NECC

Without questions the greatest highlight of NECC this year was the fact that one of the exhibitors had a mechanical bull on the trade show floor. I'm not at all sure what they were selling, but it was a mechanical bull that you could ride! Okay, maybe that wasn't the "highlight" of the conference but I think it speaks to the extent to which the exhibit floor has changed over the past few years; gone are most of the booths with current or former educators as they've been replaced by a much more aggressive sales and marketing cadre.

 

Generally speaking, I tend to think of NECC as primarily a conference about two things: (1) A hardware show where developers show off their latest gadgets and gizmos; and (2) A shared learning event where (typically) educators show off strategies and stories as to how they are integrating technology into their classrooms. Of course, this can vary from year to year but, for the most part, I think those two categories hold true.