REPORTER:
Don McIntosh MY
CONFERENCE IMPRESSIONS The
fact that the International Conference was here in Vancouver was a wonderful opportunity.
In spite of that, I had my qualms about signing up for the conference because
of other commitments and I was not sure what I would get out of it. My qualms
were unfounded. I enjoyed the conference greatly. I got to meet a lot of interesting
people and to go to some excellent sessions which provided me with information,
approaches and tools that I can actually use. As
a volunteer, I got to wear a red beret that Erica provided. That proved to be
great fun. When people figured out what the hat was for, we got a lot of questions.
Some of them were, "What is the hat for?" The hat was a great idea because
it identified us in a way that was much more effective than just a badge. It was
also a great way to meet people. I met people from all over the world including
Germany, Cape Town, South Africa, Sierra Leone and Colombia. I probably only scored
about 50% on my accuracy of answers but that didn't seem to matter. I think our
role reflected very well on Vancouver and the conference. Thank you Erica. The
highlight of the conference for me was seeing Joe Durzo. Joe gave a Masters' presentation
on Friday morning. He and I were graduate students together more than 30 years
ago. I have seen him once or twice since but probably not for 15 years. I wasn't
sure he would even remember me. We met in the corridor, recognized each other
immediately and he gave me a big bear hug. That felt good. Not only that, he gave
an excellent, important presentation on the soft side of consulting which was
both funny and meaningful. I was proud to call him a friend. I will be sending
along a review of the presentation. Other
highlights of the conference for me were William Daniels' Masters presentation
on Thursday, a session on virtual formative evaluation, an IBM e-Learning intervention
which was valued at $320 million in additional revenue for the company, and a
session on stimulating emergent learning. More about these later. |
| 
Check
out Don's other reports: My
conference impressions How
do you want to learn today? - Connie Cassarino and Ginger Swope, IBM Avoiding
Performance Technology Myopia
- Joe Durzo Wow!
Where Did That Come From? - Peter Honebein |
