JMM Collections Manager, Jobi, and I (Lauren, Education and Program Coordinator) are currently at the American Association of Museums annual meeting. This is my first AAM conference as well as the biggest conference I've ever attended, with over 5,000 attendees. We've taken over the entire Philadelphia convention center.
I've attended some interesting sessions, including one on engaging immigrant communities and another on using Web 2.0 to reach international audiences. Did you know that the Dresden Museum has a 1:1 replica of their entire museum on Second Life? The curator giving the talk showed photographs of the exterior, grounds, and galleries within the museum next to photos of the museum recreated in Second Life - an alternate, virtual reality universe online. It was astounding.
And of course, there have been some fun parties too! On Thursday night was the Opening Night party at the amazing Please Touch Museum. Running around PTM reminded me of all the children's museums I visited as a child - combined. They have a historic, running carousel! So much fun. Not to mention the dessert bar, great band, and University of the Arts bucket band, Rumble.
They keynote speaker, Walter Isaacson, was quite engaging. I'm still not certain what he has to do with museums but his stories about Ben Franklin and Albert Einstein were wonderful. One of those situations where, even though I knew what was going to happen next, I was still on the edge of my seat. Was Einstein going to receive the Nobel Prize? How did Franklin get started in Philadelphia? I did immediately buy both biographies to have him sign. Even though I'm married to a librarian...
I'm giving a session on Tips and Tricks to Maximize Your Website - Not Your Budget as part of Small Museums Day at AAM. My co-presenters include Heidi Glatfelter, who does marketing and pr for Jerusalem Mill - a small museum in Maryland - and works for a consulting firm, Market Early America and Laurel Forsythe of the Ruthmere Museum. Unfortunately, Laurel had a family emergency and won't be able to attend. Hopefully, it'll go well!
I'll post again after I return. Thanks for reading.
Jobi at AAM
Convention Center lobby - the convention center used to be a working railroad terminal
In all the times I've been to Philly before, I'd never seen Independence Hall before!
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