Monday, February 3, 2020

OLA SC 2020 Day 1 Reflections

I have so much to say and I don't know how to begin. How do I adequately summarize four days of incredible experiences gained from my time at the Ontario Library Association Super Conference?

I read some of  last year's reflections from last year and I'm going to quote myself:
It is traditional for me to write my reflections on my blog, summarizing sessions, highlighting key points and revealing my "so what" next steps. I don't think I can give my "report" in quite the same way for 2019. Experiencing the conference from the point of view of a planner, like some of my wonderful OSLA planners before me (Alanna King, Jess Longthorne, Sarah Oesch, Joel Krentz, Lauren Flattery, and many others) is a completely different experience. It is both more and less - more altruistic, less self-centered; more sessions to check in on and ensure things are going smoothly for all attendees, less workshops to personally attend for a significant length of time
So, I'm going to mimic the structure of last year's records and share my observations and discoveries. I'm also going to choose a "memorable moment", so I can explain why that particular memory was extra-significant.

Tuesday, January 28, 2020 - 3:50 p.m.

What's the fastest way to get all the way from the northern-most regions of Scarborough to downtown Toronto? I was determined to save OLA some money by not driving to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre this year and was going to drag my suitcase on the TTC, until my brilliant administrator, Matthew, suggested getting a lift to the GO train station near our school. Thank you Fiona for driving me! It was a fast, relaxed, roomy ride and a short walk to the hotel. I arrived with enough time to check in to the Intercontinental Hotel, set up my space, and attend our all-conference planners meeting.

Selfie in the spacious suite!

Tuesday, January 28, 2020 - 5:00 p.m.

It's pretty impressive to have all 25 members of the planning committee together in one room, all "vested" up. The red vests are very symbolic. I know of former planners who smuggled out their vest to keep as a memento of their Super Conference time with the team. It is visually unifying but also demanding (because wearing the vest signals to others that we know things and are the people to ask - we are in demand and on duty and we represent the organization through our actions and inaction). We got a run-down of things to expect and anticipated challenges from Zac, Elizabeth and Emily. We ate pizza for dinner and toured the space. 

The 2020 OLA SuperConference Team

Tuesday, January 28, 2020 - 7:30 p.m.

OLA SuperConference is legendary for the amount of parties and socials. This year was no different. It began with the Early Arrivals reception. The Super Conference feels like a reunion at times; it's an opportunity to see other school library professionals from across the province that you wouldn't see otherwise. I chatted with Amanda Caputo (OHLA planner) about her new house, Dawn Telfer (TL in TVDSB) about her new OSLA responsibilities, and many other friends and colleagues. Kate Johnson-McGregor, my OSLA co-planner this year, and I departed for our hotel room so we could review the "mini-unicorn" (which is the name for our detailed planning document outlining what's going on, who we need to take care of and where we have to be for the whole conference). We determined our supervision duties, sharing the load. After talking with Kate, I dropped by Jennifer Brown's hotel room to return some posters I borrowed and also touch base about the days ahead. Jennifer Brown is the 2019 OSLA President, and a wonderful friend and human being. A 5-minute visit went a lot longer but eventually I made it back to my own room to do some preparatory readings and then fell into a fitful sleep.


Wednesday, January 29, 2020 - 6:45 a.m.

The early bird catches the worm, or in my case, gets a really good breakfast! It's important to attend to your biological needs, which can be ignored in the hustle-bustle of all the jobs that need doing at SuperConference. I made arrangements with Lindsay Gibb and Kate Johnson-McGregor to eat at one of my favourite breakfast restaurants, Over Easy. Even the walk was beneficial - the cold outside air was invigorating. 

Wednesday, January 29, 2020 - 9:00 a.m.

Tina, Jane, Beth
The first day of the conference is always very busy first thing in the morning. People arrive needing badges, bags and directions. I spent a bit of time at the Express Badge area distributing resources and replenishing supplies when they became low. (No job should ever be too "menial" for a planner to undertake.) I also made a promise to appear at 9:15 am on the VoicEd Radio show, "This Week In Ontario Edublogs" with Doug Peterson and Stephen Hurley. This meant that I couldn't spend time at some sessions I hoped to visit extensively. There were two wonderful presentations around this time that I was only able to briefly support: Snap, Spark, Provoke: Exploring Identity and Text with Provocations and Photography by Beth Lyons, Tina Zita, and Jane Dennis-Moore absolutely wowed attendees with the quality and quantity of items shared and presented. They even had their own hashtag - #olaSnapSpark - and the artifacts that came out of that session were amazing. I consoled myself by remembering that I'd be able to hear Jane's shortened version of the presentation at Treasure Mountain Canada later in the week.



The other 9:00 am session under our care was Primary Source Primer for Libraries and Archives by Jennifer Hoyer, Allison Little, and David Sprague.

We were so grateful to have Stephen Hurley and VoicEd Radio with us at the conference. Last year, we chose certain workshops for Stephen to attend and record. This year, we tried something different based on his suggestion. He created a mini-studio right near the registration desk and invited all sorts of people to come and have a 10-15 minute conversation with him. This new format was much more inclusive, spontaneous, and less logistically complicated (as we didn't have to arrange media releases and permissions in advance; sitting down at the microphone indicated consent).
The unfortunate part was that the live radio broadcast I participated in with Doug and Stephen (TWIOE live at OLA SC) was filled with technological difficulties. We started and restarted about four times. Sometimes our voices echoed with excessive reverberations, sometimes we couldn't hear Doug, and even after we thought things were sorted out, it turned out that Doug, Stephen and I could hear each other but Doug's portion of the show was completely silent and lost to anyone else listening. It was unfortunate, especially because there was some great discussion about the different blogs Doug chose to focus on this week. However, what I gained from the experience was Stephen's superpower of positivity. (This topic was actually part of the radio talk. My superpower, in case you were wondering, I consider to be the ability to charm.) Despite the setbacks, he was calm and cool. Even as he juggled the equipment, the Twitter feed, and technical problem solving, he comforted me and my anxiety about the malfunctions. All the other VoicEd Radio sessions were problem-free and very successful. Stephen told me that usually at a two-day conference, he records about 20 chats. At OLA SuperConference 2020, Stephen recorded 38 conversations!

Wednesday, January 29, 2020 - 10:30 a.m.

The next round of sessions included "Making Space" for Culturally Responsive Inquiry by Nancy Tucciarone and Maria Luisa Lebar. My responsibilities meant I couldn't stay there for long, but buzz was that it was an excellent session. 



Wednesday, January 29, 2020 - 11:20 a.m.

Rebecca and Lisa share some good book titles
There were a pair of great sessions in this time slot: Empowering Your Students to be Global Changemakers by Rebecca Hurley and Lisa Kao incorporated the UN Sustainable Goals in meaningful, age-appropriate ways. My friend, Lisa Noble, got a lot out of the talk. Intentional Cataloging for Inclusive Design in School Library Learning Commons came from Lorna Young, Andrea Sykes, Janice Hilber and Ann McGowan. Lorna, Andrea, Janice and Ann are from my school board, TDSB, so I made sure to snap a few photos of them in action. I was pleased to learn that Lorna, having worked in libraries for over 30 years, was presenting for the very first time! Kudos to Andrea Sykes for her unwavering support of these colleagues. 

Janice, Ann, and Lorna from TDSB

Wednesday, January 29, 2020 - 1:00 p.m.

Good news - I remembered to eat (and even to get food for Stephen Hurley, who was busy doing interviews). Bad news - I forgot to grab my receipt (an important part of invoicing expenses incurred during the conference). I'll consider it a "donation" to OLA. I planned to stay for the entire session - If I Had a Million Dollars (or $100): School Library Learning Commons Renovations and Refreshes by Richard Reid and Dawn Telfer. 
What stopped me? I got a request to touch base with one of our presenters. Turns out, it wasn't just any run-of-the-mill presenter; it was world-renowned author and educator Trevor McKenzie. Connecting with people is a top priority for Trevor - this is evident if you peruse his Twitter or Instagram accounts. Building relationships with individuals across the globe may be one of the secrets to Trevor's success and we spent some time getting to know each other and learning the "deeper stories".
Ruth, Kate, Trevor, and Diana after his session


Wednesday, January 29, 2020 - 2:30 p.m.

The dilemma is real. When there are not one or two but THREE fantastic sessions that you want to attend but they are all at the same time, what do you do? If you are me and you have many great friends around, you make arrangements so that you have a representative at each session, and then you promise to give a breakdown of exactly what happened. Friends of mine attended the Indigenous Spotlight: Dr. Debbie Reese talk. Since I was able to spend one-on-one time with Trevor, I had someone else soak up the message at Bringing Inquiry Mindset To Your School by Trevor McKenzie. I attended Equity in School Libraries: Using Inclusive Design to Deconstruct and Re-Design Your Library by Denise Cole.

Although, once again, I was unable to spend time from beginning to end in Denise's session, I was able to devote a good portion of the time to her talk.



I must say that I was shocked when the audience admitted that few had heard of Dr. Sims-Bishop before. I used Twitter as my way of capturing some of the main points from Denise's talk and I was appreciative of how she highlighted other scholars and colleagues.


Wednesday, January 29, 2020 - 4:00 p.m.

As I look back on the conference, there are times where I ask myself what I was doing at that moment. This is one of them. I was planning to attend the OLA Keynote: Farrah Khan but something pulled me away and for the life of me, I can't remember what that was. I think it might have been helping with the Opening Night Party set-up. (This is where I accidentally prevented someone from entering the party early and they were from the company financially sponsoring the gala - oops!) Thankfully, a "graphic facilitator" from Thinglink sketched a visual summary of the talk, so I was able to look at the overview sketchnote to get a sense of what I missed. After the keynote was the All-Conference Welcome Party. "Dream Here" is the theme of the conference, and we had cartoonists doing caricatures, people doing Tarot card readings, a DJ playing music, and lots of food and drink.

Wednesday, January 29, 2020 - 8:00 p.m.

Why did I think I'd be able to try and FaceTime into my Kindergarten AQ course during the conference? Technically, the conference planners are expected to "work" at the parties. Granted, the work involves socializing with the attendees, ensuring they have a good time. That's not particularly hard to do. What is hard is overbooking yourself. I missed the buzzing of my phone (which I had put to vibrate so it wouldn't interrupt the sessions I had to sneak in and out of) and was unable to connect with my course instructors. My night was far from over. I went out with a group of library friends (Christine, Lisa, Jenn, Kate, Joel, Gordon, Feather, and Michelle) to the Elephant and Castle for a late dinner. The group was cheerful, slightly boisterous, and exuberant. Thank you to Bill, our server, for being so patient and understanding.

At this venue, Lisa and Jenn were able to tell me more about Dr. Debbie Reese's talk. (I should mention at this point that I had the incredible honour and pleasure to speak briefly with Debbie myself. I met her in the Speakers Lounge, introduced myself, and offered to escort her to another Indigneous stream workshop she wanted to attend prior to hers. I tried not to be a fan-girl but I did tear up a bit when I thanked her for being so brave and courageous with her work. She told me that she was surprised the team had selected her to speak and initially encouraged them to choose someone from Canada. I told her that her work was so important and makes huge ripples up here and not just in the US. She gave me a short summary of what she had planned to talk about during her session. Later on, via my friend, I gave Dr. Reese one of the fabric fidget mazes I created.)


Dr. Reese's talk was challenging but compelling, and supported with plenty of evidence. She talked about three problematic Canadian authors who position themselves as Indigenous but should be examined much more carefully. (This is a tough one, because I have books in my library by one of these authors, and one was a guest author at a friend's school.) I'm going to be chewing on the words and ideas shared for quite a while. 

MEMORABLE MOMENT: My memorable moment from Day 1 (other than meeting Dr. Debbie Reese) was during the All-Conference Welcome Party. I was wearing various badges, including my ETFO ones. Karen McGrath, who was the past president of OPLA (Ontario Public Libraries Association), past president of OLA (2012) and former director of Niagara College Library and Bookstore Services, came up to me during the party. She pointed to my "Cuts Hurt Kids" button and said, "That's the only button I care about wearing this year." I immediately took it off my red vest and gave it to her, which she wore proudly for the rest of the conference. Thank you Karen; that kind of support means the world to me and to the educators in Ontario right now.
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1 comment:

  1. Lisa NobleFebruary 4, 2020 at 6:39 AM

    I am always amazed at the way you can zero down on what your key moments were at the conference. I have to use my tweets to remind my brain of things. Apparently, it's that 3rd layer of sleep that helps you permanently add cognitize stuff to your memory - and I'm not sure I got a lot of that this week. I so much appreciate your wrap-ups, because they help remind me of the experiences, and review what I learned. Thanks for your unique perspective! Looking forward to the next few days!

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