Conference Wrap-Up & Thanks

Well, it's all over. I should have blogged a wrap-up post yesterday, but Thursday morning in the booth turned out to be busy. Things were slow early on (why, oh, why did we open the exhibit hall at 7:30am?!?), but picked up quickly. In the Building Blocks booth, Jeff Nuckles, from Joliet Junior College, demonstrated his popular Discussion Board Grader building block to a number of people, and Jan, Bob, and I had participants lined up with questions and feedback until the exhibit hall closed for good at noon. They broke down the booth before I had a chance to post a final entry on the conference, and, like Matthew mentioned below, I've spent most of today playing catch up.

I think the conference was a tremendous success. I'd like to send kudos out to the entire Blackboard Marketing team, and a special pat on the back to Shaune Gokey and Sharon Greathouse from our Marketing team. They did a great job of keeping things running smoothly. There's never a conference without hiccups (e.g. running out of food too early at lunch on Tuesday!), but this one was remarkably smooth and relaxed.

I'd like to thank the over 50 companies that exhibited and sponsored. During the time I spent on the Building Blocks team, I had the opportunity to work with a great community of software vendors that bring a lot of value to our common clients. I always look forward to UC as a time to catch up with the counterparts at our long-time partners and to put faces to the names for new partners. It's also really amazing to walk around the exhibit hall and see companies founded by folks who used to be colleagues at Blackboard (like Presidium, Learning Objects, and ClearTXT), and realize that Blackboard's impact is being expanded even further through these friends and their companies.

I really do think this was the best Blackboard Users Conference ever (and I've been to all of 'em since 1999) . . . but I'm a biased source. Let's hear from two of the participants who were blogging the conference:

"And, so, today was the last day of the conference, which means it’s time for some final thoughts… The conference over all was good, and I definitely enjoyed myself. I meet a number of good folks, learned quite a bit and had a good time, overall. Personally, I like conferences for two reasons: networking and to see how others use something I use. It sounds funny, but really, I know how to use this product, I know how we use it… now, tell me how you use it. I just like to hear those kinds of things. Because of that, to me, it is hard to have a bad conference." -- Thomas Thorpe

"Over the last five years I've seen - problems aside - this product grow from well, an effective tool to a really effective tool - I'd be writing white papers for the company if I started to seriously evaluate my experience and express it in proper prose! I will try to do that before I leave in June. I will be emphasising that even with the problems, I still think the product is the best, I still use it, I still want to use it, I still want to use it more, I still recommend it, and I salute the Bb staff for their ongoing commitment. A multinational company as a whole entity is by necessity a slow moving beast, but even if I would have liked [App Pack 3] in December etc etc, I still and increasingly feel when talking one to one with individual Bb staff that there is a humility and a desire to get things righter that continues to move in the right direction. I think they have listened in their listening sessions, so that's a great addition to the programme. I've had a great week. I haven't finished blogging about it yet, (how can I now?!) but while they're still reading it, thanks." -- Kate Boardman

Comments like those from Kate and Thomas make all the exhaustion worth it. Without a doubt, the biggest thanks must go to all of the clients who made the 2005 UC such a success. As someone about ten days shy of my six-year anniversary at Blackboard, it's hard not to feel humble when 1400+ people come from all over the globe to spend a few days talking and sharing about a product you've worked so hard on for so long. (And, believe me, most of my colleagues will tell you that I usually have no problem feeling humble! ;-)

I know I speak for my co-workers when I say that the real stars of the conference who deserve all the credit aren't our staff or our partners, but our clients. Our clients are smart, creative, fun, and (most important of all) amazingly dedicated and committed to making education better. So thank you and see you next year in San Diego!