Backstory: In 2016, I attended my first full ALA Annual Conference as a librarian. I had been to the exhibits in 2011, but that was when the conference was in New Orleans in a convention center I knew pretty well. Adding to the excitement, I had submitted a proposal to present an Ignite session (a five-minute talk on a topic) and it had been accepted. My talk was at 11:50 AM on Saturday morning. At 11:20, I started trying to find the location where I’d be speaking, got a bit lost, and ended up making it to the room at 11:40. I got there and immediately noticed two things: 1. The room was a lot larger than I expected it to be, with a lot of people in it, and 2. There was a stage set up at the front of the room with five people up on stage and an empty chair for me. I was so embarrassed that I was late, apparently I should have been there before the first person was due to speak at 11:30, but I couldn’t do anything about it at that point. I made my way to the front of the room and when the next person got up to speak at 11:45, I slipped into my spot with 5 minutes to spare. At least I didn’t have too long to get nervous.
Here is a slightly edited version of the speech I gave that day with some of my original slides:
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