Thing 15 - Participate!

Not long back from holiday so i am going slightly out of order and skipping to thing 15. I will go back to 14 & 13 once i get a catchup moment!

I have never been a speaker or organiser of an event, but i have certainly attended plenty, of all kinds. I fall into the category of people who really enjoy attending library or learning events of any kind. On some occasions the information is not directly relevant to my post, but it is amazing how having an understanding of what else is out there can enhance your work.

It is always useful to hear about other projects, concerns or just differing points of views about library work. Just because some one is speaking about a university library doesn't mean it wont be relevant to a public library in some way. As some one who works in cataloguing and acquisitions, i find learning about reader development or new library builds refreshing, not necessarily directly relevant but knowledge is power and at the end of the day libraries are all about learning and expanding the mind. We should practise what we preach and embrace the event experience.

On the down side although i am a perfectly sociable human being and after a number of years on the front line i can talk to just about anybody about anything. If introduced to some one again i find it perfectly easy to have a normal conversation. BUT i find it incredibly difficult to socialise at conferences and similar events. If attending with colleagues i find myself falling into the trap of hanging out in a little clique. If on my own then i end up keeping myself to myself, like some shrinking violet - who is this person? Not the me of everyday that's for sure. Is it perhaps a psychological condition?

Well, at the last event i attended i decided it was time for me to show the world that i am no wall flower. I set myself the challenge of speaking to one person who was also on their own. I scanned the room during a coffee break and looked for the friendliest face i could find. I had a plan, start with simple questions like did you have to travel far? , where do you work? Basic but a start and see where the conversation goes from there. Off i went deep breath and best foot forward. In retrospect, i probably should have kept to the basics and then said something like 'it was nice meeting you' and wandered off looking like i had some place i needed to be. I got the feeling that i had struck up a conversation with the one person in the room who didn't actually want to talk to anybody! In the end i decided that these things happen and so that i didn't end the experience on a sour note made sure i spoke to some one else before the end of the event. This went much better, and next time i attend one of these things i will be making the effort to step off the side lines and strike up a conversation. The important bit is not to give up and know when to move on!