Go Paperless at Your Next Conference

I know I said I was going on vacation but, well, after this.

A Twitter conversation last night and today centered on conference handouts, and the upcoming CASLPA 2011 Conference. I HATE printers as a rule and also dislike having to organize printed stuff. It is also quite expensive and not very Green (Earth Day is next Friday) to print everything that comes across your computer screen. I know people say "But I LIKE to have printed handouts" but it is something I am just going to be unapologetically cranky about. Please get over it. It really can be wasteful, especially if you have digital tools with which you can replace printers. Namely, social bookmarking, your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch and the free iBooks app are all you need to view and archive handouts and notes at your next conference. 

Ok, I will apologize, and you must forgive me because a dreaded part of my job the past two years has involved dealing with printers and gross overprinting. You are not really being earth-abusive if you print your handouts when going to a conference. But please consider the following alternative.  It works roughly the same on iPods, iPhones and iPads.



 
You might also consider taking all your notes in Google Docs (after downloading the free Google app), which will make them easily sharable with colleagues who did not attend the conference. You can download, save, and paperlessly share PDF handouts in Google Docs too, by the way.

As Apple says, you can backup all your PDF iBooks when you periodically sync your device to iTunes. That link also describes how to print your PDF iBooks. But don't. :-)

Have a wonderful week.  Happy Spring!