
• Planning on inviting community leaders and managers to conference for a Forum designed for non-members – interesting concept
• Will post SOLO plans when they are clearer