In a bizarre and unexpected turn of events, I had a call from the good folk from ACEC a couple of days ago asking if I’d be interested in presenting something at the Friday keynote session. Apparently there was a spot available and someone suggested my name. That was great news for me, since I really wanted to go to ACEC… not only does it sound like it will be an awesome conference, but there are so many people from my online world who will be there that I want to meet up with in person. Naturally, I said yes.
The hard part is that I was told I can talk about whatever I like. That’s dangerous enough, but further complicated by the fact that I’ve been busy lately presenting some stuff for several other conferences and I don’t really want to just reuse the same stuff. I realise that I’d be talking to a totally different group of people so it’s not the overlap that’s the problem, but I’d just rather come up with something specifically for ACEC.
My problem is that I’m such a dilettante and I tend to dabble around in so many different educational ICT-related things, that I have no real idea about what I might focus on. And of course, Friday is the last day of what will doubtless be a pretty full-on conference schedule, so the chances of me saying anything intelligent about anything that hasn’t already been talked about by people way smarter and more eloquent that me is pretty slim.
I asked Tony Brandenburg from ACEC what he thought might make a good topic, or what gaps might exist in the program that perhaps hadn’t been covered. His view was that although the conference has plenty of great stuff from lots of great people, much of that was from overseas visitors so it would be good to have a bit more of the Australian perspective. “Just give us a brain dump of whatever is on your mind”, he said.
So, feeling a little daunted by the idea of it all, but really keen to have the opportunity to add something worthwhile to the ACEC conversation, I’m asking for some suggestions. If you read this blog at all, you know that I rave on about all sorts of stuff here. If you were going to hear someone speak on the last day of the ACEC conference, what sort of things would grab your interest? If you could drop any thoughts you have into the comments below, that would be greatly appreciated. I like the idea of a presentation for ACEC growing out of a conversation that starts here on the blog several weeks prior. To engage in some conversation here, which can then evolve into a presentation there, which can then be followed up with more conversation afterwards, seems to be a much more interesting way to do it.
I’m keen to hear what you’ve got to say… don’t be shy.
