post-conference thoughts
well, it’s all over folks! months and months of planning paid off and it was all over in a flash! The JISC Conference 2008 seems to have been a real success. I know we always say that every year, but this year seems to have been a success on many different levels. There was a real ‘buzz’ this year in the atmosphere and from reading the various twitter posts and blogs from the day, the conference seems to have got lots of people thinking and talking. I have just read a blog post from someone who attended the conference and was still up at 11pm at night unable to sleep due to all the stuff he was thinking about from the day…so he just had to blog it all. seems the buzz has really got to some people! Got them thinking and asking questions and wanting to continue with the conversations and discussions they had on the day. This for me is the greatest achievement of the day.
The day is about informing the Community of all the cool stuff JISC are doing and funding at the moment but its also about providing a forum (be that a physical or online) for people to network, meet, catchup, discuss, chat etc…that is the most important issue for most of the delegates and we need to keep building on this and making sure that this is fostered for future years. Its not so much the excellent line up of sessions and the great keynotes, that make it a success, although they are of course a large factor contributing to it, its more I think the other stuff that happens around that - the buzz, the talking, the networking over a coffee that provides a true indication on how successful it has been.
This year we introduced a new online element which allowed people to start networking before the event online and hopefully continue to do so after. It also provided a platform for twitter, blogs and photos posted about the conference to be aggregated. It very much a soft launch, to see how it went and if it launched. All in all I think it did. As I wrote a few days ago, it provided perfect ‘background noise’ to the day - which is what as I said before this amplification is all about. Some might say that does it really add value/any meaning? I say yes, it does, it creates a buzz and shows that people are engaging with whats going on and provides a window into an individuals day at the conference. It means that we could plug into what people were thinking as they stroll around, how they see stuff, what they are talking about..and it was great!
Even more of a success was livestreaming the keynotes. 80 people tuned in to the opening keynote which was fantastic. I think we have really set the standard now and next year we can announce with confidence what we are doing and make a much bigger splash of it - get everyone blogging, twittering and snapping!
Benefits of Edinburgh are that the venue has excellent wifi and throughout the building..so should be great. I’m looking forward to reading the feedback report from delegate feedback - particularly about the new online stuff. We can improve lots of stuff around the online activity but its a really great step in the right direction and there’s no going back now!!!
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