Oh where to start with NECC 2008?

Well being the bad blogger I am, there have been no updates since the first keynote. A lot has and I am sure that I will not remember it all even months from now.

Highlights:

The people- I give credit to Texas teachers because they are probably the friendliest, but there have been many good impromptu discussions and some great additions to Twitter account.

The sessions-Not that every one was golden, I have learned something from each one. Of course, planning ahead of time didn't do a bit of good since I spent each evening in the hotel re-editing my choices. A particular highlight was Lucy Gray and Vicki Davis in a panel discussion! It was interesting to hear them and see their comments in chatzy.

The free stuff- No matter how much I deny it, I love getting all of the vendor free stuff. I think it is the challenge of it all since most of it I give back to teachers in school workshops.

The re-connections- I had the opportunity to really connect with some people in my district that I only had the brief opportunities to talk with before. These connections definitely have future potential.

Lowlights:

BYOL sessions- While I would have liked to see more of these sessions, it wasn't the tragedy that many made it seem. Really any session became a BYOL session for me as I was quickly saving sites that were mentioned in discussion. When I did make it into a laptop session, I didn't enjoy as much as I thought. The pace was a little too slow for me, but was necessary to make sure everyone was one the same pace.

Lack of connection- Even though this was one of the three keywords of the convention, I don't think it took place enough. I would have liked more opportunities to share ideas with others. This feeling might only reside with me since I went to the conference alone. It seemed that most hung around those who they traveled with or those they have known before the conference. I didn't see a lot of new connections being made which is unfortunate.

Overall, I did enjoy my first NECC and hope that I can attend many more. There will be more posts on the conference, it was just to much to include in one post.