The decline of in-person conferences

What both early career and later career librarians are losing with the decline of in-person conferences is an emerging problem in our profession. Attendance at most national conferences has been dropping, and opportunities for national gatherings are less common. In fact, Steve has attended four in-person conferences that no longer exist: ALA Midwinter, Online (Information Today), SLA Annual, and Internet Librarian (now virtual only).

We all know some reasons for the decline in attendance at physical conferences, including high costs for registration, travel, and lodging; decreased financial support for professional development; and increased opportunities for online professional development. And there may be a newer reason.

Do all librarians care?

It’s a possibility that some librarians, especially in their early career, don’t understand how useful in-person conferences can be. At a networking event at an in-person conference last fall, a friend of Steve lamented that many of her newer colleagues don’t seem to appreciate or understand the value of traditional conferences as much as older colleagues do, and are less interested in attending. On reflection, the authors may also have noticed this attitude.

We don’t have any survey data on shifts in attitudes on conference attendance, nor should different attitudes be quickly explained away by referring to the impact of the 2020 pandemic on early career development. Yet the increasing levels of loneliness and isolation in our society, and our decreasing engagement with groups in social settings in favor of focusing on our phones and other screens at home, are well documented phenomena. Is there a connection with changing conference attitudes?

Why in-person conferences provide the highest value

We certainly recognize the value of online conferences. Access, accessibility, and affordability are major pluses. Being able to watch recordings later helps accommodate our busy schedules. Indeed, Steve co-leads the international Entrepreneurship & Libraries Conference (ELC), which provides only online and free programming. But both of us have reasons from our experience to claim that in-person conferences are the best.

Kelsey’s experience

As an early career librarian, my experience attending in-person conferences can be considered limited. However, each opportunity to meet with business librarians at an in-person conference at this stage of my career has proven to be incredibly valuable for multiple reasons.

Advice and support of experienced business librarians: During the final semester of my MLIS program, I attended my first conference, the Southern University and College Academic Business Librarians Conference (SOUCABL). Despite not being in a full-time business librarian position, everyone welcomed me with open arms. There were so many offers to review my resume or connect me with someone who could share information about a current position opening. At the in-person conferences I have attended since beginning my current library position, I’ve continued to receive advice and support that extended beyond the conference.

A combination of personal and professional growth: Throughout my online graduate program, I became accustomed to communicating primarily through online channels. In-person conferences provided an opportunity for me to develop in-person networking skills through creating connections with other library professionals. In our jobs, both public and academic business librarians need in-person networking skills to build connections with the students, faculty, local entrepreneurs, and/or ecosystem partners they need to work with.

Career satisfaction: I am grateful to be in a profession that supports continued learning outside of the library. Despite being a brand-new business librarian, it is important to me that there are ways to grow my career not only by attending conference sessions, but also by having opportunities to present in-person. Through the connections I formed in Business Librarianship in North Carolina (BLINC) and at SOUCABL, I gained the confidence to speak on a panel discussion for our state library conference just months into my first full-time librarian position.

Steve’s experience

I certainly value learning by attending keynotes, panels, lightning rounds, and posters at conferences. Yet I am thinking about all the other positive outcomes that happen at an in-person conference.

Networking & community building: Kelsey and I are not alone in emphasizing this aspect. We know from surveys that business librarians value networking above all other outcomes of conferences and professional associations (Garrison & Cramer, 2020). The connections I make at coffee breaks, happy hours, dinners, or simply walking together to the next conference event can be so useful, often resulting in the sharing of experiences, successes, frustrations, hopes, and ideas. Sometimes I come away with future speaking and writing partnerships, or new planning team members for the ELC. I have always enjoyed reading the conference reviews here in Ticker, particularly reviews of conferences I have not attended before; if not explicitly discussed, I read between the lines for evidence of librarian community building outside of the formal programming.

Building relationships with vendors and publishers: This is another aspect of networking. Meeting in-person with vendor reps has occasionally helped my library get a better deal on a subscription or renewal. I’ve also recruited sponsors for the ELC and BLINC at in-person conferences.

Focusing: At in-person conferences, I focus much more on what the speakers are saying, and look more carefully at their slides. In social events, I focus more on eye contact and actively listening to what others around me are saying. I try to only pull out my phone to take an occasional picture for my blog, or to confirm the next session I’m going to. In contrast, in online conferences, I’m terrible at focusing. Despite my best intentions, I allow myself to get distracted by the projects I’m working on, chat questions from our “ask a librarian” service, chat traffic from my department colleagues, or (this is truly awful) my latest emails.

Serendipity: Surprises are much more common at in-person events. Besides the opportunities for surprises on the street (such as the Gay Pride Parade in San Francisco at my first ALA Summer), sometimes I end up at a panel I hadn’t planned on attending – and it proves to be very interesting. At our state library conference last fall, instead of having a solo lunch one day, which is what I expected, I ended up sharing a table with a library advancement officer and the new library director at a nearby campus. We had a delightful conversation and even talked about libraries a little.

Recharging: We need breaks in the routine of our professional work. When I am away at a conference, I start feeling refreshed. My conference notes – always on paper, a strategy to reduce distractions (see above) – usually include marginalia in the form of brainstorming ideas, questions, and the names of people I just met and might follow up with in a few weeks. I return to campus feeling restored, energized, and more creative.

Reproducing the benefits of in-person conferences

What can we do to make the benefits of in-person conferences more widely available and affordable? Both of us have witnessed and benefited from intentional and innovative attempts to include aspects of in-person conferencing in other types of professional development events.

The recent rise of regional and state-level business librarian groups and conferences is an important example. Lovas and Stocking (2025) have documented this trend. These small and nimble conferences often have cheap or even free registration, since they don’t require use of an expensive convention center, nor need to generate operating revenue for the host association. CABAL, SOUCABL, and the Midwest Business Librarian summit are examples. Given the smaller number of attendees compared to a national conference, a public or academic library often has enough meeting space to host the conference for free. Sometimes a campus academic building can be used for free when classes are not in session. Vendor sponsors who also attend the small conference often cover the cost of meals and coffee breaks. Those vendors value the higher quality contact with the librarians, including the learning opportunities by attending the talks, compared to their experience staffing a booth in an exhibit hall within a convention center at a large conference. For attendees at a small conference like this, the main costs are limited to transportation and a hotel room.

Forming new sections or roundtables in existing state or regional library organizations, such as the Boston Library Consortium and the North Carolina Library Association, has also been an effective way for business librarians to gather. These new sections take advantage of the existing conferences provided by these organizations, which generally have cheaper registration fees compared to those of a national conference. Additionally, these sections or roundtables often provide useful in-person events other than conferences. Local, state, and regional workshops, discussion forums, and networking parties also provide many benefits of in-person conferences – and are often free.

There are also opportunities to create fellowship programs like NC IDEA’s Libraries for Entrepreneurial Advancement Fellowship (LEAF). LEAF brings a regional cohort together for an in-person summit and virtual training sessions in order to build skills with business reference and research tools. Fellows are also invited to network with entrepreneurial support organizations at the in-person Ecosystem Summit, which has increased librarian participation. Attendance at the Summit is fully funded by NC IDEA. Pairing online programming with in-person conferences can deepen network connections while maintaining accessibility.

Many online conferences are quite intentional about providing networking opportunities. Structured, planned discussions can foster community and encourage underrepresented voices, such as early career librarians, librarians of color, and public librarians. Such discussion can help build a diverse community. Vendors and publishers could also be included as discussion partners. Using breakout rooms at larger online events can help make networking discussions seem less intimidating.

Some online conferences allow attendees to use the chat function of the online meeting software (like Zoom). The give-and-take exchanges in chat can simulate face-to-face discussions at a physical conference while also providing real-time engagement with the subject matter that is usually not possible in a physical conference (at least not until the question-and-answer time). When the chat function is enabled, attendees can introduce themselves to each other at the beginning of the event, contributing to a much more lively environment than when attendees are unaware who else is in attendance and unable to make connections.

However, while we can try to expand the value of online conferencing, there is no true replacement for in-person events, whether they are national conferences, regional summits, or local workshops. As Trip Wyckoff (founder of SOUCABL) proclaimed, “Never pass up a chance to talk to another business librarian face to face” (Kalinowski, 2023).