This week, the very first Charleston Conference Asia took place in Bangkok, Thailand at the Royal Orchid Sheraton Hotel. From January 26 through January 28, 2026- well over 600 attendees joined us in person. All three days were packed (literally, many of the sessions were standing room only) with excitement, engaging speakers covering important and timely topics, opportunities for open discussion and, of course, socializing and delicious food. And a mesmerizing fireworks display. The Community Board in Whova was busy this week. The attendee chat was very active during the entire event with attendees interacting and sharing their photos. The main photos shared were in the Exhibit Hall, slides during sessions, food and lots of group photos! And many photos from the Chulalongkorn University Library Tour. The "Ask Organizers Anything" Feature was also heavily utilized and helpful. There were many sessions held with so much content this week, but here are just a few highlights. The videos linked below were done by the Suan Dusit University, and we thank them for their excellent work. They did a great job of capturing the feel of the Conference energy this week!

On Day One, guests filed into the Pompadour room at 8:00am as the registration desk opened for the day. In Charleston style, each guest was given their printed program, lanyard, tote bag, water bottle, pen, notepad and bookmark and warmly welcomed to the event. Throughout the morning, three different FSCI courses took place concurrently. These were the final sessions for the online courses taking place over the few weeks leading up to the event. The 20 Minute Vendor Information Sessions started at 9:00am and were back to back throughout out the day. Informit, Springer Nature, Third Iron, Clarivate, De Gruyter Brill all rounded out the morning, presenting to packed rooms, breaking at 11:30am for the Grand Opening of the Vendor Showcase. The exhibit hall was lively and full throughout the day, and exhibitors were enthused. After lunch for attendees ended at 1pm, there were three more FSCI courses held during the afternoon, a focus group by De Gruyter Brill, and more 20 Minute Vendor Information Sessions presented by Elsevier, ACS Publications, Gale Cengage Learning Asia, BMJ Group, SciFlow, The American Physical Society, CNKI Marketing, and University of Toronto Press. At 4:00pm in the first floor lobby, the first round of poster sessions were held. Presenters chatted about their projects and showcased their posters which focused on topics like the Future Librarians Want, Leading the Change, multiple posters on AI Application in academic libraries, chatbots, and information literacy. The Welcome Reception ended the day with some delicious food and time to mingle with other attendees to talk about the day.

On Day Two, The Opening Keynote: Asia in the Climate Change Landscape started the day at 9:00am. Richard Gallagher, President of Annual Reviews and Pote Lee, Chairman of iGroup Asia Pacific, Ltd. opened the session and welcomed attendees to the Conference. Keynote speaker Joyashree Roy, from the Asian Institute of Technology, talked to attendees about whether there is or if there can be (or should be) an Asian perspective in the climate change landscape. Roy addressed the question of if it is a ‘global common problem’ of the ‘one climate system’ why there is need for a regional perspective, and gave some specific roles of institutional libraries and of publishers in supporting positive change. The Exhibit Hall opened at 10:15am with a tea break, and concurrent sessions began at 10:45am. Librarian representatives from Hayam Wuruk Perbanas University, Hong Kong Baptist University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Tuanku Syed Faizuddin Petra Library, Universiti Malaysia Perlis Taipei Medical University, Taiwan, Office of Library and Information Service, Kaohsiung Medical University, National Central Library, Taiwan, University of the Philippines Diliman, The Education University of Hong Kong, Khon Kaen University and many more presented topics throughout the day that included Regional Trends, Global Connections, Global Equity, AI transformation in libraries, AI Informed Collections, AI and Research Integrity, GenAI in Library Services, libraries as catalysts of change and much more, and three different groups of exciting 6 minute lightning round presentations were held during the afternoon, moderated by Rashidah Bolhassan, Erin Gallagher, and Prashant Pandey. The afternoon also held the second round of Poster sessions in the first floor lobby. Bridging the Digital Divide in Southern Africa, more about information literacy and AI use in internships and how to prevent cheating tips were a few topics showcased. The Afternoon Keynote Presentation: India's ONOS and beyond: Equitable access to knowledge resources was the last session of the day at 4:00 PM. Keynote Speaker Devika Madalli, INFLIBNET UGC-IUC India, talked with attendees about the One Nation One Subscription in India and outcomes during the first year of its launch. The outdoor Gala dinner at the Siam Yacht Club had a beautiful fireworks display, amazing food and was a great end to the second day enjoying the warm temperatures that evening.

On Day Three, the Keynote Presentation: Strategies and Practices of Library Alliances in Building an Equitable Knowledge Ecosystem started the day. Bin Zhang, Library Director, Renmin University of China, talked with attendees about the case study of the Library of Renmin University of China, exploring the strategic pathways and practices of academic resource sharing and knowledge ecosystem co-creation, and he proposed that library alliances and collaborative mechanisms are key to building an equitable knowledge ecosystem. He also talked about role of the Renmin University Library as the Secretariat of the Beijing University Library Alliance, its efforts in supporting remote and impoverished areas, and its collaboration with international partners in building special collections. The presentation was done in Chinese, and an AI translator was used. The Exhibit Hall opened at 10:00am with a tea break. Concurrent sessions began at 10:45am covering topics like open access books in Asia, AI in academic libraries, breaking barriers with gender equity, metadata and Asia scholarship, resource sharing for all, empowering early career researchers in emerging research communities and the Charleston Trendspotting Initiative and more 6 minute lightning round presentations were held throughout the day, moderated by Christopher Chan, Mike Jones and Heather Staines, with more coverage of AI with: research integrity, use among students in Indonesia, assessing the impact of AI tools, and then making knowledge inclusive and equitable, and libraries as publishers in India, a global view of libraries as publishers, and building global collections.

Concurrent sessions were held during the afternoon until 2:30pm where the closing session was held. Attendees said their good-byes and left excited to take their experiences back to their homes, institutions and organizations. After over a year of intense planning by the Charleston Hub team, it was great to see so much participation in person, all the buzz on social media and the success of this event. All of these sessions were recorded, and that content will remain in Whova for three months for on demand viewing by our registered attendees. After this short embargo period, all of this content will move over to our channel, where it will be openly shareable. Since there wasn't a virtual component of this event, this is a great way to experience the sessions from this week if you weren't able to attend, or if you were there in person and found a session inciteful and thought provoking and want to share it with others. Stay tuned for future updates about this event and more- you can sign up to receive updates about the Conference by joining our mailing list HERE.