– Bianca Bold (PLD Assistant Administrator) –
The end of an ATA Conference is always bittersweet to me. On the one hand, there’s that great sense of accomplishment, besides an intense bubbling of new ideas—which usually results in an impossibly long to-do list. On the other hand, saying good-bye to friends and colleagues, most of whom I only get to see once a year, leaves me feeling half empty. The bright side: there’s always next year to look forward to! Warm Miami looks very promising, and I bet the Brazilian crowd will help beat this year’s mark of 1,842 attendees.
In delightful Chicago, 175 new and old PLD members had plenty of opportunities to mingle and network, the highlight being the PLD party on Thursday. A number of veterans have voiced their opinion since then, and this seems to be unanimous: it was the best event organized by the PLD in many years. We should all thank Elenice Araújo, Chair of the Hospitality Committee, the powerhouse behind the event. She and all the members who joined us made it an unforgettable evening of karaoke, conversation and laughter.
I would also like to thank our Distinguished Speaker, Angela Levy, for her two special sessions, and all other PLD members who kindly presented sessions in the Portuguese track aiming to help colleagues in their continuing education efforts: Cláudia Belhassof, Jayme Costa-Pinto, Marsel de Souza and Naomi Sutcliffe de Moraes. Let’s also not forget our PLD colleagues who presented in other tracks.
Several PLD members have contacted us about volunteering for our Division. Thank you so much for your interest! We’ll soon announce the changes we’re implementing for the 2014-2015 Leadership Council and Hospitality Committee.
PLD Annual Meeting
As usual, we’ll be collecting reviews for publication on our blog in the next few months. If you really liked a specific session, please drop us a line at ata.pld@gmail.com before you start drafting your text. If you’d like to write about your impressions of the Conference as a whole, just go ahead and submit your review to the same email address. For all submissions, please follow these guidelines: texts should be 500-700 words in length and be in English, Portuguese or bilingual.
Finally, we’d like to organize our photos in an album that we can share with everyone. Do you have pictures of the PLD party, any sessions by PLD members or any shots of you and your colleagues during the Conference? Please send them our way.
I leave my huge thanks to all Conference attendees, wishing to meet old and new colleagues in Miami and hoping to see the PLD grow even stronger with all your help.
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