I admit, it’s taken me a while to catch on to the new lingo in which “consume” does not have anything to do with eating, but you have to agree it’s a catchy blog post title.

Anyway, as most of you know, the National Trust for Historic Preservation is holding its annual meeting in Nashville this year. For those of us unable to attend, even though it’s not too far from these parts, the National Trust is offering a menu of options to still participate from a distance, or as they say, be a “Virtual Attendee“:

• Live webcasts of 15 conference sessions:

Monday, October 12: The Nashville Challenge, 2:15 PM – 5:30 PM CST–well missed that one . . .
Tuesday, October 13: Special Lecture: The Preservation Story of Nashville and Middle Tennessee
Wednesday, October 14: Opening Plenary Session, 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM CST
Thursday, October 15:
Foreclosure: Hitting Home in Historic Urban Areas, 8:15 AM – 9:45 AM CST
21st Century Historic Resources Survey, 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM CST
Local Preservation Commissions Taking the Lead in Greening Design Guidelines, 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM CST
Advocating for Community-Centered Schools, 3:45 PM – 5:15 PM CST

Friday, October 16:
Green Rehabilitation: Meeting the Standards While Achieving Sustainability Goals, 8:15 AM – 9:45 AM CST
Help is on the Way: Greening Your Historic Home, 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM CST
Historic Wood Windows: How Green Are They Really?, 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM CST
Making Your Garden Grow: Programs, Audiences, and Support, 3:45 PM – 5:15 PM CST
Special Lecture: Before Their Shadows Fade, 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM CST

Saturday, October 17: Closing Plenary Session, 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM CST

• Live feeds of 20 conference sessions. I wasn’t familiar with this concept, but apparently a person there will be reporting on the session while the session is going, and you can get on and read about it. You can comment apparently but your comments won’t automatically appear–it’s not a chat room. Of special note to us are two sessions on Thursday, one called “Diversifying Heritage Tourism in Natchez” another titled “Different Strategies, Same Success: Multiple Approaches to Rosenwald School Restoration.” I wonder if these feeds will be viewable after the session is over or you have to log in during the session? Likewise the webcasts?
• The Trust is also making available many of the presentations and handouts from a number of sessions
• If you just don’t have the time to, like, actually sit and watch webcasts or read whole feeds or even look over presentations, you can follow the conference on Twitter

It will be interesting to see how this really energetic push into a whole variety of digital tools will work out for the Trust. Will it encourage or discourage people from attending future meetings if they can see the one or two sessions they really wanted to go to on the webcast or feed instead? I guess if the Trust doesn’t share which sessions will be available this way until the days just before the conference , they don’t have to worry too much. Maybe these freebies will bring in new members who would never have paid up for a conference before seeing some of the sessions from previous years?

Finally, for those who consider the journey as interesting as the destination, read the Vintage Roadside blog, which has been chronicling the week-long road trip from Oregon to the National Trust conference in Nashville. Vintage Roadside has a great Flickr photostream as well–you mid-century modernists out there will need to sit down before viewing.

Categories: National Trust, Preservation People/Events