2010 FLA Conference

The 2010 FLA Annual Conference is coming together, and it's shaping up to be a great conference! Here's a quick preview of some the key features you can look forward to when we meet in Orlando in April 2010….

HIGHLIGHTS
* To lighten your travel expenses, this year's conference will be held over just three days: Wednesday April 7th through Friday April 9th.

* In additional wallet-lightening news, this year's conference hotel features a LOWER DAILY ROOM RATE ($109/night) and FREE PARKING!

* The First General Session (Thursday morning) will feature Helen Blowers, author of the LibraryBytes blog and creator of "Learning 2.0: 23 Things," the original online discovery program that has been duplicated by over 700 libraries, schools, and non-profit organizations all over the world.

* The Second General Session (Friday morning) will feature Bill Belleville, a documentary filmmaker and the author of several books about Florida, including Losing It All To Sprawl: How Progress Ate My Cracker Landscape and River of Lakes: A Journey on Florida's St. Johns River.

* FLA President Wendy Breeden has chosen "Thinking Outside the Book" as this year's theme. A full slate of interesting programs will explore different aspects of that theme, covering everything from tagging and Twitter, to collections and instruction, to storytelling and community engagement, to budgets and personnel, and so much more. Preliminary program coming soon!

* Enjoy additional no-conflict time with vendors this year, including time on Friday morning.

* Author events will include the Florida Book Awards, mystery book author signings, and more.

* Longstanding popular features such as the Silent Auction, New Members Orientation, roundtables, and poster sessions are back again.

Tentative Agenda

KEY DATES
* November 30, 2009: Online Registration opens
* January 22, 2010: Poster Session submission deadline
* February 1, 2010: Early Conference Registration deadline
* March 15, 2010: Conference Hotel Rate Booking deadline
* April 7-9, 2010: FLA Annual Conference at the Rosen Plaza Hotel in Orlando, FL

REGISTRATION
Online registration is now open! Go to the conference website
http://www.flalib.org/conference_2010.php
and click on the "Attendee Registration" link to register for Florida's biggest and most exciting library conference.

Hope to see you there!
-- Tim Bottorff
FLA Conference Planning Committee