NECC Day One

Well it was my first day. It was also the first day of the exhibit hall and most of the general sessions. It had an inauspicious start for me as I didn’t get to San Diego until mid morning and once I got here I was running less than 100%. But after a short nap and a change into clean clothing (amazing how reviving it is to have ones suitcase and being able to change is) I was good to go and back at the Convention Center by mid-afternoon. I ran into friends almost immediately at the Microsoft booth. Two teachers who I had corresponded with via email or replies to the blog. It is just great to have faces to go with names. Plus we had some good conversations about what is and is not working well for them with Microsoft products.

Then we had the Visual Basic birds of a feather session. Unfortunately it was at the same time as the SIGCS meeting and a number of people choose to attend that. I can’t blame them for that and a couple of my co-workers also went to that meeting. We had 6-8 people at the BOF though and it was well worth it for me. I heard some good stories and a lot of information was exchanged. Certainly everyone seemed to have a good time. Several old friends showed up as well as a number of people I was meeting for the first time. One teacher who showed up teaches in the school district next to the one I live in back in New Hampshire. It seems funny to be 3000 miles from home and run into neighbors. But it was good to see Jim again and catch up on things.

There were more options for things to do at the end of the day than I could possibly handle. That is the problem with events like this. So many people and so little time. But I hope to see more people tomorrow. I learn so much from talking to teachers who face students every day. That makes trips like this worth it all.

Oh and Chris Stephenson of CSTA tells me there are still a few seats available for the CS & IT Symposium this Saturday. But you have to sign up quickly.

 

Tags: necc necc06