Deborah Elizabeth Finn, one star among many that I didn't get a chance to meet at last week's NTEN conference, has posted a call for debriefing comments about the conference.
Actually, I'm all set up today to go through the huge packet of advertisements, business cards, conference slides on the jump drive they gave us, and notes for just that purpose, so this is timely.
I agreed with DEF about the information management issues, not having everything on one page with times and locations. I also found it difficult to find some of the conference rooms, the map in the front of the conference booklet being relatively unreadable. I also missed the usual conference giveaway of a pad of paper for taking notes. I picked up a tiny one at one of the vendors' booths, but really, I needed a notebook and left mine at home, thinking erroneously "Oh, that'll be in the registration packet."
This was my first NTC, and I did feel a bit like a very small and invisible fish in a large pond full of glittering superstars. I had hoped to meet all my heros and heroines, and I did manage to meet three: Bill Lester, Beth Kanter, and Teresa Crawford. Teresa spearheaded the very small circle of international techies and orgs with a dinner on Wednesday night. In one way, I'm glad there wasn't more INTL focused sessions because I'd have been torn between attending those and making it to the practical sessions for my upcoming VISTA project in a US neighborhood organization called West End Ministries. I didn't find it possible to meet the others, probably because I didn't have a clear plan or strategy or elevator speech or intro brand to put forward.
Yesterday, on reflection, I thought that at some point, I'd like to do a session on International eRiding with a focus on getting international gigs on the fly, something I've done in Nepal, India, Cambodia and New Caledonia over the past three years. I know of one or two others who do this kind of work-- just go, and see where they can be useful and helpful-- and it might be fun to think about sharing this experience with the larger community.
I learned a whole lot at the conference, however, and I want to stress this. Because this was done on a total shoestring, I stayed with friends and so wasn't able to attend the social events or even the speakers, as I didn't arrive before 10 am and had to leave at 5 because of where my friends lived. So what I got this time was sessions.
I'll be reporting on those later today and throughout the week, and on how they directly speak to Worlds Touch and our upcoming project at West End Ministries here in High Point, NC.
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