The "InstructureCon From Afar" Experience

[tdelillo]

To my friends, colleagues, and fellow Canvas lovers having a blast at Keystone:

My view is not as pretty as yours this afternoon. I didn't get to game, gamble, hack or karaoke last night. I haven't been kicked out of a building mid-session (although it did give me flashbacks to when a fire drill made me late for my own CanvasLIVE session in April), seen Jewel perform, or gotten a t-shirt shot at me by  @mbenson_sales .

But I am watching you all from afar. Hashtag #InstCon has been my best friend this week. Not to mention the amazing blog posts in the Community (how do you have time???) from  @kenneth_rogers ‌,  @mjennings ‌, awilliams‌, and  @kmeeusen ‌. So many people not only tweeting the heck out of everything, but also taking time to write longer, thoughtful missives, that really paint a real-time picture of the glory of InstructureCon. Even if I didn't have my awesome memories of InstructureCons past, it would still be clear that it's more than just another ed tech conference (This one's for the newbies - the rest of you are like "Well, DUH!").

My FOMO has been largely mitigated by the vast flow of information (VFOI?). Heck, I'm scoring like 88% on the #IC17Trivia: for goodness sake. I know where lunch is being served and that somebody hates the Yellow Bus. I didn't miss InstCon17. I just remoted in.

Hope you all have a rockin' finale, and I will see you in person next year. That's a promise.

[kenneth_rogers]

But wait...if you come, then what happens to all the people that I told *I* was Tracey DeLillo?

[tdelillo]

We just create an elaborate back-story to explain why I'm me again. And leave you at home so we don't have to explain why there's two of us

[kenneth_rogers]

Totally makes sen...WAIT! WHAT!!??!

[laurakgibbs]

This is starting to sound like an episode for the new Doctor Who...........!!!!!! 🙂

Like Tracey, I was participating from afar, and I have to give a special shout-out to  @lindalee ‌ for tweets that really inspired me while I was sitting here this week working on courses for back-to-school. So much goodness! And thanks to all the bloggers and tweeters. I had a blast!

[tdelillo]

Ooh, I can work with that! We'll just say that  @kenneth_rogers is me, from the future, after I regenerate, and he/I decided to travel to InstructureCon 2017 because he/I knew there'd be no risk of running into himself/myself. And if we both go next year, we'll just write it off as a multi-doctor episode and our fans will be cool with it. #whovians #nerdcred #toomuchsugar

[laurakgibbs]

How do I "like" this multiple times????! 🙂

[kona]

Sorry you couldn't make it this year, but I love how you could still follow along at home and do so well on the quizzes!

I definitely think we need a Canvassador panel session next year!! 

[tdelillo]

I totally agree. I know people are curious about who the Canvassadors are and what it means to be one. I think it would be a good opportunity for people to find out who their regional Canvassadors are, in case they are looking for somebody to speak at a small event or something like that. And those are just my off-the-top-of-my-head ideas. Let's get Deactivated user in the loop on this

[kmeeusen]

Great idea, Tracey! I mean really great!

Kelley

[kona]

Yep, this!! ^

[awilliams]

 @tdelillo , I'm so glad to find this, albeit a bit late. It's a concern of mine that there might not be enough stuff for the other community members, who don't get to attend, to experience during that wonderful week. It gives me such a great sense of relief and even wonder that you were able to stay so involved. Yay!

That doesn't mean there couldn't be more. I'd love to know what else you think those of us who end up attending could do to bring the experience to those who can't.

[kenneth_rogers]

I think we, as individual attendees, could do more live streaming. I mean, who doesn't want to see an original Adam Williams dance?!?

[tdelillo]

Well, I don't want to see anything TOO "What happens at InstructureCon stays at InstructureCon", but you bring up a good point - there was definitely less tweeting and blogging about the "fun stuff". A bit more coverage of the social would be beneficial. But again, I don't want people to feel like they can't have a good time because their boss is going to see them being wacky on the twitters. :smileylaugh:

[kona]

I totally get this! Funny story, the president of our College followed me on Twitter right as InstCon was starting. All I could think of was the barrage of stuff he was going to be seeing/getting from me for the next week or so! 😉

[awilliams]

I prefer not to have to watch myself dance. I want the blissful ignorance of feeling cooler than I look. Now A00364575‌ on the other hand, that's a guy to film dancing!

[valentinesking]

I think most of these folks that write amazing re-caps are either early risers or night owls; can't imagine any other solution... oh wait- see above... time travel.

I was participating in the dueling LMS conferences via tweeting from that OTHER conference (in NOLA) so much to the effect that someone asked me if I had a QR code. I'm thankful for the #instcon tweets and for the longer community posts to squelch my FOMO. So thanks to all... Can't wait to eventually meet y'all in person.

[awilliams]

...

[Bobby2]

I'd love to see a 'Highlights' resource made Tracey

[awilliams]

Thanks  @tdelillo for reminding me about this post from last year in your latest post, InstructureCon Is Not One Giant Party (And Other Things to Tell Your Boss)‌. This definitely struck a chord with me then as it did when laurakgibbs‌ posted something similar. I am so glad you will be attending this year but if anyone reading this is interested, InstructureCon 2018‌ will have an active effort to include everyone from everywhere and you can read more about that in my latest blog post, Come one, Come all!‌ Laura has created an awesome Canvas course already for getting involved. If anyone has any questions or ideas please let me or Laura know!