If you plan on doing the conference again, it might be useful to make sure that the people leading the sessions actively lead, with an agenda and expected outcomes. An advance program might also be useful in making sure that the sessions are informative, with pre-defined objectives.

The first-period session about managing creative projects (in the front room), did not really have any format and sort of got off on a tangent about ecology and universal engagement. While open dialog is good, I think there has to be some set information presented and the dialog has to be facilitated around the topic at hand. Everyone has their own take and agenda but it is up to the speaker/leader/facilitator to keep the discussion about the topic we all wanted to hear about by attending a given session.

The third period session about gadgets was derailed by lack of preparation, the gadgets could not be demoed due to lack of an adapter cable and unreliable Internet access. I have done presentations and know to always save screen shots locally because venue Internet access is unreliable.

I definitely got my money’s worth out of the program by countering the (self described) State employee who said that Twitter would be a good way for people to report dam failures during session four about social media marketing.

Perhaps a better speaker honorarium or having more rigorous selection criteria for presenters would yield a better, more useful program.

Thanks again for providing the opportunity to meet other tech-minded people and I look forward to attending future events.