Looking for conference ideas...

August 29, 2011 4:10 PM

What conferences should we (a crack team of Instructional Designers) attend? What conferences (tech, ed, design, etc) have you been to that knocked your socks off?

Any suggestions are welcome, but we want intense, organized, well run conferences. We are all required to go to at least one conference a year (should be in the US) and I'd love to hear your best conference suggestions.

posted by madred to computers & internet (4 answers total)

These folks offer a range of conferences in the topic areas you mention. Not my main specialty, but from what I've experienced they seem professionally done and something of a big deal.
posted by 5Q7 at 6:40 PM on August 29, 2011

Have you considered SXSW Interactive? Lots of folks there in positions like yours, and endless sessions to choose from. I'm a communications/technology focused librarian, and it was perfect for me.
posted by donnagirl at 7:26 PM on August 29, 2011 [1 favorite]

The service design conference? http://service-design-network.org/conference2011/category/5register

IA Summit?
http://2012.iasummit.org/
posted by specialk420 at 5:37 AM on August 30, 2011

I've heard good things about IRA and ISTE. Both are major conferences with "big" names attending. IRA seems to me to be more research based and reading/literacy applies to any area. I've found lots of ed tech conferences to lead more towards "flavor of the week" sort of stuff but the ISTE national conference is generally strong and always really well run.

My preference is always to attend a conference in my curriculum area (science) so I'd love to get to NSTA.

I haven't been to one of the NBPTS conferences yet but I'd love to. I bet listening to the researchers, policy makers, and amazing teachers would be inspiring to bring back to work.

One thing you could try is going to Twitter and searching on the hashtags the conferences cooked up (like #ISTE11) and see what the attendees were tweeting about - might let you know if it's up your alley or not.

I'd be interested in knowing what you decide and if you learn more from other sources. I have to make conference rounds, too.
posted by adorap0621 at 9:35 AM on August 30, 2011 [1 favorite]