At 7:30pm the event temporarily closed due to full capacity, but luckily the doors reopened at 8:00pm. This had been the first time I walked in to the San Francisco Library and I was blown away, by the library’s grand entrance and extensive array of books! To get to the main atrium, I took the elevator to the third floor to the International/Chinese section. I saw people dancing, talking, enjoying beverages by and listening down below to the main floor where there was a speaker. There were a few interactive activities throughout the library and one of them was sponsored by the Exploratorium. The objective was to get the guests to pick out a random card with a funny joke/pun and to read it to someone and interact with others in the room. “What did one candle say to the other candle? Will you go out with me?”
Other amenities activities included donuts and snacks, organic local coffee, VR meditation glasses, Yoga, small art exhibits, and dancers hanging from the ceiling. It was hard not to be occupied with something other than sitting down to read a book or listening to presentations.
On every floor there were rooms reserved for different speakers and presentations by the hour. The first opening presentation of the night was presented by Neal Benezra, Director of SFMOMA, followed by Emmanuel Lebrun-Damiens, Consul General of France in San Francisco, Dr. Mary Wardell Ghirarduzzi, SF Library Commission President, and Holly Kernan, KQED Chief of Content with Mina Kim from KQED. I attended a few different presentations, popping in and out of the rooms to listen to different speakers.