Where's wik'20? So Glad You Asked!

For many years, the Writing and Illustrating for Kids Conference has been held in Spain Park High School in the Birmingham area. But when the high school became unavailable for our use, we needed to find a new conference space, so I asked Co-Regional Advisor, Claudia Pearson, to introduce you to our venue for wik’20. I have a feeling you’re going to love it! 

Welcome to our not so new venue - the Homewood Library! If you attended wik18, you might’ve already seen the Homewood Library; we held the book signing and dessert party there on Friday. It's a very nice place, and the downtown Homewood area is similar to Decatur, Georgia: walkable, safe, diverse, with lots of great locally owned businesses. 

The Homewood Library has plenty of parking and plenty of conference rooms so we can continue to offer a great variety of breakout sessions. This format has worked well for our conferences in Alabama, but too often in the past, attendees were shut out of the most popular sessions because the classrooms would only accommodate a maximum of 25 attendees. At the library, there are not only two auditorium style spaces, much nicer than the classroom auditorium at Spain Park and better suited to our purposes, but also some of the additional conference rooms will hold up to 40 people!

We love holding events at libraries for several reasons. Our alliances with librarians, local government and nonprofit organizations who support what we do, help us spread the word about SCBWI. Like Joe Davich at the Decatur Library, Laura Tucker, the Children's Librarian at the Homewood library, has held leadership positions in state librarian organizations. She is a great ally for SCBWI and a valuable liaison with those organizations. Through her, the library will promote our conference and our public activities to both librarians and library patrons.

Libraries also generate walk-through interest for our published members’ book signing and our artists’ portfolio show. And another bonus for the Homewood library: we will be close to kids! The library is near the central park area in Homewood, is only blocks away from two of the three elementary schools and the middle school, and is directly across the street from a Catholic grammar school.

There will be plenty of room to sit together for lunch at the library, spaces for critique groups to gather, a park where you can stretch your legs nearby, and a wonderful Greek restaurant across the street (Nabeel’s) if you don’t like what we offer in our box lunches from Urban Cookhouse. And it is walking distance from the Aloft hotel!


DIRECTIONS:

The Library is also easy to reach for those coming from out of town. Take I-20/59 straight into Birmingham from East or West, and take Highway 31 South to get into Homewood. If you are coming from the south you can take Highway 280, Highway 31 or I-65 to Oxmoor/Montevallo/Hollywood (it’s all the same street, just changes names from east to west LOL) and the library is right there! There are also a number of good restaurants and hotel options nearby (in case you didn’t get your reservation at the Aloft - the room block is almost all sold out).


We look forward to seeing old friends and making new ones in Homewood. Won’t you join us and bring your career into sharper focus at wik’20?

                                  CLICK HERE AND REGISTER FOR WIK’20 TODAY!