We have a lot of conferences on our summer calendar, and we couldn’t be more excited. We love education conferences, particularly in the areas of higher education and continuing education. Our summer conference tour includes the UPCEA Summit for Online Leadership, Blackboard’s Bb World, Canvas InstructureCon, and Desire2Learn’s Fusion 2016. But, we are more than exhibitors at these conferences. We are members and partners with the host associations and organizations; and we are also conference attendees.
Many of our team members, including our founders, spent a number of years working in continuing education and at colleges and universities. We love hearing the latest trends, learn from industry and thought leaders, and hopefully share some of our knowledge and insight with others. Of course, we also enjoy meeting new friends, and catching up with old colleagues. Put simply, we are lifelong learners at heart. Conferences keep us sharp and in tune with the ever-changing world of education and assessments, and the technology that supports it.
Keynote speakers are often the highlight of our conference experience. This summer’s planned keynotes do not disappoint! Bb World offers Captain Mark Kelly, Commander of the Space Shuttle Endeavor’s final mission. Sir Ken Robinson’s presentation at Fusion 2016 is sure to be a showstopper. (If you aren’t familiar with Sir Ken’s presentations on creativity, check out Sir Ken’s Ted Talks presentation on Creativity and Education. It is humorous, entertaining, inspiring, and very thought-provoking.)
That isn’t to say that we don’t love interacting with, and learning from, our colleagues and fellow attendees through concurrent sessions and panel discussions. Indeed, we glean some of the most useful information from these sessions.
When possible, we also love to collaborate and present our own concurrent sessions. While we won’t be presenting at any conferences this summer, we host an online pre-conference session in coordination with Fusion 2016. Velvet Nelson, our Chief Learning Officer, presents on implementation best practices on Thursday, June 23. Keep an eye out for other presentations at conferences over the next several months.
Are you also attending conferences this summer? If so, please contact us to set up a meeting. You can always stop by our booth, but you’re just as likely to run into us at a concurrent session or listening to a keynote speaker. After all, the exhibit hall is a lot of fun, but we most enjoy interacting with our colleagues