You are invited to OLA Super Conference 2022: Gather / Se rassembler.

This year we will once again be joining together virtually from February 1-5, 2022.

The Super Conference Planning Team continues to build on this year’s fantastic event and promises an even bigger program with more opportunities to engage with your fellow library people and other experts beyond library land.

This year’s theme is GATHER. The word “gather” can have a variety of different meanings depending on the context. Firstly, it brings the thought of something that we currently can’t do: coming together in a physical place. Gather together, se rassembler en communaute. After the experiences of the past many unprecedented months, many of us have a new appreciation of the importance of this simple, fundamental act.

We learned much about how gathering need not mean physical gathering. Our conference this year will again be virtual. In this context, we may be gathering through our computers, but we are continuing to come together as a community, connected by the exchange of ideas, passions and challenges that unite our profession. We continue to gather our clever minds and human hearts, even from a distance.

To gather is also to harvest, récolter quelque chose de complètement développé. It is the outcome of seeds sowed, of work that has made it to the final stage. Super Conference is a time to gather our experiences for sharing with each other, and in turn, with our communities. The excitement of coming together in such a gathering is to celebrate our learning and build community amongst ourselves through the sharing of our knowledge.

This is also a time for us to summon resources within ourselves and each other – to gather our strength, rassembler nos forces. We are emerging from a time of great collective difficulty with the hope that we can continue the work of change and create a better, more equitable, more creative and compassionate world. This work requires us to use this moment to gather our fortitude to support each other and to gather our wisdom to build a future that allows us all to succeed.

This is another meaning of “gather”: a swelling, a momentum of energy, comme une vague qui se rassemble. This is the passion and energy for change we look forward to at the OLA Super Conference.

We don’t take your support of the OLA Super Conference for granted, and during these times of uncertainty we need that support more than ever. On behalf of the Ontario Library Association Board of Directors I am thrilled to invite you to Super Conference 2022: the virtual edition.

Keep an eye out for our Call for Proposals to open in early August. You will have until September 27 to pitch your best ideas to the planning team.

See you soon,

Andrea Cecchetto
OLA President 2021