It’s that time of year again. The last week in June is traditionally when ISTE holds their huge edtech conference, the 2023 edition of which wrapped up just a few days ago.
For most of this century I would be in the middle of the event, especially in a year like this one when everything was happening in Philadelphia. After all, that city is only a three-hour drive up I-95. Less than half that on the train.
After four days of running around the conference,1 I only have the mental space for a few quick thoughts.
At the end of next month, ISTE will hold its first live conference in three years.
In late June of normal times, the organization could expect to pack at least 15,000 people into a big-city convention center for the largest edtech conference and expo (with more and more emphasis on “expo”) in the US.1
Last summer I posted some rambling thoughts in this space on the future of in-person edtech conferences.
Asking questions like: after nearly two years of remote professional development activities, will educators want to return to face-to-face meetings involving hundreds of participants in a confined space? Will they and their schools want to spend the money to make it happen?
