It seems that every year I sit down to write the post-mortem for Northern Voice and find myself at an absolute loss. This event is such a toxic cocktail of ideas, energy, urgency, depravity, laughter, logistics, friendship, and chronic sleep-deprivation that (my) words simply fail me.
So I’m telling myself that over the next couple weeks I’ll try to write a series of mini-posts on some of the following bits:
* My overwhelming respect for the other conference organizers. Not to mention the volunteers, my colleagues in OLT and at UBC who really stepped up, the presenters, the sponsors and of course all of the attendees. That scope of praise dilutes the goodness, I know, and sounds like boilerplate… but this is an event where everyone contributes to the vibe.
* I knew we had a hot student team in OLT this semester, but their amazing volunteer efforts with the event and the conceptual progress we made on our pending blog platform have pushed me into mad passionate love for them. I’m so excited thinking about what we might yet get from this crew.
* Once again, I was so proud to be associated with an educator contingent that simply delivered the goods. I’m admittedly not the most neutral observer, but in all honesty I feel like our community was superbly represented at the wiki-tiki party/open-mic, Moose Camp, the conference presentations and everywhere else.
* EduGlu is so close… Mark my words, we are nearing a point where openness, simple tools on powerful platforms, syndication, remixing, and some sheer learning party craziness shakes and stirs together into something very potent indeed.
What’s most astonishing to me is that despite my many personal flaws and missteps, I find myself enjoying a true embarrassment of riches. I cannot express how wealthy I am in family, friends, and professional colleagues.
Tags: northernvoice, nv08
Hello, Brian,
Today, I struggled to find the words to describe NV — unlike you, I did not succeed — the event does transcend words, in that amazing, needs-to-be-pondered-deeply kind of way.
Maybe tomorrow I’ll find those words — until then, thank you for your warmth, your generosity, your hospitality, and your work — it was great to be able to meet you, and carry on the conversations in person.
I look forward to more of it.
Cheers,
Bill
Brian, I think you hit on and captured something that is valuable about the nv08 experience – your “overwhelming respect . . . ” for all those involved on all the levels of participation at the conference.
Respect seems to allow for people to try new things, share the “wow” factor, and then publicaly put what they find online for others to read and comment upon. All of this within the context of helping to move our work and passion and learning forward without the pressure of selling, sponsorship, and greed that so pervades other conferences.
I agree with you completely.
Bill, I’m really looking forward to the next steps.
Jeffrey, one of my few regrets of this year was not getting to have a conversation with you. I really enjoyed your Liveblogging session — as I tweeted at the time, your style was really engaging and created a great vibe.
Sincere thanks to both of you for your contribution to the experience.
Brian: This was my first NV and it was unlike any other conference I’ve attended. I was taken aback by the intensity of the experience and by how much I learned not only in the sessions but in simple friendly conversation with the incredibly energetic and devoted folks I met. Thank you for your generosity and hospitality and I hope to see you at Baruch in May.
Brian, thank you for the kind words, and it provides more of a reason to plan for next year’s nv! I hope to do some long-overdue research in the area of liveblogging, so perhaps will have more to talk about then. Of course, there is always Twitter and blogs and wikis and Elluminate and . . .