The Venue
Touting a Western theme, the 2006 ALA Midwinter Meeting was held January 20-25 at the Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center (HBGCC) in San Antonio, Texas USA. Nestled in the heart of historic downtown San Antonio along the banks of the famed River Walk, HBGCC plays host to more than 300 events each year with over 750,000 convention delegates from around the world.
The convention center is named after veteran U.S. Congressman, Henry B. Gonzalez, who is credited with having paved the way for other Hispanics to succeed in politics by becoming the first Mexican American in modern times to be elected to the Texas State Senate.
The Meeting
As in previous years, Thomson Scientific planned several announcements and activities designed to increase visibility, including a press kit, ads in the conference programs, a breakfast workshop, an entertaining corporate reception, and in-booth promotions.
In keeping with the western theme of the meeting, visitors to the always prominent Thomson Scientific 20 x 20 Island booth, where first greeted by an unexpected addition to the booth personnel.
Complete with Stetson and chaps, cow poke—Duane—‘rustled up’ and entertained conference attendees; doled out pens and souvenirs; and directed customers to Thomson Scientific staff, who where on hand to demo the suite of databases within
ISI Web of KnowledgeSM (Web of Science®,
Journal Citation Reports®,
BIOSIS Previews®, and
Derwent Innovations IndexSM to name a few); as well as Thomson ResearchSoft bibliographic management products—
EndNote®,
ProCite®,
Reference Manager®,
RefViz™ and
WriteNote®.
At a presentation held Friday, January 20th, Jim Pringle, vice present of development at Thomson Scientific, offered an enthusiastic capacity crowd a glimpse into the new Journal Use Reports. Developed in partnership with top institutions including Dartmouth College, University of Chicago, University of Michigan, Drexel University, and University of Melbourne, this journal utilization metrics offers librarians a new means to measure the value of their journal collections based on a combination of citation and usage data.
On Saturday, January 21st, those ALA attendees staying at the main conference hotel returned to their rooms to find an awaiting amenity, courtesy of Thomson Scientific. Left in every room by was a gift bag containing information on Thomson Scientific, bottled water and delicious snacks.
Later that night, Thomson Scientific hosted it’s now much anticipated corporate ‘Roundup’. This year, the affair was held at the Buckhorn Salon and Museum. Credited to be the location where Teddy Roosevelt recruited Rough Riders and Pancho Villa is rumored to have planned the Mexican Revolution, the Buckhorn maintains many of its original furnishings, including the 120 year old main bar.
The Buckhorn is also home to an award winning museum. Not your ordinary museum, it is home to an amazing collection of mounted animals—bears, dears, steer, elk, snakes, horns, fins, feathers, and the Hall of Texas History Wax Museum.
While marveling at the museum’s awesome collection of ‘critters’, the hundreds of attendees enjoyed a wide variety of delicious vittles and beverage selections, while being entertained by the local country trio— Chris Story and the Southern Edge.
At the end of the evening, in keeping with a long standing tradition, each quest received a commemorative ceramic tile. As always, the 2006 Midwinter Thomson Scientific corporate reception was a huge success.
On Sunday, Thomson Scientific hosted a workshop entitled, ‘ISI Web of Knowledge: A Commitment to Innovation’. Paneled by a host of Thomson Scientific staff (Jeff Dougherty, Jim Pringle, Renny Guida, and Nancy Matus), the highlight of the workshop was the announcement of the development of EndNote Web. EndNote Web provides a full range of bibliographic management on the Web. Users can import and edit references via a personal Web account and use these references to cite in papers and create bibliographies. EndNote Web searches ISI Web of KnowledgeSM, PubMed and hundreds of online library catalogs to help users build their personal reference collections easily.
As with Journal Use Reports, the announcement of EndNote Web was greeted with a great deal of expectant eagerness and attention.
In addition to handing out thousands of much adored pens and blinking ‘star’ necklaces embossed with the Thomson logo, Thomson Scientific also held daily drawings during which attendees who correctly answered four questions about Thomson Scientific and its information solutions had five chances to win a $500 American Express gift checks. The promotion generated hundreds of participants, resulting in important sales leads.
From the exhibits to the presentations to the promotions and reception, once again, the ALA Midwinter meeting proved to be a show that Thomson Scientific must continue to support for the building of important client relations, sharing of knowledge, and camaraderie.
About ALA
Originally founded in 1876 in Philadelphia and now headquartered in Chicago, the American Library Association (ALA) is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 64,000 members.
The Midwinter meeting is of particular importance to the Academic & Government Strategic Business Unit. With an estimated attendance between 8,000 and 10,000, the meeting offers Thomson Scientific the opportunity to network with existing clients and identify new customers.
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