Attending NECC Virtually
NECC 2009 is just a couple of weeks away. I am so excited because I am going to get to meet some people that I have gotten to know online during this last year. However, there are many people in my PLN who really want to be there, but cannot attend. Since I can’t pack them in my suitcase, I have made plans to help them experience the conference virtually. I am planning on using Skype and Google Video chat to help my friends participate in the many informal discussions that happen in places like the Bloggers’ Café and after hours at different social events. I will also be using my Blackberry as a modem so I can take my friends on some of the tours as well. While attending NECC virtually is not the same as attending in person, it is an option. So many of the sessions are available online, but I want to take the virtual experience one step further. I hope to make this experience as personal as I can for the few people I am “bringing” with me.
If you are attending NECC, what would you be willing to do to help some of colleagues attend virtually? What are some other ideas to help make those who cannot make it feel like they are part of the experience?
10 Comments
Lindsey Barlow
Thursday, 11th June 2009 at 9:33 pm
Beth, these are great ideas to include virtual attendees, I have made a netvibes page with twitter, delicious, and diigo feeds, plus a blog search so virtual attendees can keep up to date. During the event I plan to add links and any streaming video feeds to them. Could even do a coveritlive directly to that page too.
http://www.netvibes.com/thedigitalbackpack#NECC09
John Godinez
Thursday, 11th June 2009 at 11:01 pm
How about U-streaming a workshop or keynote? That would be great!
Kelly Tenkely
Thursday, 11th June 2009 at 11:09 pm
Beth, those of us who can’t make it are forever grateful! Thanks for taking us along. My colleague is going to be there but doesn’t have Twitter down yet :)
wendy
Thursday, 11th June 2009 at 11:46 pm
Thanks for your efforts in advance! Keep us up to date on your plans :-)
Nancy Pratt
Friday, 12th June 2009 at 12:10 am
Hi Beth, I’m one of the virtual NECCers. Someone please take me along!!! Is there a site that we can go to that will have the presentations that are being Ustreamed located with maybe a schedule? I remember in the Blogger’s cafe last year the presentations for the Unconference were Ustreamed, weren’t they? Or maybe that was just Lisa’s Show…?
Thanks for helping out! I will miss seeing you there, but maybe next year! Have a starbucks for me!
Chris GR
Friday, 12th June 2009 at 9:45 am
I, too, dream of one day going to NECC. Maybe in Denver next year!
Until then, I found the NECC Unplugged site and plan to follow it if possible.
http://www.neccunplugged.com/
Eden
Friday, 12th June 2009 at 9:49 am
I love this group of people for this reason. Unfortunately I cannot physically make it, but I am sooooo happy that I can at least attend bits and pieces of it virtually.
Please post links of where we can go to find some of these streams, chats, etc.
Beth Still
Friday, 12th June 2009 at 2:15 pm
Over the last year I have attended a couple of conferences virtually thanks to people who are willing to stream what they are doing. Jeff Utecht streamed part of a conference he attended earlier this year and I felt like I was part of that conversation. We have the resources to help others “attend” and we need to use them!
@Lindsey I love your idea of a Netvibes page. I am working on something very similar in my wiki.
@John I believe many of the sessions are streamed live. Last year I was introduced to the “backchannel chat” in one of the panel discussions I attended. There were about 75 people who were physically in the room who were active in the chat as well as numerous people who were located all over the world. It was an intense experience! I love the idea of the backchannel because it allows people who are remote to be actively engaged in what is going on at the conference.
@Kelly Have your colleague track me down. I’d be more than happy to help them out. I will be tweeting from an alternate account during the conference so I can update as much as I want to without wearing out my welcome! @MsBethStill
@Wendy Any other ideas for how to include people who are not able to attend?
@Nancy— I plan on Skyping you into to either EBC on Saturday or to the Bloggers’ Cafe. Just let me know what times work for you. I really wish you were going this year, but we will see each other again next year in Denver!
@Chris You are from Nebraska, right? I have heard talk of an entire group traveling together to Denver next year. Hope you can make it!
@Eden See the link Chris posted. Also, there will probably be more links on the NECC site as well as here on ISTE connects. Make sure you follow @isteconnects on Twitter as well.
Wes Fryer
Saturday, 13th June 2009 at 10:17 am
@Chris You are right that NECC Unplugged should offer a great venue for those not actually attending NECC to access people, content and conversations. My understanding is the entire event will be held in Elluminate and also archived. NECC Unplugged is essentially a parallel virtual, synchronous conference that will take place at the NECC venue as in the past but be shared online.
Plans are still being finalized, but it looks like I will be working with Joe Corbett and others on the ISTEconnects team to live blog with CoverItLive, webstream regular NECC sessions (with presenter permission, of course) over Ustream, and conduct interviews from the convention center both over Ustream and over Qik using a webstreaming-capable cell phone. I’m not positive but we may be able to webstream the Oxford-style NECC debate. (I actually think it would be even more fun to participate in the debate rather than webcast it, but it should be enlightening to watch too.) We’ll be sharing more about the ISTEconnects virtual coverage here soon. Joe has posted a Google Form for anyone planning to share virtual content in any form from NECC.
Probably the best idea is to tweet your posts, live streams, and live blog links #necc09 so they’ll show up in the aggregated Twitterverse for the conference. The Netvibes page Lindsey has created is great, I’m sure the ISTEconnects crew will work to find and amplify lots of this content here on ISTEconnects as well.
Justin K. Reeve
Thursday, 18th June 2009 at 2:55 pm
Since I won’t be able to attend this year, I guess I’ll be one of those mooching off everyone’s streams. Thanks in advance for everyone’s willingness to help bring ed tech conferences to the rest of us!
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