I gave a presentation on my community engagement efforts at the Connecticut Library Association 2017 Annual Conference. What I recall most of all from this experience (aside from the prep. There was a lot of it) is that the conference served delicious-looking chocolate cake just before my time slot. We’re talking multi-layered cake with really thick frosting in the middle. I remember how I wanted that cake, but knew that it would only crash my energy levels. And so I abstained.

I also recall that I could tell exactly who in the audience had taken part in eating that cake by who was enjoying a nice nap during my presentation. Not that I was mad about that. It made total sense.

Here is the description for the talk:

Community engagement rests on a bedrock of excellent customer service. Fostering a fruitful dialogue with a community at large requires mastery of interpersonal communication, scaled to reach hundreds of individuals while still retaining the intimacy of a one-on-one conversation.

In this talk, Davis Erin Anderson (Community Engagement Manager, METRO) will share her findings from four years in focused on building community in the library field. She will share lessons learned in communicating clearly across multiple digital channels, planning excellent events, and instilling values of trust and partnership among an organization and its community members.

Here are the slides. You can tell I really went for it with this one…