Thursday, January 13, 2011

ALA Midwinter @ San Diego

This past weekend I was happy to
experience my first ALA Midwinter conference.

Going to conferences can be expensive, but
I took advantage of registering with the student
rate before I graduated.
Since the conference was in San Diego,
I drove down & stayed with a college friend, Jessica,
who lives pretty close to the convention center.

It worked out perfectly.

I started out the conference with an author panel.
It was a fascinating discussion; I especially loved hearing
David Levithan.

A view from the convention center
as I looked through my registration packet.

When I wasn't busy with conference discussion
groups & meetings, Jessica took me to explore
a bit of San Diego & La Jolla.

It was so awesome to get to catch up with her
& see more of Southern California.






Back at the conference, one of the highlights
was an afternoon with
Nancy Pearl & Neil Gaiman.
Afterwards I took my copy of
The Graveyard Book
to be signed & got to chat with @neilhimself
about his upcoming episode of Doctor Who.
Total nerd euphoria.

I love these bike racks.

Inclined moving walkway at a grocery store.
Offspring of an escalator & airport walkway?

After one final discussion group,
I snapped this photo on the balcony of the
convention center before heading back up to Bakersfield.

The job center offerings, networking,
participating in discussion groups,
sitting in on committee meetings,
catching up with old colleagues & professors,
author events, and of course all the free books
made ALA Midwinter a really great experience.

Now I'm back to the job searching!

5 comments:

Bethany said...

Ok so funny! My Dad spoke at that ALA conference! Small world. You didn't hear him talk, dd you? Mark Watson. I couldn't tell you what it was about... :) Glad you had fun!

Hannah Q. Parris said...

I remembered his name, and I was looking at everyone's name tags, but I didn't see him there or hear him talk. I would have taken a picture with him if I had!

Mike and Beth said...

LOVE this post...you definitely make my heart happy. :)

Jess said...

Great pictures Hannah!! It was such a fun weekend having you here! Good luck with the job search!

Diana Mieczan said...

Those are such a great photos. Glad you had fun,sweetie
Have a relaxing weekend
Kisses