The descision makers of tomorrow

Posted on by primaryt

When planning for events the event organizers have a few things they want to accomplish:

1. Everyone has a good time
2. They don’t lose too much money
3. The event makes sufficient “impact” on teaching and learning.
#3 on this list has been swimming around in my head over the last few days.. The problem we face is that event places are limited so it tends to be the same decision makers attending. I don’t think this presents equal opportunities so I have been thinking about how this may evolve..
Physical limitations at the event as far as number of people that can fit into a room at any given time. This was proven at Hand Held Learning 2009 which was a great conference but was over subscribed and overpriced.
Can technology provide a fix? All of google tech talks and TED are now published online, not live but that is fine. A few ICT conferences this year have been streamed live successfully.
Is the TED model the right model? It seems that way, TED charge for attendance to a conference and only fit a limited audience in.
So what technology is required to make this happen? Stuff that already exists!!
Twitter hash tags has become the norm now for many conference attendees and provide a great reference point.
Any video conferencing that can support a wide audience, it would be great if you could “Sponsor” your video feed and maybe even a twitter page sponsored by the event.
That way you could get “Micro Sponsors” for say a minute of ad time next to a video stream for say £50
We cannot ignore how important it is to allow our education and ICT conferences to be open and transparent and we MUST NOT exclude anyone from attending, be it physically or digitally.. (with exceptions obviously).

#hhl09 Hand Held Learning day 1 review

Posted on by primaryt


First presentation of the day by Dawn was great. I didn’t agree with the guy from the second presentation. I then walked around the exhibitors hall, most of which was pointless and confusing as at a hand held learning a lot of devices exhibited were net books which as far as I’m aware isn’t hand held according to um.. Hand Held Learning…..

I don’t know who vetted the presenters but that might need reviewing.. It was good to see the spinny netbook things we have ordered in the flesh before they arrive in the office and also a semi affordable class feedback system (£1600 for a class set)

I didn’t eat/drink at the conference as I went to meet friends/family at a pub for lunch, we came back to see a few semi decent presentations on web2 and mobile learning then it seriously went off on a tangent..
Lots of people who I wanted to meet were there. My twitter was buzzing and I think I gained a lot from chatting with people.
After the conference we headed out for food before heading back to the conference venue to the evening function which we left during the awards ceremony.. The awards ceremony was a joke and I won’t be going again next year. Sorry to say that but at £6 for a bottle of beer and £25 for the best value bottle of wine…
My impression from the conference was that it wasn’t about learning but about money. Everything was incredibly over priced, from the tickets to the exhibitors stands and from the wine to the nibbles. In comparison to #fote09 this was not an inclusive conference..
Time to practice what we preach? Let’s see if BETT2010 is a similar experience…