Student opportunities at the Charleston Conference:

• Meetings - Students are welcome to attend as many sessions as you wish throughout Thursday, Friday and Saturday (morning -- the conference ends about 1 or 2 p.m. Saturday).
• The sessions have a wide range of topics. If you find part way into a session that it is not what you expected, you can always change rooms and go to another session. (Preconferences are only available to those specifically registered for them. There are no student discounts for preconferences.)
• The Exhibits on Wednesday Afternoon - The Vendor's Showcase on Wednesday afternoon from 12-6 p.m. is the only time that there are any exhibits at the Charleston Conference. Vendors do not do the same kind of general display they do at other conferences. These are small, special displays wherein they are usually showing some new and unusual product or initiative. It's great fun and you will see the latest thing coming down the pike.
• Lively Lunches - Charleston Conference meetings go right through lunch. The lunch-time sessions tend to be even more informal than other sessions. You can attend the sessions even if you don't buy the box lunches.
  
• Writing meeting reports - After known conference attendees (the "old guard") cherry-pick some individual conference sessions upon which they wish to write a report, students may volunteer to write the remainder of the 100-200 word meeting reports that are published following the conference. This gives you good experience AND a by-line that you can include in your resumes!
• The Juried Product Development Sessions - In these sessions, held 5:15-6:30 Wednesday and Thursday, publishers and vendors show new products or products under development to librarians (only those who work in libraries or students) to seek their opinions. Employees of other vendors/publishers and the library press are kept out. These are closed door sessions with pre-session sign-up and identity checked by students at the door. Students are welcome to attend these sessions, too.
• Tweeting the Conference & Other Social Networking - This will be the first year that the conference will have a Twitter Feed and Facebook presence. Students will work with the conference organizers to optimize use of social media during the conference.
• The Conference Reception - The all conference reception is on Thursday from 7 until 9 p.m. The food and drink are usually really wonderful - but even better is the conversation. You will have a chance to rub elbows (or perhaps bend an elbow -- there is usually wine) with people you heard speak during the day. You may hear entirely different points of view from those given in the formal sessions.
• Conference Photographs -Students are invited to bring cameras along to take pictures of the conference for the conference organizer to use in Against the Grain and on the conference website.