[Publib] ALA Annaheim tips?

[Reeder, Norm]

I just spent this past weekend at the Anaheim Convention Center for a church conference that approximately 25,000 people attended, so it's comparable in size to ALA this June.  I admit to bias as I live in Southern California so here goes.

Unlike any other city we've been (I've attended ALA for the last 30 years), the hotels will almost all be within walking distance to the convention center.  The Hilton which is 50 feet from the convention center has almost 1600 rooms, and the Marriott just across the street has over 1,000 rooms.  While these are the two largest, and have extensive meeting rooms that are used for conventions, they are only 2 of the many, many hotels that border Disneyland.  The convention complex is across the street from the south Disneyland parking lot.  The main street (Harbor) which borders the park on the east side is lined with hotels, motels, and lots of restaurants of every price level.

My good library school colleague Sue Kamm is correct about John Wayne (Orange County) Airport being where you want to land if possible.  LAX is an hour away from Anaheim.

The weather will be quite comfortable.  June is our cloudy in the morning, sunny in the afternoon thing (June Gloom)!  It won't be as cool as San Francisco, nor as hot or sticky as anywhere in the South.  Expect 70's and 80's mostly.

Besides the restaurants on Harbor, Disney built "Downtown Disney", when the California Adventure section to Disneyland was created (I'd recommend skipping California Adventure for the main park, just my personal opinion as it's not near as much fun or as nicely landscaped).   Downtown Disney also has some very nice restaurants some of which are run by Patina Group which does mostly high line restaurants in LA (Catal, Naples Ristorante & Pizza, and Tortilla Jo's).  For those of you who didn't get to go to New Orleans there's a Brennan's Jazz Kitchen which is run by the same Brennan's from New Orleans.  House of Blues is also there.  There are other stores there including a huge Disney store with lots of things for the grandkids back home.  Don't miss the nightly fireworks at 9:30pm each night as they are great.  You can see them from anywhere in the area.

I know many of you have to dress for work or conference attendance, but remember you are in the land of surfer dudes where T-shirts and flip-flops reign. Dress casual and comfortable as you will be walking even if it's just visiting the exhibit areas which should be on the 1st level of the convention center.  There are two floors above with the meeting rooms, small and large, as well as an indoor arena that holds thousands.  Since school will be out at our time, expect the hotels to also have lots of families with children in tow.

Hope to see you all there.

Norm Reeder
Torrance Public Library

________________________________
From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Sue Kamm
Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2008 2:40 PM
To: karen; publib at webjunction.org
Subject: Re: [Publib] ALA Annaheim tips?

Try to fly into John Wayne Airport (in Orange County), if you possibly can.  If you do land at LAX, you will probably be able to get to your hotel fairly inexpensively by using one of the local van services - SuperShuttle (http://supershuttle.com) or Prime Time (http://redvans.com).  A cab ride from LAX will cost you beaucoup bucks.

-----Original Message-----
From: karen
Sent: Mar 5, 2008 2:04 PM
To: publib at webjunction.org
Subject: [Publib] ALA Annaheim tips?
Hi !

Thanks everyone for my questions on working in a public library, careers in library and also tips/advice on my resume cover letter.

My next question, is does anyone have tips on the ALA conference in Annaheim?

Im thinking about going there and rooming with a friend of mine, it looks like alot of fun and a good networking opportunity before going to school, and since Im in the midst of looking for a job I think it would be very beneficial. What do you think?

I did also recieve my first copy of ALA libraries magazine and a booklet on the ALA conference but I was wondering about any other tips. I know meals are not included unless you pick certain lectures.

I was thinking of going to the extra option with the park for the scholarship group.

Thanks again!

Karen Han



Your friendly CyberGoddess and Councilor-at-large,
Sue Kamm
Inglewood/Los Angeles, CA
Truest of the Blue, Los Angeles Dodgers Think Blue Week 2000
Visit my blog:  http://suekamm.blogspot.com
email:  suekamm [at] mindspring.com
"High fly ball into right field ... she is gone!  In a year that has seemed so improbably, the impossible has happened!"
- Vin Scully, describing Kirk Gibson's walk-off home run, Game 1, 1988 World Series
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.webjunction.org/wjlists/publib/attachments/20080305/6bc8411c/attachment.htm