WebJunction

After ISLOC this year, if I were to put advice about online conference coordination into one sentence it would be, "Be part of a great and hardworking team, plan like crazy, be flexible, and take it as it comes." It's probably much the same for in-person conferences. I have to say that, though I think this year's ISLOC was the best yet, it didn't come easily this year! We had to learn a new environment in just a couple of months (it has some great features, but it was a very steep learning curve for those of us who had to set up rooms and learn enough to make it easy for presenters and participants); one of our out-of-state presenters had surgery and (understandably!) had to cancel so we had to scramble with some scheduling; one of the team/producers/presenters got the flu just before the conference (thankfully, the 24 hour variety); a huge, devastating ice storm moved across the state the day before and one of the presenters lost power so had to cancel her session at the last minute (they just got power back yesterday.) I got to the point that I just sat at my desk and said, "Bring it on! Is that your worst? What else have you got for us? And thank heaven for the Team--who could deal with whatever came!"

Be aware that you may not solve all problems. Sometimes it's beyond your control from the participants end--firewall, bandwidth, etc.