Okay…go on….guess….
For a bunch of people immersed in doing everything and all online, digitally, and virtually the one thing I kept hearing over and over (and reading on blogs) was how great it was to meet face-to-face. This too was my favourite part of the whole experience.
The conference generates a billion ideas. Some to implement right away. Some that will take a while. Some that will never see the light of day. A few that will remain dreams for many of us to attain. It’s amazing to wonder what the collective genius of the 700 (or so) participants will dream up and create within the next year.
However, as I said above, there is still something unique and special about connect with people one-on-one. It’s different then reading their thoughts on blogs. I also find it solidifies and brings greater trust and meaning into the words you read from their posts.
I met a few new people this year, but more so connected with people I have been reading, following, and e-connecting. Some great people I suggest you too tap into for knowledge, guidance, and wisdom are B.J. Shone (eLearning Weekly), Gary Hegenbart (eLearning Development News), Angela White (A Nice Cup of Lizard), Melissa Chiaramonti (elearningguild–ru), and as always Brent Schlenker (Corporate eLearning Strategies and Development). As I said before, with 700 participants here I’d love to list them all, but these are these people I interacted with the most.
Brent’s last presentation today started off interesting in that he “knew” everyone in the room (mostly virtually). He joked that he didn’t need to do the presentation because we all already new about his topic. Funny thing is for as much as we all know; we continue to learn from one another even on topics in which we are quite skilled. This is the beauty of these conferences and the virtual networking that we do outside of the conference. We feed each other’s knowledge continuously and thereby grow and develop our collective genius. How fun is that?!?
I’m here until the end of the conference, but wanted to take this time to thank all the people (Bob Wood, Sandra Sousa, Richard Wilkinson, and the other Bob [sorry I missed your card during the exchange]) that took the time to teach me more this year. It’s been another invaluable experience. Hope to see you all again online and in the future at more conferences.
Tracy – It was fun to hang out with you! Good job on the blog posts… I know, it takes quite a bit of extra energy, but it’s worth it to keep track of all the great things we’ve learned. If I don’t see you tomorrow, I’ll see you online in the coming months!
Great post! I truly enjoyed the face-to-face as well. I know we all did. But to read your reflections really re-enforces it for me.
We still have half a day of AG08 goodness, but in case I do not see you please travel safely and continue your fabulous blogging.
Cheers!