I’m trying a new Plugin today called Snap Shots. I’m not sure if it’s going to be more beneficial or more annoying. Feel free to let me know.

I already wrote a few posts about the first two days of ISTE here, here, and here.  My original plan was to put something together for each day along with a general recap.  At the rate I’m moving, it might be a while before I get to the recap post so I’m going to skip individual posts for Monday and Tuesday and just put a few of my overall thoughts down here.

I’ve never been to Denver.  The downtown area where I ventured was cool.  Our condo, which I shared with some of my friends, was excellent.  Great location, close to the 16th street mall, and only a comfortable walk to the Convention Center.  As a bonus, we were pretty close to Coors Field as well.  The view out one of our windows was pretty awesome.

It seemed like I’d been in Denver forever before Monday even rolled around.  Between the events of Saturday and Sunday, as well as a Sunday night visit to Wild Ivories, I was a little tired heading into Monday.  I attended a session on Monday morning – Teaching With Primary Sources from the Library of Congress.  This wasn’t a bad session at all.  I could see quite a bit of value for middle and high school teachers, but not quite as much for primary grade students.  The L.O.C. site has a TON of information.  I was hoping to get into Steve Dembo’s session Policies, Safety, and Social Networking later in the morning, but due to some responsibilities I had for a marketing research project, I got there late and the session was closed.  I’ll hit Steve up for the notes soon.  I also attended a discussion about the 21st Century teacher.  Interesting ideas floating around that one.  I did like the audience participation via student response systems.  I was shut out of another session later in the day – 21 Things About 21 Things, Lessons Learned from Staff Development.  Luckily, this session was video taped.

Monday was the biggest night for vendor parties, I mean social gatherings.  BrainPop, Gaggle, Intel, SIGMS and others all had something going on.  Google put on a pretty slick party at the Denver Performing Arts Center.  Beautiful weather, a great venue, and cool people (not to mention a few goodies from Google), made this a great start to the evening.

Tuesday was the day I was looking forward to, but I was a little nervous about it.  I was more than honored to be a part of the SIGMS Learning Tools Smackdown, with Joyce Valenza and Gwyneth Jones, among others.  Gwyneth and I were responsible for talking about Network Building, which I felt pretty comfortable with.  My main goal was to not look like a total fool in front of a packed room.

A session on Tuesday afternoon was the best.  Rushton Hurley spoke about inspiring your staff to discover their inner technophiles.  Rushton is an incredible speaker.  Not only did he delivery a great message, he did it in a way that was extremely entertaining.  I chatted with him on Wednesday after another one of his sessions and found out there’s a chance he might be coming to Wisconsin for a conference in 2012.  That would be awesome!   There were a few vendor socials in the evening, but I ended up at the ISTE Mansion.

I’d heard about the ISTE Mansion earlier in the week, but wasn’t really sure what to expect.  It was a mansion.  Hanging out and just chatting with Dean, Adina, Lisa, Paul, Ben, and others turned out to be a great way to wrap up the final night of ISTE.  The company was just as good as the conversations.

Like most people at the convention center on Wednesday, I was wiped.  I had a later flight than many but tried to use the time the best I could.  I hit a few sessions, took a walk to Coors Field to pick up something for my son, and hit the Blogger’s Cafe to check out the Closing Keynote.  The atmosphere in the BC for the closing keynote wasn’t the same as the it was for the opening keynote.  After the keynote, I met a few friends at the Breckenridge Blake Street Pub.  After a quick dinner, it was time hit the airport and head out of town.

I enjoy ISTE more each year.  I’m already looking to my 4th conference next year in Philly.  For me, like others, this conference is about the people.  Yes, the conversations are great and the sessions are beneficial.  I learn quite a bit each day, but I feel like I’ve developed some pretty good friendships over the past couple of years and seeing these friends face to face just adds a different feeling to the conversations.  There were several people I was hoping to say hi to, but I just didn’t do it.  Completely my fault, but I’m regretting not walking up to them and introducing myself.  There were quite a few new faces I had a chance to meet this year and I’ve already added quite a few new blogs to my reader.  I can’t wait to continue learning from and with them.

For me, ISTE’s incredible.  I’m very thankful my wife is okay with me spending most of our own money to attend.  It’s truly one of the highlights of my summer and I hope others who attend have the same kind of experience I do.