EduWeb Wrap Up: Conference 2.0

I’ve finally arrived home after 2 bad travel days and I had some time to think about the conference and what I learned there. For me personally, I think I got more out of the networking and just getting the chance to talk with colleagues from around the world that was awesome. The sessions themselves were ok – a little vendor heavy for my tastes, but that’s life.

I think our presentation went very well, and have gotten some great feedback from attendees on it, but the thing that really sticks with me is how technology made an impact on this conference, and it wasn’t the $12.95 per day wireless in the Trump Marina hotel rooms.

It was the new instantaneous nature of communication that went on, mostly on Twitter. Links, feedback, main ideas from each presentation, dinner plans – all of it was flying around during the three days. The communication didn’t stop there – it continued on as we all communicated about our travel problems, delays and more. I even ended up with a fellow twitterer sleeping on the floor of my hotel room last night. It seemed almost old-fashioned when before Karine’s keynote they announced that someone was looking for a ride to the airport. That was all going on over Twitter. Nick Shontz really hits the nail on the head here:

PowerPoints here don’t have have phone numbers or websites, some don’t even have email addresses. But they all have their twitter account. The keynote speaker says “if you want to keep up on my reading list just follow my twitter.” I’ve been here for 2 days, and I’ve been followed on twitter 15 times and handed out 1 business card.

In my eyes, this is Conference 2.0. The instant sharing of ideas – the conversation if you will – going on all the time. I’ve been giving conference presenations for a few years now and this is the first time that I was asked questions from someone not even at the presentation. Via Twitter, they saw someone was streaming my talk and they twitted in a question. Of course, I answered but man, how awesome is that? Someone 2,500 miles away can still participate and be a part of the conversation.

The geek side of me absolutely loves that people were taking it upon themselves to stream the presentations and keynotes, but let me play devil’s advocate just for a second. If I were organizing EduWeb, I think I might be upset that people were streaming the sessions and keynotes for free to anyone who could get the link. In my role as organizer, to me that would cheapen the conference and might actually keep people away. After all, why spend all the money to travel to Atlantic City when I can stay home and still be a part of things?

The answer, EduWeb organizers, is to step up and stream some, if not all, of the presentations next year. Get dedicated bandwidth, a good camera (no offense to everyone’s webcams) with very good audio, and put it out there. Hell, even charge a few bucks. I’d pony up to watch a keynote presentation, especially from a dynamic speaker. I’m looking at you too HighEdWebDev. I can’t make it this year but want to participate – make this happen. I’ll even pay for it.