I’m excited to hear how the experience works out. It sounds like a method to help dig deeper and add context to the many different sessions that the administrators will attend there. In the last few conferences I have attended, I have left feeling somewhat disjointed and I think maybe some joint processing and reflection opportunities might be helpful to many conference attendees. It’s an interesting concept with a some great potential – best of luck with it!

I hope to also touch on what’s next. Thinking of pulling in the Horizon Report: http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2009-Horizon-Report-K12.pdf

Really what I’m hoping to help answer their questions. They will go listen to presentations but we’ll have time to get together and talk about what this all means for their school and give them time to discuss as a cohort what they are thinking. Really….it’s just time for them to have the conversations we always wish we had time to do at a conference….I’m just forcing them to make the time….or so that’s the plan.

I just had a lengthy conversation with my boss regarding the nature of conferences, and frankly, we are done with the traditional technology conference. In short, our feeling is that by continuing to have conferences that are labeled and billed as “tech” conferences, we continue to ostracize the tech as an external force in education. It’s not anymore. We rarely do anything in our work lives anymore that is not touched by the advent of technology.

Your model is more along the lines of what we were talking about, except that what every administrator I work with wants to know is “what next?” if we want innovation in our schools, and we want equity in our schools, what are the leadership steps we have to take to do that? Do you plan on addressing the nature of leadership and the role technology plays in it?