What’s in the box?
When the CSLA Conference Committee realized that we would need to host the conference virtually, we struggled with how we could connect with attendees and recreate some of the experiences we would be missing out on. The answer became the Conference Experience Box. Out of the 636 attendees to CSLA’s 2021 virtual conference, only 300 lucky people got the conference experience box.
It was our Conference Coordinator, Janice Gilmore who suggested the idea based on a subscription service called Once Upon a Book Club where each box comes with a novel and little gifts to open when you reach certain pages. Thus, the Conference Experience Box was born. Having little presents to open throughout the conference would be a way for our attendees to participate in the conference even though we couldn’t be together in person.
The 300 boxes were assembled by Catherine Sjostedt and Terry Lai who packed the boxes in Terry’s garage while remaining socially distant. Our then President Elect, Lisa Bishop also pitched in to help.
The fabulous team:
Wrapped 300+ coffee mugs with coffee in bubblewrap, tissue, ribbon
Stickered 2400 individual items
Inserted 12,000 items
Shipped 3 international packages
The next big step was to get all 300 boxes to the post office to travel as far away as some of our conference attendees in Canada.
The suspense for opening the box was created with a DO NOT OPEN until February 11th date on the package. Included was a timeline for when each item should be opened:
It was fun seeing the different ways that our conference attendees interacted with the Conference Experience Box on Twitter. Some people opened up everything all at once, while others waited for the moments to be announced during the conference:
Link to Tweet from @linda_librarian, who opened her gifts right away.
The funniest conference box experience comes from Emily Ratica, who just couldn’t wait until the California Young Reader Medal Banquet to eat the cookie and then posted a public apology poem for eating it too soon:
Link to Tweet from @emratica
Link to Tweet from @4CSLA and @emratica
Gift #1 The conference Gift: a mouse pad
Link to Tweet from @4CSLA thanking our sponsors!
CSLA invited our attendees to post pictures of their Conference Experience. Can I just say that Mindy’s Mouse is gorgeous, and matches the logo on the mouse pad perfectly?
Link to Tweet from @MindyWilmot
Gift #2 Exhibitor Gifts
Link to Tweet from @sraslim and @hgruenthal showing some of our exhibitor gifts. We hope you enjoyed your See’s lollipop!
Gift #3 The Logo Coaster
Link to Tweet from @sraslim and @hgruenthal of the gifts laid out and ready to open/use at the proper time.
Best use of the conference coaster is @MindyWilmot’s Tweet!
Gift #4 to open during the Digital Citizenship Summit
Link to Tweet from @AliLauer1 showing our Digcit kids book to go with the Digital Learning Summit.
Gift #5 came wrapped, and made an appearance in several conference tweets.
You can see it displayed unopened in this Tweet from @LibrarianCheby.
As well as unwrapped in this Tweet from @ValareeKincaid.
This Tweet from @Andrea_Trudeau even shows it in use during the conference.
And let's not forget the coffee included with the mug featured here in @MindyWilmot’s Tweet and last year’s refillable Coffee Mug.
Gift # 6 is our placemat and cookie for the CYRM banquet
Link to Tweet from @4CSLA
Love this gorgeously styled picture of the cookie! Link to Tweet from @AliLauer1
Gift #7 invites us to Spark Change with Olivia Van Ledtje @thelivbits and includes a temporary tattoo.
Gift #8 invites us to go outside to see the world, and do some mindful activities. Ashley Brockman, Healthy Choices coordinator previously wrote about the butterfly cut out in her CSLA Blog Post.
Link to Tweet from @sraslim
You could also do some mindful coloring with this coloring page like @sraslim in this Tweet. The Artist, Tommy Kovac, gave us permission to share his drawing if you’d like a copy: Link to Full Size Image.
There is also a butterfly origami activity created by Doree Tschudy.
The Experience Box helped make this 2021 Virtual Conference an event to remember! Members of the 2021 Conference Committee are:
Heather Gruenthal
CSLA Historian
Teacher Librarian, LBUSD
Lindsey Middle School and Stanford Middle School
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