WLA 2009: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Actually, this was one of the better conferences I’ve attended over the years. I just couldn’t resist titling my post that. The bad and ugly were really more along the lines of disappointing and frustrating. While some sessions were very much the let down, there was at least one outstanding session each day that left me enthused and energized. I picked up some extremely useful tidbits from colleagues around the state and learned about some amazing new products and new features of old products from vendors. I’m going to post about the sessions individually so you can skip what doesn’t appeal to you.

But first I have to make an observation about this year’s “paperless conference.” While I applaud the effort to go green, for the majority of the sessions I attended, “paperless” seems to mean “I’ll get around to posting the handout and supplementary materials to the conference site whenever I feel like it…or possibly never.” I think that’s a shame as I like having materials to share with the folks back home who didn’t attend. Handouts also help you to remember the finer details of the session. I’ve posted links for all available handouts for those of you who weren’t able to attend and added some links of my own to sites and products mentioned in the sessions.