I had breakfast with Steve Dembo and met Rushton Hurley, founder of Next Vista. Among the range of conversations we had was specifically about conferences since we are indeed attending one. I was reminded Steve of his podcast from about two years ago when he shared his experience with open conferencing. From that podcast I was able to run my own open conference and incorporate its principles several times since then.
While I have no illusions that mainstream conferences such as FETC will go so far as to engage in the controlled chaos of an open conference, there are some simple things that would make much more sense and provide participants with a much better experience and allow them to do more than simply come away with one good idea.
Most conferences have pre-conference workshops which are designed to provide an in depth opportunity to explore some concepts or develop skill in a particular area. The main conference offers concurrent sessions or keynotes that are meant to challenge and/or provide awareness of these ideas. This seems backwards. Here’s the idea I shared with Steve and Rushton.
I recently attended a 2 day First Nations conference where I went to a session on the second day on a documentary highlighting the work of 10 schools doing exemplary work with First Nations students. Each segment was about 5-7 minutes showcasing the various schools. It was a great documentary and I immediately wanted to know more about some of these schools. I realized after that several of these schools hosted sessions on day one. I didn’t know that or make the connection. Had the documentary been shown at the beginning of the conference I’d have definitely checked out those school’s sessions to find out more, ask questions and solidify my learning.
Thursday, I went to Alan November’ssession on Cultivating a World Class Ethic. In it he refers to RSS, Custom Searches, Skype and a host of other tools and ideas. Alan is acompelling speaker, I’ve heard him many times and know the impact he has on his audience. But I’m sure they left with more questions than answers. I think that’s good thing. But where’s the follow up? Howlasting is this? What if during his presentation he was able to refer to upcoming workshops at the end of the conference that would help them understand more about RSS, custom searches and Skype? What if the conference committee began with finding great speakers like Alan and then based on the content of his talk, found follow-up workshops that would support and deepen their learning? I’m know conference committees attempt to categorize and try and find balance in presentations but most participants don’t easily make these connections and have the opportunity for more just in time learning. Open conferences are designed to do just that; meet the needs of learners right now.
So that’s my idea. Not a radical shift but one that I feel might help transform conferences from being hit and miss efforts.
Technorati Tags: fetc, alannovember, nextvista, stevedembo, rushtonhurley
I quite agree that the “open” atmosphere would benefit attendees as much or more than the actual concurrent sessions. Of course, I’m not at FETC, so I can’t comment on it. However, recently at TETC in TN, with about 1500 in attendance, I saw very few people actually carrying laptops to sessions. Wifi was not free to attendees either. But during the conference a friend of mine and I sat at a table outside Starbucks and did mini workshops on Twitter, Photo Story, Discovery streaming, and more. It was the most fun I’ve had in a long time working practically one-on-one. I would love to see the round tables in the exhibit hall where people eat lunch used for mini-sessions like these. Just sit down with a laptop and put up a sign that has your topic. People could come and go as they please, but you would never have more than 7 or 8 people in attendance. Thanks for sharing!
I too agree. I spent 15 minutes after Steve Dembo’s presentation yesterday helping a teacher from Florida set up Twitter, Skype and Delicious. He was watching Aly and I use Google docs to take notes, use Ustream to watch another session, and communicate with our Twitter friends, and after the conference he came up to me and said, I feel like I don’t know anything. Can you please help me with some of these items. I was more then happy to spend the time with him, because it wasn’t more then a year ago that someone sat with me to help me. It really is about developing that professional development network. Think we need more about that.
My in-a-perfect-world vision would also revise the conference model so that it sets the level of challenge. For example, a session on Skype might be marked “N” for New exposure or “A” for Advanced tools and use.
Great post, Dean. I set up a Ning community for the latest BarCamp held here in Saskatoon with the hope that conversations would continue, but it never really got off the ground. I think it’s important that people have the ability to follow up on the discussions and presentations from conferences. Otherwise, much of what goes on is lost in a pile of notes we never look at again. I’m just not sure what the secret is to keeping that going.
Here’s an ODD Concept. I’m actually responding to a blog post. Something I’ve not done in a long time. And definitely something I need to start doing again, and more often.
You bring up some VERY valid points Dean. For the most part FETC has been a success for me. I’m more interested in the networking possibilities that are present, with the sessions secondary and possibly even tertiary in my mindset on levels of importance. I think back to my first experience of NECC last summer in Atlanta. I was amazed and awestruck at the size and volume of the entire experience. I made plenty of effort to attend as many sessions that I possibly could. But still it was nothing compared to the new content, new thoughts on learning, and discussions that I had at the small areas such as the Blogger’s Cafe. As I’ve walked around the convention center here in Orlando, that is the ONE thing that strikes me as missing from this conference. The lack of these areas to me is big. Where is the networking and collaboration happening? Is it Happening? Other than the small bubble of educators I’ve been walking around with, I just don’t see it.
Maybe going to Educon next year at the same time might be a little more on my docket?
Tim and Kevin,
Those are always the most exciting, exhilarating moments of any conference. Nice that you’ve created those experiences. Those learning experiences reflect Personal Learning and serendipity in a context that most conference designers are hesitant to incorporate.
Aly,
That would be another simple conference format change. Thanks.
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I am beginning to see a paradigm shift in ed-tech and in conference format. We need more conversation and communication about what we do, what we believe, and where we’re going. The quality and quantity of my own learning has dramatically increased and deepened as result of relationships built “virtually” in Second Life and on Twitter. In short, we need more “unconferences” like Edublogger-Con and EduCon that will facilitate our learning from, and sharing with each other. One of the things I remember as extraordinary about NECC ’07 was being in a small room with like-minded educators, in a conversation lead by David Warlick. We talked to each other, we were heard, and we learned. Isn’t that the kind of collaborative thinking that we’d like to see our students do?
Dean,
Thanks for the post–very thought-provoking. I’ve experienced the post Alan November feelings myself.
Tim,
I really like the Starbucks idea–I’ll be offering that at TCEA in a couple of weeks!
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For the OpenEd conference some software was developed especially for the kind of follow-up you are looking for. http://www.51weeks.com/
Dean,
This year at the December TIES conference in Minnesota they tried something demonstrated at NECC last summer. Several of the keynote speakers were scheduled after their session for an informal roundtable “Communities of Interest” session. This allowed people who wanted to follow up with the presenter the opportunity to do so in a Q and A session. I attended one with Chris Dede on Role Playing Games and Simulations in K-12 classrooms that was quite good. Of course, that meant that I missed out on other sessions, however, TIES set up a a href=”https://wiki.ties.k12.mn.us/>Wiki for presenters to share information that helped a lot.
Dean,
It was great to actually meet you at FETC. But I have to say you are right on target with a shift or change in conference going. As I reflect on FETC, yes, I took one or two things with me but I could have taken so much more if I could have freely talked and shared in small groups. Maybe we can call it the un-conference.
Reading the blogs from EduCon, it seems they captured the essence of what you wrote. I want to create this type of conference/conversation in South Carolina where I live… and maybe you will hear about hear about a great conversation taking place here soon!
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