Reviews from last Year

So are you wondering if the trip to CT is worth it?
Here are a few reviews:
"Both locations (museums) were fabulous."
I enjoyed it so very much and appreciated meeting other DL folks....I rarely ever meet other DL coordinators."
"Well organized informative sessions."
"Hooray! So nice to know others who do what I do,and deal with the same issues.
'Tech Tips Rock."
"good vibe."
"The facilities and the helpfulness of BB Hall of Fame & NYSHA really helped to make the conference enjoyable."
What do we need to improve on?
A few people didn't like one of our rooms and someone didn't like the food,(by the way almost all meals were included with conference registration and the bread was all home made and the desserts were amazing!) but programatically we did well.
Here are some suggestions for this year:

• Museum to Museum Collaboration
• Best practices of on screen presentation
• More tech info
• How to create a vc evaluation
• Continue point to point sessions with other museums
• How to do cool effects on the cheap
• In-Class Hands on Activities
• brainstorming solutions of common problems.

Another Year in Cooperstown

Connections 08 Organizers
John Buchinger,Sarah Loveland, Julia Shildmyer-Heighway ,James Yasko

Well it is official. The 2nd annual Connections video confrencing symposium will happern September 23-25, 2009 in Cooperstown, New York at the Baseball Hall of Fame and The Fenimore Art Museum. Last year was our first get together and it was a resounding success. We had about 60 content and imerging content providers join us for a anti-confrence confrence.
Most of the sessions featured connections between providers and our location, and many sessions were free discussion.
There were also no teachers or end users here, which is part of the design. Some confrences that CPs attend are geared specifically for museums, teachers, techies etc. This confrence was specifically so people from Hawaii, California, New York Canada, Texas and other places far and wee could sit down and bash our heads to gether to find out the state of the industry today, find shared concerns and needs, and generally look at the playing field to decide how to best proceed with our individual offerings.
I learned more at the lunches and coffees than anything else, so this year James Yasko, and I will be working on a format that allows for participant led direction, and hands on content creation, combined with more direct connections with major content provider programs from around the country.
Please pass on this post and feel free to contact us with ideas for this event in the Fall. Cooperstown was selected again this year because quite frankly it was easy for us and we felt getting a second session under our belt would really solidify this as an annual event. If you have ideas or suggestions please drop us a comment or email!