1.  Develop a beta LITA conference/event website  Utilize standard website practices  Include schedules of events and meetings  Include quick links to hashtags & related users on Twitter  Include links to presentation materials  Include links to live audio/video coverage of meetings and events  Establish a template & workflow guidelines for future conferences/events

2.  Looked at existing Midwinter Tracker  Decided which elements to include/exclude  Determined what else a conference tracker could incorporate  Created survey to elicit user feedback  Discussed usable programs/tools to use in creating a beta conference tracker

3.  Deployed survey and collect responses  Advertised survey on multiple platforms  ALA Connect  Twitter  LITA Listserv  Survey was open for 14 weeks with 97 people responding  Analyzed responses to determine users’ needs

4.  Most respondents (87.1%) have attended ALA Midwinter Meeting and/or Annual Conference  A large percentage of respondents (46.3%) were not aware of the existing Midwinter tracker, and of those that responded, only 24.1% actually used it  The majority of respondents were familiar with ALA Connect (93.4%), but most people do not use it regularly (59.3%)  When asked about a LITA-specific event tracker, respondents indicated that they would most like to see the following items included: meeting schedules, live feeds, presentation materials, and basic event details  When not able to attend, respondents indicated that they would follow events online (56%).  80.4% of respondents are members of LITA, and the majority (over 60%) work at colleges or universities

5.  Met with Jenny Levine to learn about Event Planner enhancements for ALA Connect  Reviewed recommendations from the LITA eParticipation Task Force (EPITF) and incorporated suggestions into the project  Reviewed draft recommendations from the LITA Online Programming Task Force (OPTF)  Met with EL Group P to learn about the audience they were targeting to survey for their project.

6.  Explored beta sites using Google Sites, WordPress, Drupal, and plan HTMLGoogle Sites WordPressDrupal  Worked with BIGWIG to populate a Google Calendar with all event happenings  Established hashtags for each event/group within LITA participating in conference  Established LITA accounts in UStream and SlideshareUStream Slideshare

7.  Google Sites did not work well with Twitter widget initially chosen – had to develop another approach  WordPress.com had a very limited selection of widgets – created event tracker in basic HTML as an alternative  Word Press.org was more flexible, but it was still difficult to incorporate widgets in the actual PHP code  Drupal did not work well with Google – but still able to incorporate BIGWIG calendar and leverage the Drupal events module.

8.  Create standard Twitter hashtags for each program/meeting at the event  Gather information about presenters –including websites and presentation titles for each program/meeting at the event  Inform event planners of the LITA UStream & Slideshare accounts so that program/meeting material can be gathered in those tools  Determine administrators for the LITA Now Website for the event