SLA is 100!

It must have been a very interesting world in 1909.  Here are three immediate (to me) organizations celebrating their centennials.  The Special Libraries Association, an organization representing 12,000+ librarians with specialized collections and services in corporations (law firms, banks, pharmaceuticals, manufacturers, hospitals, ettc) around the work, celebrates their centennial this year.  The Toronto chapter of SLA is having a gala to celebrate next month — I’m very excited about attending.  The association’s 100th annual conference is being held in June in DC (where SLA’s HQ has been for many years, including when I was President in 1995/6).  Should be a great event starting off with keynote speaker Colin Powell.

And now we are into ice hockey NHL playoffs and the Montreal Canadiens are 100!  Check out the many jerseys and logos from their past.  I am not a Canadiens fan but I certainly respect their longevity and strength over the years.  It will be interesting to see what’s in their future.

Leons is a furniture store in my area and it is 100 years old too.  Quite a history.  I was most impressed that the current CEO went across Canada celebrating with all the employees.  Nice.

Even better than last year’s pic for Earth Day. Thanks Google.  Makes my day; especially the coral & undersea world combined with the green & waterfall.  So peaceful, don’t you want to live there?

Thanks to Steve Barth for pointing out this definitely, as he says on Twitter/FB, “way cool” Periodic Table of Visualization methods.  I love the way you can hover over one element and get a look at each method more closely!

Wishing I was there.

Unfortunately it has been a few years since I have been able to attend the Mesh conference in Toronto with key themes: conntect, share, inspire.  I decided to check in with the conference via Twitter today and found it was a top trending Twitter topic, just as Computers in Libraries 2009 was last week!  And I discovered an interesting presentation by Bonin Bough, Global Director, Digital & Social Media, Pepsico. I thought I’d share what I learned from watching other people’s comments and see if I could blog about the session even though I wasn’t there.

Bough emphasized that “It is all about the story telling” whatever the medium — the best will succeed. “You can no longer stand on a hill & talk to people, you have to come into their homes and share.”   You can’t be disruptive, you need to add to the experience — be an enabler.  “If you drive passion, interest in the product follows.”  “Have a digital strategy board and be focused in a digital direction.”  “We are shifting from impressions/perceptions to connections –listening, understanding, conversing.”

Great conference!

I hope all the 2000+ attendees, speakers, and exhibitors enjoyed Computers in Libraries 2009 as much as I did.  Three terrific keynotes: Lee Rainie, Paul Holdengraber interviewed by Erik Boekesteijn, Michael Edson.  Almost 200 terrific speakers.  A fabulous Dead & Innovative Tech evening. Follow the coverage by Information staff and other bloggers at the conference.  And, of course, the Twitter feed (#CIL2009) which was a top trending topic for several days of the conference as well as the hundreds of pictures on Flickr which are still being loaded.  And I just got the link to Michael Sauers’ highlight video — 4 days of CIL in 11.5 minutes. Thanks everyone for making it such a great experience — filled with learning, laughing, conversations, networking, and so much more.

The other day Rebecca got excited about cloud computing as you  can see form the previous post.  Today got excited about mining conversations and showing visually.  See the interesting ways the Computers in Libraries conference are visualized.  And here is a look at the Dysart & Jones blog!  Fun.