Some things I'd suggest you bring along each day to a L&D conference

Now that I've been to quite a few conferences, I'm starting to get a good handle on what I like dragging around with me each day.

Curious about what I think is worth the trouble to keep on you? Check out this video:

So I'm curious... what are your conference best bets?

Learning Solutions 2015 - What I'm going to try to live tweet!

It's the night before one of the most fun events of the year (and one that's happily NOT in Vegas): Learning Solutions!

I just had an amusing day of playing absurd pirate mini golf with my work siblings, AKA: two of my awesome co-workers, and my mom. It should surprise no one that none of us are going to ditch L&D for a professional mini-golf career, but we had a great time in spite of our lack of athletic ability.

Now I'm just settling in, getting excited about my schedule, and thinking about the sessions I'm going to see. Once again, I'm going to try and live tweet this thing, and here's my intended schedule for the next three days. It may change a little bit here and there, but this is at least what I expect I'll be live tweeting each day:

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Wednesday

8:30-10:00 AM - Keynote - Return on imagination
Speaker:Tom Wujec

10:45-11:45 AM - Featured session: Bridging the gender gap
Speakers: Jennifer Hofmann, Mark Lassoff, Megan Torrance, and David Kelly

1:00-2:00 PM - I know it's ugly, but I can't tell you why: Fixing common design mistakes
Speaker: Bianca Woods
Oh look... it's my own session! Yeah... I somehow suspect I won't be live tweeting this one.

2:30-3:30 PM - The second-screen experience: Designing a paperless classroom
Speaker: Andrew Vecchiarelli
Andrew is one of the awesome co-workers I mentioned earlier and you should totally go to his session. Also, I've seen his content and it is GOOD!
 
4:00-5:00 PM - Interactive video for training: Secrets of success
Speakers: Cass Sapir and Ty Marbut

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Thursday

8:30-10:00 AM - Keynote- The future of learning at work
Speaker: Michael Furdyk

10:45-11:45 AM - Training hacks to improve your practice
Speaker: David Glow

1:00-2:00 PM - Serious game secrets: What, why, where, who cares?
Speaker: Andrew Hughes

2:30-3:30 PM - Free and low-cost eLearning tools you should know!
Speaker: Joe Ganci

3:45-4:45 PM - BYOL: Project paramedic: Tools and resources to resuscitate your projects
Speaker: Coline Son Lee

4:45-6:45 PM - LS DemoFest

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Friday

8:30-9:30 AM - BYOL: Video 101 - Creating captivating videos on a budget
Speakers: Amanda Mahoney and Stacy Bodenner

10:00-11:00 AM - BYOL: Video 102 - Building your intermediate video skills
Speakers: Amanda Mahoney and Stacy Bodenner

11:15 AM-12:30 PM - Keynote: Design thinking to enhance learning
Speaker: Juliette LaMontagne

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Hope to see you there, either in-person or on the backchannel!

E-Learning Heroes Design Challenge #73 (AKA: I'm so very sorry...)

Okay, so this week the E-Learning Heroes design challenge was something that had practically been written for me: "Design a Cover Slide for the Oddest E-Learning Course Title of the Year" (you can read all about it here). 

I love ridiculous things like this, so I got excited and started contemplating ideas... and almost immediately a terrible, horrible idea came to mind. A topic that technically someone might have to really make eLearning about... but not any eLearning I'd want to take, that's for sure.

It was an evil idea, but once it got in my head I realized I'd have to make it.

Ewwwwwwwwwwww!

Side note: If you don't know what a cloaca is, go and Google it now. Warning: it is something you can never unlearn.