Midwest & Midcontinental Chapter Meeting Blog

I've been enjoying following Conference Call 2007, the blog for the joint meeting coming up in Omaha at the end of the week.  I remember that just a few years ago, having a blog as part of the pre-conference preparations was a new and radical experiment, and they're still not as common as I might expect.    The MLA annual meeting sites have had one the last few years, but a quick look at the websites for the fall chapter meetings doesn't turn up any others.  But I'll bet that by next year most of them will be doing one.    And since I'm overseeing conference arrangements for next year's SCMLA meeting in Birmingham, I'm particularly keen on observing how Conference Call is being used. 

Clare's done an excellent job, and I'd recommend it to people who are thinking about running a pre-conference blog.  The travel tips that she's posted in the last few days are particularly useful, and the interview with Mark Funk that went up today is quite nice.    It's such a sensible and easy way to get last minute information to potential conference attendees.

Of course, there'll be plenty of live blogging from the conference itself.  I'd hate to miss the opportunity to hang out with all of those people in person, but for those who can't get to Omaha, it's going to be a great way to open the meeting up virtually.   And even those of us who are there won't be able to get to everything, so I'll be using it to keep me caught up while I'm there as well.

Comments

[John Chrastka]

You make a great point. The blog roll for ALA Midwinter 2008 is just getting started at http://wikis.ala.org/midwinter2008/index.php/Blogging_Midwinter . A fair amount of pre-blogging, live blogging and post-blogging will be had through the community, if the turnout from Annual in D.C. was any indication - http://wikis.ala.org/annual2007/index.php/Blogging_Annual

-John