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Conference
Megan E. Welsh, University of Colorado Boulder, Chair

COMMITTEE MEMBERS

• Cindy Aalders, Regent College
• Jessica Boyer, Mount St. Mary’s University
• Craig Kubic, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
• Vance Thomas, Central Baptist Theological Seminary
• Oliver Schulz, Colorado Christian University
• Kris Veldheer, Catholic Theological Union
• Gillian Harrison Cain, Atla Director of Member Programs
• Denise McFarlin, Atla Staff Liaison, Logistics
• Jamie Lin, Atla Staff Liaison, Content

A YEAR IN REVIEW: 2020-2021 CONFERENCE COMMITTEE INITIA-
TIVES

The Conference Committee was busy over the past year! In August 
2020, we advertised a new conference proposal submission and 
notification timeline. This change gave potential presenters more 
time to think about, prepare, and submit their proposals. In Novem-
ber 2020, we shared plans to host a hybrid conference experience, 
expecting to have some of us gather in Fort Worth, TX as we acknowl-
edged the importance of making Atla Annual accessible for those 
who wished to attend virtually. We also announced changes to the 
proposal submission form which accommodated presentation pref-

COMMITTEE &  
TASK FORCE REPORTS



2  A NNUA L Y E A RBOOK

erences depending on presenter plans to attend in person or virtu-
ally, and we updated conversation group sessions to be 50 minutes 
in duration instead of 30 minutes as they were at Atla Annual 2020. 

In December of 2020, we hosted a webinar to support potential 
presenters in preparing their Atla Annual submissions. We covered 
the different conference session types with hints to help people deter-
mine which session they might want to choose for their topic, and we 
provided best practices for submitting a successful proposal. Then, in 
March 2021, about a year after many of us in North America faced the 
initial impacts of the pandemic, we announced that Atla Annual 2021 
would move to an exclusively online format. This was a hard deci-
sion to make as we so desperately wanted to share the same physi-
cal space with one another after a year apart, but it was a decision 
informed by Atla member plans for attending the conference which 
were collected in a survey sent by Atla in February 2021. This deci-
sion meant that more of our international colleagues could attend 
Atla Annual 2021 and that the majority of people who expressed that 
they could not or would not attend an in-person conference could 
also participate. The Conference Committee, once again, pivoted and 
directed all of our energy into preparing a rich and engaging virtual 
conference experience.  

ATLA ANNUAL 2021 CONFERENCE REVIEW 

We did it! Another Atla Annual has come and gone, and we 
survived another virtual conference! I am left contemplating how I 
will incorporate the innovative strategies I learned from colleagues 
and how I will ask difficult questions to motivate change in my own 
library context, a theme that arose from Alexia Hudson-Ward’s 
plenary address as she kicked off Atla Annual 2021 Online. She 
reminded us that we, as individuals and as a society, are not static. 
We will evolve, and, as we learn and grow, we should take action 
to improve the world around us. Moving beyond words and taking 
action can be messy and imperfect, but it is okay to fail forward. 
Failing forward is part of our learning and growth, and what better 
lesson to embody as we gradually emerge from a pandemic that has 
so deeply impacted our lives. How will you move forward over this 
next year? 



Committee &  Task Force Reports  3

This year, we hosted three plenary speakers, four pre-conferences, 
and thirty-nine concurrent sessions. Many of these sessions rein-
forced Alexia’s message of growth, inclusion, and action: Dr. Safiya 
Noble’s plenary calling librarians to be “people of conscience” and 
educate ourselves on the pressing social issues that impact so many 
of our lives; Christopher Lopez and Renee Romero led a pre-confer-
ence session challenging the notions of colonial imagination in order 
to reinforce user-centered design principles; Rebecca Donald and 
Cindy Lu each shared their research on creating a sense of belong-
ing in theological library spaces; we were invited to engage in the 
spirit of play by Chris Rosser and Grant Testut; and we were encour-
aged to think about the needs of the whole learner in Karl Stutzman 
and Brandon Board’s listen and learn session. Conference content 
was rich and thought-provoking, and many ideas were shared as 
participants placed questions in the chat and unmuted themselves 
to mirror the back and forth conversations we have so valued at 
past, in-person conferences. We added pre-conferences back into the 
schedule this year, and we embraced new aspects of virtual confer-
encing: customized snack boxes, as well as structured and unstruc-
tured time to socialize with one another in our virtual hotel lobby 
using the platform Remo.  

Overall, 336 participants registered for Atla Annual Online, 
demonstrating what Dr. Elías Ortega shared in his closing plenary 
address: “The pandemic world shows that there is not less connec-
tion, but more connection.” Compared to last year, we were a little 
bit more prepared for what a virtual conference would look like. 
We played with emoji reactions, raised our hands, and, best of all, 
sessions were arranged as meetings for maximum engagement: we 
could see and message each other!

A lot of work goes into planning a conference, and we need to 
acknowledge all of those who created such a fulfilling experience. 
Thank you to our sponsors, especially EBSCO who remains a major 
sponsor for this conference and activities year round. In all, we 
hosted thirteen vendors at our vendor social this year, allowing us 
to mimic the exhibitor hall as best we could in a virtual environment. 
We could not host such a great event without this crucial support 
from our sponsors.



4  A NNUA L Y E A RBOOK

Thank you also to the hardworking, yet tireless Atla staff who 
dedicated long hours to preparing for Atla Annual and handling the 
behind-the-scenes work that was so often invisible yet resulted in a 
seamless conference experience for the rest of us. Thank you to our 
Conference Committee members who worked alongside Atla staff 
to plan a rich learning experience. Also appreciated is the work that 
members of the Conference Committee and the Professional Devel-
opment Committee contributed by hosting sessions. They balanced 
their own conference experience with emceeing responsibilities 
which included introducing presenters, keeping track of time, and 
facilitating questions.

Most of all, thanks to everyone who joined Atla Annual 2021 as 
attendees! We know many of you would like to return to hallway 
conversations, hugs and handshakes, and tasty treats and caffeine 
waiting for you in the reception hall in between sessions. The Confer-
ence Committee and Atla staff are also eager for an in-person confer-
ence experience, and we cannot wait to see you in Baltimore next 
June! That said, over the next year, we will be considering ways we 
can support the robust community of international attendees and 
those who cannot typically join a place-based conference, yet who 
have attended our two virtual conferences. We want to be able to 
include everyone who wishes to join, regardless of location, in some 
conference activities next year. Stay tuned for more as we work to 
plan Atla 2022!  


