In 2016, I had the opportunity to attend the Online Learning Consortium (OLC) Innovate Conference. I was familiar with the OLC annual conference, and I was excited to participate in a smaller conference and connect with others in my field. (At the time, I was involved in online learning).
I was looking forward to the sessions; there were so many. Some of the session topics that I was interested in were overlapping. I created a strategy that I would go to one for half of the time and try to go to another for the other half. Seems simple, right?
I gathered resources, and then my mentor (who was also in attendance) asked me, have you met anyone?
"No," I said reluctantly.
I was gathering resources, notes, and ideas. But I had not mastered the art of being a social butterfly.
The lesson at this particular conference was to actively pursue sessions that sparked my interest and to build a community with professionals that I can learn with and from about distance education.
Why is this valuable?
I consider myself quiet and observant. I like to think and reflect on new information. It had not occurred to me that I need to push my limits and make meaningful connections because the most valuable resource at the conference are the people!
After the conference, my former department was working on faculty development. I invited a couple of the people in my network to conduct workshops on similar topics for the faculty.
Going forward, I would like to attend a conference on professional learning and share the information with my team
for us to inform what we do in our department.