So you’re packing your bags and heading to San Diego For SLA. Not sure what to do or what to expect? Not sure what to wear or do? How far is your hotel from the convention center? What do you REALLY need to know that won’t be found in the conference planner? What’s a rookie to do???

You certainly don’t want to strike out alone. Let us help you take the “America’s Finest City” like a pro! The Baseball Caucus, along with the San Diego Chapter and the Business & Finance Division, will be hosting a webinar on Thursday, May 23rd at 9AM PST to get you ready for the upcoming conference. Veterans of past conferences and folks from the San Diego hospitality team – the folks who REALLY know San Diego – will be on-hand to answer your questions and help you hit a home run at the SLA conference.

Date: Thursday, 23 May
Time: 12:00 EST
Register Online: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/739066001

SLA CI Webinar

Getting In-Depth Competitive Intelligence on Private Companies

Date: Tuesday, 30 April
Time: 1:00 – 2:00pm EDT
Registration: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/241237654

More often than not disruptive innovations are born behind the walls of privately held companies. Given this how do you crack the code on these companies strategies? Additionally, how do you obtain some degree of early warning about how successful these companies might be in the future?

During this talk you’ll learn about a wide range of open source intelligence (OSINT) and human intelligence techniques (HUMINT) that you can use to answer the above questions.

We’ll cover:

• OSINT Assets – what can you learn from the web that’s meaningful and what can be aggregated to produce greater insight
• HUMINT Assets – who should you talk to and how do you get a hold of them effectively.
• Benchmarking –  how to acquire or interact with competitor products and services in a meaningful way

We’ll also close with a discussion of the ethical considerations companies face when conducting private company research as well as what is typically in and out of bounds when conducting private company oriented research efforts.

Finally all attendees will receive a copy of one of Cascade Insights’ Framework Fight Club Handbooks.  Each handbook provides a wealth of competitive intelligence frameworks that you can use to synthesize the intelligence you’ve collected.

Presented by Sean Campbell
Co-owner – Cascade Insights
Sean@cascadeinsights.com

SLA’s Online Content Advisory Council presents SLA’s 2nd Twitter conversation

#SLAtalk: What would you tell your past MLIS-student self?

Not sure what all this chirping is about? We are harnessing the power and reach of social media to have a discourse with information professionals from around the world on Twitter. We have structured questions and follow our hash tag #SLAtalk to see the answers roll in! Read our “How to #SLAtalk” post on the SLA Blog.

Date: Tuesday, 9 April
Time: Two sessions to choose from

• Session 1 at 1:30-2:30 pm Eastern
• Session 2 at 7:00-8:00 pm Eastern

Questions to Answer:

1. What subjects or skills do you wish you were taught or exposed to in LIS school?

-Session 1: 1:30 – 1:45
-Session 2: 7:00 – 7:15

2. What was your favorite class or project in LIS school? How have you applied what you learned to your career?

-Session 1: 1:45 – 2:00
-Session 2: 7:15 – 7:30

3. What formal supplemental education, if any, have you pursued after LIS school?

-Session 1: 2:00 – 2:15
-Session 2: 7:30 – 7:45

4. What recommendations would you give an LIS school student?

-Session 1: 2:15 – 2:30
-Session 2: 7:45 – 8:00

After the session: Check back into the SLA Blog after the #SLAtalk, where we’ll post some of the best ideas that you all have tweeted. Notice your tweet being favorited from @SLAhq? Your handle and tweet will be posted to the SLA Blog!

New to Twitter chats? Check out these helpful tips and highlights from our first #SLAtalk.

Annual Conference: the Conferencing Re-envisioning Task Force presented its report to the Board last week. Some of the task force suggestions are already in place for San Diego and the Board has asked for a deeper dive by smaller subgroups to research ideas and strategies of the task force. The subgroups will report to the Board in June in San Diego .

Richer Volunteer Experience: There have been more unit leaders’ webinars, which are being offered to all members to help all members understand that volunteering directly enhances and adds to the volunteers’ employability and career advancement.

Growth through diversity: The Diversity Leadership Development Program Committee is working with the new Membership Committee to strategize on attracting more diverse range of new members to broaden our base. The Board is discussing with the DLDP how to expand this committee’s reach to meet the definition of “diversity” in all its contexts, including job type, geographic location, etc.

Registration is now open for the SLA 2013 Annual Conference & INFO-EXPO ! Join thousands of your colleagues in San Diego for innovative sessions, inspiring speakers, networking, and an exhibit hall filled with the leading companies in the industry!

Early bird registration ends 12 April.

Have you thought about recruiting someone to join SLA?  Do you have a colleague in mind, who should be in SLA, but just haven’t gotten up the nerve to suggest it?  Well…would lunch on the beach be a good incentive?

Recruit one new member and you’ll be eligible for lunch on the beach with SLA President Deb Hunt.  Details at http://slablogger.typepad.com/sla_blog/2013/02/slas-get-on-the-beach-recruitment-campaign.html

You might even consider recruiting someone who used to be a part of SLA and should be a part of the organization again!

Connect, Collaborate and Strategize: Making the Most of Opportunities & Collaborations

The Academic; Education; Museums, Arts, & Humanities; and Social Science Divisions of SLA invite proposals for a poster session to be held at SLA 2013 in San Diego.  The theme for this year’s poster session is “Connect, Collaborate and Strategize: Making the Most of Opportunities & Collaborations.”

Keeping to the 2013 theme of Connect, Collaborate and Strategize, proposals should be geared towards successes through working with other organizations, other departments and/ or by planning ahead for fundamental change in organizations. Case studies, research, and innovative ideas for the future are all welcome.

The poster session will be a relaxed and informal time to share ideas with your colleagues. We welcome proposals from any SLA member, new or experienced, and especially from students.

Proposals should be submitted by March 15, 2013 via e-mail to klalonde@crdl.org. Please include a title and description of about 250 words, and your name, institution, e-mail address, and address. Proposals will be reviewed by a committee for relevance to the theme and quality, and applicants will be notified of the decision by April 1, 2012.

The Poster Session will be held on Monday, June 10, 2013 from 4:00 – 5:30 PM

Both chapter and division program planners will benefit from these tips for

• discovering good content,
• not “going it alone,”
• sharing the wealth after the event, and
• creating valuable sessions.

Register now for “Partnering for Program Content” on Thursday, October 18, 2012, from 2 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Eastern time.

(https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/992935041)

This is a free program for leadership development, open to all SLA members.  Presented by: Carolyn Sosnowski, SLA’s Director of Education and Information Services, with the assistance of Linda Broussard, SLA CFO.

Brought to you by your Cabinet leadership team.