From the Schedule and Beyond: Highlights from #alaac14 (continues) (now with 15% more hyperlinks)

So I posted a couple of days about about The Library Games, and event which takes place on June 30th, and thought I'd mention a couple of other cool things that are happening before the weekend.

CraftCon, hosted by Kate, is an event listed in the  Networking Uncommons area, so it may get overlooked if you don't look at the schedule.  It starts at 2:30pm on Friday, June 27th, and runs at various times throughout the weekend.  Bring your own crafts, bring crafts to share, show off projects, or just come hang out with a bunch of chill library peoples.  I'll be Ustreaming the start of the CraftCon on the Ustream channel, before hunkering down to do some subversive cross-stitching until my next session.

ALA Play, hosted by the Games and Gaming Round Table and Graphic Novels and Comic Books groups is listed in the ALA scheduler.  This promises to be a fun event and a great way to unwind after the opening sessions on Friday, June 27th and runs from 7:30pm-10pm at Caesar's Palace.  The theme is Welcome to Nightvale - interesting!

Keep checking back as I post more updates - trying to decide if I should post the ALA party map...

From the Schedule and Beyond: Highlights at #alaac14

Over the next couple of days I'm going to highlight events that might otherwise get looked over when planning schedules using the ALA scheduler.

The first of the events I want to highlight is The Library Games, and below is a description of the events happening.  I've added the description from the Facebook event site but it will be a spectator sport of watching teams of librarians play games in a winner-take-all Hunger Games style event (without the blood and violence, natch).  This takes place on Monday, June 30th, from 5:30pm to 7:30pm:

First there were the Olympic Games, then the Hunger Games became all the rage. Combine the two and you get The Library Games! Four brave teams of librarians competing in several fast-paced, cut-throat events to take home the trophy and be crowned the champions of libraryland. Audience participation and voting will be crucial to the outcome, so make sure you are there to witness history in the making. 

Round 1: Lip Sync for Your LIfe -- one song/competitor (2.30 second clips)

Round 2: Flanneldecks Showdown -- large felt board, 25 random felt pieces, 2 minutes to create and tell a story on an unknown theme.

Round 3: Book Talk for your Life -- one book/competitor (competitors will be given a list of possible books they should be prepared to book talk)

Round 4: Battledecks -- four competitiors; 3 minute slide decks

Round 5: Trivia Challenge or an @midnight style type of event (TBD)

Between two of the rounds, 4 random people will be chosen from the audience to demonstrate Cards Against Librarianship.

Return of "So What's Up With Las Vegas?"

My wonderful friend, Houston, agreed to let me capture his soul - wait, no, that's not it - his ruminations and wisdom about Las Vegas. He provides some pretty awesome tips for bars and places to tourist that are off the beaten path. He knows this stuff because he is omniscient, but also because he does some kind of professional videographer type stuff in Vegas every year. I recommend watching both of these videos because I screwed up on the first one and the second one has information that the first one doesn't.

Exhibitor Interactive Map

Have you seen this?  Oh my gosh, this is going to be make navigating the swag - I mean, exhibitor booths - so much easier!  

One month to go! #alaac14

Okay, let's try this again - I just deleted the first post, so now I have to rewrite the whole darn thing - how do I manage to do these things?  It is a mystery.  The Google Hangout last night went well, if not a little disorganized on my part, and I definitely learned what NOT to do with hangouts, like try to pause the broadcast, which essentially ended the scheduled one I had been advertising for about a week.  So I had to create another hangout on the fly, got the time wrong, and started later than intended.  I'm sure I lost a lot of potential views because of that, but all I can do is try again with another hangout.  I think what I will do is synthesize the information that folks generously gave during this last one and then present the information at the next one.  Or I'll just post it on the blog.

Hey, and a big shout-out to those who attended and generously supplied their time and expertise to the topic of attending a huge conference like #alaac14.   I am truly appreciative of the people involved in building community online and in person, and it encourages me to keep on keeping on.

Will have to post on some of the activities outside of the scheduled events.

Sweeping Zen site

If you have a favorite Zen teacher it's probably on this site!  I looked up Charlotte Joko Beck, whose book, Everyday Zen, really helped me when I first started practicing.  I'm going to set up library and Zen blog rolls, so keep an eye on this blog!  #alaac14

Also, I'm tagging everything I write with #alaac14.