Reflections after Learning Technologies 2011 Part 1

It’s been a couple of hectic days in London this week as I was attending the Learning Technologies Conference #LT11UK .  I had written a blog post about my expectations before the conference. But due to issues with connecting to wireless networks I haven’t been able to publish it. So instead of publishing it now when the conference is already over I will just summarize my goals for the conference:

1.  To meet some of my Personal Learning Network (PLN) in person.
2. To learn more about how to use Social Media as a means to Learning in an organization.
3. To get ideas on how to strengthen our L&D department in terms of brining value to the business.

In the coming posts I will go through these goals one by one to see if I can tick them off as fulfilled or not. In this first post I will reflect on goal number 1.

To meet some of my Personal Learning Network (PLN) in person.

  

This was probably most fantastic thing with the conference. It’s one thing to have conversations via Twitter but it was so nice to meet these fantastic people in real life. It showed to me one of the great things with social media in general and Twitter in particular. Because even though I had never met any of these people (expect for David Bennett @dbswe and Peter Fröhlin  @Peter_nLearn) before it actually felt like meeting old friends that you hadn’t seen in a long while. Everyone was just as open, sharing and inspiring as I had imagined them to be.  Some people I never got to meet this time, which was a shame, but I hope there will be more chances to do so.

Here are some of my fellow tweeters that need an extra tribute:

• @learninganorak – The official Twitter wrangler of #lt11uk. But also the official “big smiley” I believe. Constantly happy and full of energy. Thanks for the warm welcome during the early bird #learningparty.
• @CraigTaylor74 – Another one with a constant smile on his face. We’ve been tweeting quite a bit and you exceed my expectations by far. Also one of the most inspiring facilitators of the whole conference, but I will talk more about that in an upcoming post.
•  @dbswe – Yes we had met before but that was very short. Now I know even more about the amazing competence you have acquired in this field. Hope to learn more from you in the future.
• @janebozarth – My favorite twitter turned to be just as fun and intelligent in real life. It’s not every day you get to meet such an inspiration. SO much looking forward to what you will come up with in the future.
• @Quinnovator – We got to talk about one of our mutual disturbances in the world of mobile phones, stupid roaming fees. We’ve had the discussion before and it’s always nice to share your frustration with someone else. I didn’t get to hear his talk on games in learning but I will for sure check it out later.
• @finiteattention – Great dinner company. She was brave enough to join us Swedes for a dinner. Highly skilled in her field, and I will for sure keep track of your work, it was so interesting to hear your thoughts and ideas.
• @simbeckhampson – Never got the chance to really talk to him, but at least we got to say Hi shortly during his presentation.
• @kategraham23 – Another one of those constantly happy and inspiring people.

I have probably forgot about some one. If you feel left out of this list I am so sorry but my head is still spinning from the experience.

Watch out for my coming posts where I will reflect on the rest of my goals and also draw some general conclusions about the conference.

Thanks for taking the time.

Mattias