As celebration day arrives, we encourage you to take a breather and reflect on what you have accomplished over the last year. Celebrate your victories as a team and as individuals. You are making a difference.

Whether we spoke with you often or just a little, we want you to know that we are proud of your accomplishments and humbled by your dedication. Thank you for bringing World IA Day to your community and for helping to grow IA awareness around the world.

Below, we offer a few final tips for your big day.

It is important to make your attendees feel comfortable and welcome as soon as they arrive to your celebration. Ensure that there is clear signage at the venue entrance to indicate attendees are at the right place. Once within the space, signage should clearly direct attendees so they can easily find what they need (restrooms/water closets, beverages, exits, reserved seating, etc.).

If you are hosting your event at a public space, such as a coffee house or library, make sure your World IA Day celebration is clearly identifiable so others can easily join the group. Consider welcoming the public to join your celebration too by indicating everyone is welcome on posted signage.

**Do a walk-through from street / entrance to the celebration space. ** Once signage is posted do a walk through from the street to the celebration space to be sure your signage is clear. If you will require attendees to check-in, be sure to set up this space in a place that is accessible to all and easy to spot.

Communicate logistics to local sponsors If you have an agreement with sponsors and the venue to provide a table or exhibition space, be sure you have volunteers who understand the logistics of where each sponsor will be setup for the day and what they might need. For example: number of chairs, size of the table, where sponsors can place a banner, electrical outlets and internet access.

Communicate arrangements for those with special needs. Ensure your volunteer team knows which attendees might need special assistance. Be sure your volunteers are prepared to clearly explain accommodations that have been made to make their experience an enjoyable one. Offer assistance from a dedicated volunteer should the attendee need extra help.

Reserve a few seats at the front for people who need them. This recommendation comes from the STC Accessibility SIG, which has produced accessibility guides to their annual conference since 2002. They point out that this small accommodation is helpful for many people. They might need to be near the speaker to hear clearly or see the project screen, or have trouble with attention and benefit from the direct line of sight to the speaker.

CART operators or interpreters need a place near the front where they hear the speaker and see the slides. Interpreters need a place where they can stand and be seen without distracting from the speaker or blocking the view of attendees.

Make room for wheelchairs Be ready to remove chairs to make room for anyone using a wheelchair, as well as for anyone they are with to sit near them.

Help sign interpreters be visible If you have sign language interpreters, make time to talk to them when they arrive and try to accommodate and ideal setup for them to work. They may also ask you for a list of names for speakers and presenters or other important technical terms, so they can be sure to get them right. Sign interpreting can be exhausting, so if there are multiple interpreters ensure they are seated where they can trade places without disturbing anyone. Plan to provide additional seats nearby for anyone relying on the interpreters to hear the talks.

TIP: If you are making a video of the presentations, you might also want to make a video of the interpreters that can be shown “picture in picture” on the recordings.

Technology loves to fail at inopportune moments and can cause undue stress if you are not prepared. Conference style events should factor in time to their program to adequately test equipment such as projectors, laptops, remotes, sound systems, as well as streaming or recording equipment. Keep extra batteries and power cords on hand and be sure to plug equipment into a dedicated power source.

For smaller events, you may not have any equipment to test. However, it is still important to be sure there is a way for everyone to hear and be heard. Ensure you have a way to grab attention and maintain order when needed. Communicate these signals to your attendees from the start so they know what to do and expect.

As a participating World IA Day location, one of the few expectations we have is that you save room in your program to include specific information, provided by the global team, at the beginning of your celebration.

We present this information here in no particular order:

Code of Conduct To ensure the safety and comfort of all attendees, rules of conduct were created for World IA Day. We ask that you share them so everyone is aware of them. The code of conduct can also be found in the footer of our website should you choose to provide a link to our public document.

Welcome Video A welcome video is put together each year and is one piece of content we use to unite all locations. The goal is to introduce the our annual global theme, welcome everyone to the celebration, and bring awareness to all attendees of the global nature of our celebration. This video is produced by the hard work of many volunteers and is translated into multiple languages. We request that you share the video with everyone attending your celebration.

The link to our video will be distributed in early February, at the latest, and is typically around 3 minutes or less in length.

Theme Illustration Starting in WIAD19, we are also using theme illustration for the global theme. The goal here is to provide a consistent way to depict the annual global theme throughout marketing and social media efforts. This illustration is produced by students and is translated into multiple languages. We request that you share the video across your social media channels. The illustration will be distributed in October, at the latest, and we will include different dimensions for use.

Acknowledge Sponsor and Speakers We work hard to procure funding and in-kind donations at the global level so that we can distributed goodies to all participating locations. In return, we give our word to our sponsors that they will be officially thanked at each location. We will provide sample slides with our global sponsorship information included in early February and appreciate you taking a minute to recognize their contribution to our global celebration.

For local sponsors, be sure to set aside time to thank them too. Building good relationships will make them more likely to consider sponsorship in subsequent years.

Last but not least, be sure to give your speakers love too. Whether new or seasoned, well known or unknown, it takes a lot of courage to stand in front of an audience. These people have made an important contribution to the success of your day, often free of charge, and providing a positive experience where they feel appreciated not only leaves a good impression, it also improves the reputation of World IA Day in general.

If the venue provides access to wifi, be sure to clearly communicate login credentials to your volunteers, speakers, sponsors and attendees. We can assure you it will save volunteers from providing this information over and over again to attendees. If the venue does not provide this service, it is just as important to communicate this information as well.

As World IA Day grows, so does the importance of using consistent hashtags to help people learn about our celebration. User generated content is a powerful promotion tool so it is important to let people know what hashtags we have selected to unite our celebration globally. Please take a moment to review our Social Media Guide and be sure to communicate our official hashtags for World IA Day.

Take a moment to look around your celebration. You and your team made it all happen! Bask in the glow of your awesomeness. You deserve it!