Professional Development - Face to Face

What do you do for professional development? How do you stay current in the industry and keep your creative juices flowing?

Consider the options - podcasts, blog postings, online videos, and electronic newsletters represent some easy, at your desk options. What about face to face, you ask? Good question. How often do you get out of your office and rub elbows with colleagues from outside your organization?

Effective and essential professional development cannot happen without the occasional live, real time, face to face interaction. We're coming into the conference season for info pros. The Association of Independent Information Professionals met last month. The Medical Library Association meets later this month. Specialized librarians in SLA will meet next month, and the American Library Association meets in July, just to name a few.

AIIP drew over 100 attendees while ALA will draw over 25,000. What's the attraction?

First and foremost, humans are gregarious. We like to gather with people who understand who we are and what we do. It is refreshing to interact with colleagues who "get it", to share experiences, and even to commiserate.

Second, we learn from each other. We pick up ideas, solutions, strategies, and alternatives to take home to our own work environment. These learnings satisfy a professional need to know and make us even more valuable to our organizations.

Most importantly, however, is the "cross fertilization" that happens in a face to face environment. Here we encounter ideas, issues, and concerns that we may not have sought out. Unlike the RSS feeds and newsletter subscriptions that we opt in to, conferences foster serendipity and the friction of dialog that often sparks new ways of thinking. One does not have to cross the country to attend a large gathering like ALA. While I strongly recommend one such excursion every year or so, most communities have a local info pros group of some kind. Join. Attend. Participate. Cross fertilize. Learn. You and the profession will be better for it.

Professional development thrives in a face to face environment. In fact, without conference gatherings, withering on the vine is inevitable. Don't you agree?