The Chicago Convergence—CANCELLED

A follow up to my May 20th 2009 post about the TCC 09…the Chicago Convergence is cancelled.

The scheduled 2009 Chicago Convergence has been cancelled. Last year’s event was great. My intention was to volunteer this year. There seemed to be an awesome line up of new media nerds and techie geeks from all professions. Here is a snippet of the email I received:

The Chicago Convergence conference, slated for Sept 21-23 at the Spertus Institute is officially canceled and will be honored with an anniversary party [details in next few days]. We are planning to host additional events and activities over the next 90 days.

TCC is undergoing a massive restructuring in order “to grow a more robust digital community and expand jobs and opportunities,” said Montgomery, who succeeded founder John Patterson of Pixel Brothers when he relocated to Los Angeles earlier this year.

In late July Montgomery convened a meeting of TCC’s Leadership Committee to “edit and repackage ideas” for the second annual Convergence Summit, and to find appropriate future programs to satisfy the membership’s needs, he said at the time. The final nail in the coffin was an unproductive effort to replace sponsors that bowed out when the recession hit earlier this year.

How unfortunate.

Adobe Learning Summit 2009

Adobe + eLearning…

What: A conference that discusses the latest eLearning tools, practices, and skill using applications from the Adobe eLearning Suite

When: November 9, 2009 // 8:00 am to 7:30 pm

Where: Fairmont Hotel // San Jose, CA

Keywords: eLearning, learning technologies, virtual classrooms, Connect Pro, Captivate, Presenter, Adobe eLearning Suite, education, inspiration

Benefits: Connected with DevLearn 2009 // Reception at Adobe headquarters (also known as “heaven” to us techie designers–”woohoo”)

Chicago eLearning & Technology Showcase 2009

& Technology Showcase 2009

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What: Chicago eLearning & Technology Showcase

When: August 19, 2009 (Wednesday), 8:30 am — 6:00 pm

Where: Roosevelt University (Downtown Chicago), 430 S. Michigan Ave

Hosted by: CISPI, CTC Chicago, & CCASTD

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This event showcases the latest practices and technologies for eLearning design and development.  There are several interesting speakers/sessions.  One session covers mobile simulations! Awesome.

As eduTech gEEks, it is common for our formal training and acquired talents to overlap between instructional designer/developer/technical writer/new media developer…this showcase targets all interests.

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For more information: http://www.chicagoelearningshowcase.com/

eLearning Guild’s Midwest Instructional Design Symposium

eLearning Guild has a Midwest Instructional Design Symposium coming to Chicago, July 9 to 10.  The event consists of two larger eLearning lectures and several smaller sessions.  I find the opening session by Brent Schlenker, an emerging technologies analyst at eLearning Guild to be most interesting.  The description of his session says:

New media and Web technologies are having a significant impact on the world today. The most visible impact is on the newspaper business and the music industry. But instructional design is also under fire as the debate stirs around its relevance in the 21st Century. In this opening keynote presentation, Brent Schlenker presents an engaging look at the exciting opportunities available for both instructional designers and training departments to rise to the occasion and become more relevant than ever.

Relevance: We need more discussion of the role of new media on instructional design.  I find, on various projects, that many old school IDs are out of the loop when it comes to the practices, theory, and general discourse regarding new media technologies.  There exists many conferences, websites, and information on various media, but we need more discussion on new media and instructional design.  And how the role of the instructional designer is changing due to the emergence of new media technologies.

This eLearning Guild conference may be a good starting point.

2009 Chicago Convergence

The 2nd annual Chicago Convergence (previously the Chicago New Media Summit) is coming this September 20-23.  The events seem a bit more interesting/inclusive than last year.  I’d say they have definitely expanded their appeal to various types of media creators and lovers.  Just from the description on the website, the Convergence has a brand new feeling of celebration and sharing:

The Conference is four days of remarkable presenters and performers.  It begins with the ‘Sound Convergence’ at The Hard Rock Hotel; live music festival, exhibits and presentations building the future of the music industry.  Then continues at The Spertus Institute for three days of VIP presentations, innovation labs, networking events, exhibits and socials; forging our collective excellence and broadcasting it to the world.

Sounds awesome!

eLearning Conferences

Click HERE for a list of worldwide eLearning Conferences

Of course, I want to attend at least one domestic and one international. I will keep you all posted on the events eduTech gEEk attends. Perhaps we can blog from the conferences…a twitter of some sort.

De Anna L Fench
eduTech gEEk writer