This weekend, library professionals coast to coast will trek to one of the most beautiful locales in the country to talk about innovation in libraries. Telluride, Colo., the location of R-Squared – The Risk & Reward Conference, is not the easiest place to get to. Even for those living in the Denver area, it’s an eight-hour drive. Yet hundreds of people from places as far as New Hampshire, Alabama, Oregon and even Canada are making their way to Telluride, drawn by the promise of connecting with other risk-takers and tackling big ideas with a fresh, creative perspective.

Ann-Louise Larrson has one of the farthest treks. An academic librarian from Linnaeus University Library in Växjö, Sweden, Larrson hopes to find ideas on how to attract new students and “make them feel that our instruction sessions are helpful for them,” she says. Part of what made R-Squared so appealing to her is the fact that the speakers aren’t librarians but hail from industries like retail, marketing, architecture and technology. “As librarians, we definitely need new ideas from other sectors.”

She admits it wasn’t only R-Squared that inspired her trip stateside. Larrson is the first to participate in a two-week staff exchange program between her own Linnaeus University Library and Auraria Library at the University of Colorado at Denver.

Mary Somerville, director of the Auraria Library, taught as a Fulbright Scholar at the Swedish School of Library and Information Science, where Larrson was her student. Somerville has “organizational transformation aspirations,” she says, one thing that she and Linnaeus University Library Director Catta Torhell have in common.

Together they initiated a library staff exchange, “to encourage exposure to new workplace perspectives,” says Somerville.

When Torhell traveled to Denver to discuss the logistics of the staff exchange program, Somerville arranged a meeting with some of the areas “thinkers and do-ers,” including Pam Sandlian Smith, director of Anythink Libraries, and Denver architect Dennis Humphries. Both are involved in the launch of R-Squared and spoke of their plans for the conference. Torhell and Somerville decided to take advantage of this unique experience and schedule Larrson’s trip during R-Squared.

Kiersten Allen, director of Louisburg Public Library in Louisburg, Kan., first heard about R-Squared at this year’s PLA conference in Philadelphia. After attending a “ConverStation” about R-Squared, she and her colleague went back to their hotel to brainstorm ideas.

“We were in a library funk,” says Allen. After a losing bond initiative in 2008, she says they had no idea of the extent of the damage done. Staff was uninspired; everyone seemed satisfied with the status quo.

“Sometimes you hear things when you’re ready to hear them,” she says, and learning about R-Squared was one of those moments. She knew she had to get her team to Telluride any way she could. She also knew sending only one person wouldn’t be enough. “If several people experience the same thing, the validation is there,” she says, and there are more opportunities to make long-lasting change.

When they saw there were scholarship opportunities, “it was like Winnie the Pooh’s black cloud had been lifted.” Her staff immediately started working together on their submission. The atmosphere at the library began to change.

Allen says it had been a long time since they had “the fire, the drive” to explore new ideas, and R-Squared is already inspiring that.

Their enthusiasm has touched their community as well. A library customer heard about the conference, and that staff was driving all the way to Telluride from Louisburg, and made an anonymous donation to cover the funds to fly.

It’s yet to be seen whether R-Squared will live up to Allen’s expectations – and those of the other 350 attendees traveling to Telluride. Allen says she’s not looking for other librarians to commiserate with about the trials and tribulations of the industry.

“And I don’t want to jump into someone else’s boat, nor do I want anyone to jump into mine,” she says. “I want to work together to build a whole new boat.

“Twenty-five years from now, library schools will look back at R-Squared 2012 as a turning point for libraries,” she says.