OK, soooo many cool things happened in Savannah at the AESA conference, but I would be remiss if I didn't at least give you guys opportunity to SEE some of it yourself. I mentioned earlier that ESSDACK's own Kevin Honeycutt got called upon at the last minute to deliver the keynote and what an awesome job he did. I had seen snippets of his presentations before but was totally blown away. He had the audience eating out of his hand, they loved him. His message was timely and the delivery was fantastic. He was entertaining enough to keep the attention of his audience, yet it was filled with nuggets of motivational and educational information. I could tell you more but I'd rather you check it out yourself, it's worth the few minutes you'd invest to watch.
Showing posts with label AESA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AESA. Show all posts
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Sunday, December 05, 2010
Savannah in retrospect
Tuesday-Wednesday -Where to start? I did my own version of Grease at the Atlanta airport.........but instead of the drive-in it was stranded in the terminal. Nice airport to visit, but definitely didn't want to live there, arrived at about 9:30 AM finally left about midnight. Found myself falling exhausted into bed about 2:30AM. Got up and got myself around to rehearsal (for AESA conference) about noon. Love those guys with the stage crew.....Freeman AV, very nice and a pleasure to work with. Worked alot with a gentleman named Lee Warne also, he writes the scripts and keeps everything moving on time, a great guy. Anyway that day seemed to go off without a hitch except for the lack of sleep part. Went to dinner as a group that night at a place called Vic's on the River, had a great platter of fried shrimp. Let me go on record as saying as a person who doesn't really like seafood, Savannah is a tough place. The ones that do like seafood said the food can't be beat but I was hard pressed at times to find something that wasn't fishy.
Thursday - showed up to rehearsal to discover Ian Jukes, our keynote for Thursday had come down with food poisoning and wasn't going to make it to the conference. They moved our Friday keynote to Thursday and picked ESSDACK's own Kevin Honeycutt to step in for Friday. Thursday went fine and ended the evening going to Paula Deen's restaurant, Lady and Sons for dinner. Awesome, just awesome.
Friday - Kevin rocked the house with his keynote, I felt honored to be able to say he is one of the ESSDACK team. The day went great, then after the afternoon session we hosted a special Digital Jam and it went well. The temperature in the space was quite warm and all the windows made it a big challange to see the screens but we managed, as with everyone of these we do, we learn and grow and make adjustments for the next one. Then went to two receptions at the Westin and ended the night about 10ish.
Had a strange thing happen on Saturday morning about 5am, got up to go to the bathroom and before heading back to bed decided to get a drink of water. The last thing I remember was turning toward the sink in the bathroom and the next thing I know my room mate is standing over me saying my name and shaking me. I must have passed out and then hit my head on the vanity because I am sporting a pretty good bruise to the side of my head and later that day found another small knot on the back of my head. No blood, and I don't think I was out longer than about a minute but scary none-the-less. Went to the last session of the conference and then headed to the airport......uneventful and now home again safe and sound.
---a quick explanation of my duties and responsibilities at this conference. I am backstage with all the crew. I have keynote (powerpointish) slides that correspond with the program, I create those ahead of time and another person takes pictures of all the activities during the conference, each day I try to get some of those infused with the other slides, sometimes only having a few minutes to get that adjusted before people are walking in..... So I sit in the dark which I have affectionately starting referring to as the troll hole and listen on headphones to the cues being sent to make it all run like a well-oiled machine. Those guys (and girls) are amazing, the amount of expertise they have is mind-boggling. They also are a hoot, a fun group to work with for sure. I appreciated how they never make me feel like I'm in their way or don't roll their eyes when I ask a silly question (thanks Dan and Dave), I truly enjoy being back there in their domain. I also was responsible for a station at our digital jam - mine station in Second Life and a short demo on that. The other stations included, ipads, ipods and droids and applications, digital dumpster diving(free or nearly free apps that can used in the classroom), sing snap, wii and one other I can't remember. It's a kind of hands-on opportunity for people to come experience some things they may not have tried yet.
and now just a few random pics from the week:
Thursday - showed up to rehearsal to discover Ian Jukes, our keynote for Thursday had come down with food poisoning and wasn't going to make it to the conference. They moved our Friday keynote to Thursday and picked ESSDACK's own Kevin Honeycutt to step in for Friday. Thursday went fine and ended the evening going to Paula Deen's restaurant, Lady and Sons for dinner. Awesome, just awesome.
Friday - Kevin rocked the house with his keynote, I felt honored to be able to say he is one of the ESSDACK team. The day went great, then after the afternoon session we hosted a special Digital Jam and it went well. The temperature in the space was quite warm and all the windows made it a big challange to see the screens but we managed, as with everyone of these we do, we learn and grow and make adjustments for the next one. Then went to two receptions at the Westin and ended the night about 10ish.
Had a strange thing happen on Saturday morning about 5am, got up to go to the bathroom and before heading back to bed decided to get a drink of water. The last thing I remember was turning toward the sink in the bathroom and the next thing I know my room mate is standing over me saying my name and shaking me. I must have passed out and then hit my head on the vanity because I am sporting a pretty good bruise to the side of my head and later that day found another small knot on the back of my head. No blood, and I don't think I was out longer than about a minute but scary none-the-less. Went to the last session of the conference and then headed to the airport......uneventful and now home again safe and sound.
---a quick explanation of my duties and responsibilities at this conference. I am backstage with all the crew. I have keynote (powerpointish) slides that correspond with the program, I create those ahead of time and another person takes pictures of all the activities during the conference, each day I try to get some of those infused with the other slides, sometimes only having a few minutes to get that adjusted before people are walking in..... So I sit in the dark which I have affectionately starting referring to as the troll hole and listen on headphones to the cues being sent to make it all run like a well-oiled machine. Those guys (and girls) are amazing, the amount of expertise they have is mind-boggling. They also are a hoot, a fun group to work with for sure. I appreciated how they never make me feel like I'm in their way or don't roll their eyes when I ask a silly question (thanks Dan and Dave), I truly enjoy being back there in their domain. I also was responsible for a station at our digital jam - mine station in Second Life and a short demo on that. The other stations included, ipads, ipods and droids and applications, digital dumpster diving(free or nearly free apps that can used in the classroom), sing snap, wii and one other I can't remember. It's a kind of hands-on opportunity for people to come experience some things they may not have tried yet.
and now just a few random pics from the week:
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| Mike Cook - bestest boss ever, doing his thing at the podium |
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| Kevin Honeycutt - giving his keynote (so serious) |
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| Dave the AV man backstage |
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| Kevin rocking out during the keynote - yep, play that funky music! |
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| Me at Digital Jam at the Second Life station |
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| Glenn Wiebe and Brenda Druecker, my fellow ducks |
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| Digital Jam - Second LIfe |
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| Digital Jam- welcome |
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| Digital Jam- ipad station |
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| Digital Jam- Glenn Wiebe at the Wii station - (yes, surrounded by a bevy of women) |
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| Digital Jam- Second LIfe Station |
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| Digital Jam- Wii Station |
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| Glenn and Santa |
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| Brenda and Santa |
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| Dan at his AV Kingdom |
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| Kevin at keynote rehearsal.....wowing the techs |
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| Dave and Kevin at keynote rehearsal |
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| Oh yah, no explanation |
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| Lori and Santa |
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| Sweet Potato Creme Brulee, sounds yucky but it was YUMMMYYYY!!! |
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
AESA- Austin
OH MY GOSH! Where does the time go? My last post was in September.....tsk, tsk, I'd say I'm going to do better but .......... I won't. I decided to write a bit about AESA - Association of Educational Service Agencies - Conference in Austin. I was there December 1 - 5 and it was a great experience. I had an official duty of conference photographer and also to help with the slides of aforementioned photos during lunch and before and after keynotes. I learned so much! Being backstage was a total trip, in the dark with monitors everywhere. I even got my own headphones and mic....... woo woo........... cue camera one, cue slides and GO! I was amazed at how syncronized and organized it all is. We had rehearsals and everything. Long and exhausting days but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
My job as photographer required me to take photos during the vendor reception and in the halls and rooms before, during and after the sessions. Now it always amazes me how I can be scared to death of being in front of people and put a camera in my hand or some sort of service assignment and I blossom....... ok, maybe blossom is really not the right word, but I do ok, i seem to be able to bury that shyness and fear.
I was also thrilled because in making the templates for the photo slides I wanted to use a cowboy theme, I mean, Duh, Austin...... anyway I found some really nice cowboy art by a man - Nelson Boren from .... I believe.... Idaho..... www.nelsonborenart.com I contacted him and he was very gracious and gave me permission to use any of his art as backgrounds and watermarks for my slides. woo hoo squared, I was SOO excited. So I have included a copy of the Friday slides so you could get an idea what I did.
Next year the conference is in Savannah, I hope I am chosen to work that one. I want to go visit Paula Deen!
My job as photographer required me to take photos during the vendor reception and in the halls and rooms before, during and after the sessions. Now it always amazes me how I can be scared to death of being in front of people and put a camera in my hand or some sort of service assignment and I blossom....... ok, maybe blossom is really not the right word, but I do ok, i seem to be able to bury that shyness and fear.
I was also thrilled because in making the templates for the photo slides I wanted to use a cowboy theme, I mean, Duh, Austin...... anyway I found some really nice cowboy art by a man - Nelson Boren from .... I believe.... Idaho..... www.nelsonborenart.com I contacted him and he was very gracious and gave me permission to use any of his art as backgrounds and watermarks for my slides. woo hoo squared, I was SOO excited. So I have included a copy of the Friday slides so you could get an idea what I did.
Next year the conference is in Savannah, I hope I am chosen to work that one. I want to go visit Paula Deen!
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