A meeting connected to my research for me, followed by a little sight-seeing as I was not involved in any of the day’s events.
It’s interesting to compare how SAA organises their annual meeting, in comparison to the much smaller ARA event. On the days running up to the main conference, SAA arranges a series of training workshops, group committee meetings, and some poor archivists are even taking their Certified Archivists examination. This means that delegates arrive at different times over the first few days, and it is only tomorrow (Thursday) that the full size of the conference is revealed with the first plenary session. Some of the pre-conference events are an extra charge to attendees. I understand these are an important source of income for SAA but I imagine work out as a cost-effective way of attending training for the delegates, since they are already traveling to get to the main Annual Meeting itself. I guess many ARA sections also hold committee meetings at Conference, but that is more of an informal arrangement. I wondered if formalising it might simultaneously help save some costs for ARA, and boost attendance, but I think I’d switch the order so that such add-on events followed the main conference rather than precede it as happens here – the gradual ramping up towards the main event I find quite dis-orientating as a first time attendee.
Oh, and in the evening, a mass outing to watch the Chicago Cubs baseball game – and the home team won! Fortunately, I had a very patient explainer…
Around the World in 80 Gigabytes 
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