I intend to both attend and speak at eLearning DevCon 2007. My two presentations at DevCon will revolve around knowledge management. Specifically, I will speak to the internal corporate use of blogs, wikis, and tagging tools. Although I've never been to this particular conference before, there are several key points which attract me ... and I would challenge you to consider when looking for your own professional development events:
- This is a working conference ... focused on good topics.
- Golf courses are NOT near by
- Attendees actually live in dorms (University of Utah)
These three facts may not seem like much, but when one stops to consider that the main value in any conference is your fellow attendees, and what you can learn from them, the immersion method (i.e. dorm rooms) will help encourage collaboration. I really can't stress this point to highly. As the cost of the conference escalates, and the lodging resorts become fancier, one's learning suffers.
Last year I attended Wikimania (my thoughts), and stayed in the Harvard Law School dorms. It was a great experience. If your travel budget allows, this year's event will be in Taiwan. (Wikimania 2007)