TLA Conference 2024 - San Antonio

From April 16-19, I attended the Texas Library Association Conference in San Antonio. This marked my second time attending the conference and my first time attending the conference in a librarian title role. Day 1: I was able to take in a sessions, walk around the exhibit hall picking up books and freebies. I was also able to attend the After Hours event Illustrator Sketch Off was awesome, hilarious and and event I would highly recommend.

Day 2: The day was filled with the general session, author signing lines, exploring the exhibit hall even more, sessions on sessions and ended the day hitting up the Public Libraries Divisions Party. All in all, it was a good day.

Day 3: It was an early one! Got there super early to the convention center when no one was around. Started off the day in the exhibit hall with an author signing line and hitting up the booths. Then proceeded to attend some sessions and back to the exhibit hall I went. Day 3 was tear down of the exhibit hall so they were giving away display books (not advanced reader copies) before they closed down. The lines were a doozy. I made off with not too bad of a book haul.

Day 4: Last day of conference and it was an early one as we had to get the car packed up. I headed off to 2 sessions before heading into the general session. While looking for seating at the general session ran into Tik Tok sensation Dancing Librarian (you should look her up). I got to hear George Takei's harrowing story of being placed in an incarceration camp and hear inspiring words. Then we were back on the road home. I was definitely tired but would say I was able to gain some knowledge, run into old colleagues and gain some new books.