I attended a conference over the weekend co-sponsored by the STC’s region 5 and the Instructional Design and Learning Special Interest Group. I had a blast, and I think it was very useful, too.

First of all, I went to this event as an attendee. Not a speaker, not a stem manager, not on any committee, just an attendee. It was a very unique feeling of freedom!

I brought along a bunch of stuff to give away.

• My Captivate book, of course. This was the perfect audience for it! I also attended Neil Perlin’s session on Captivate, which was very interesting. He’s a great, personable speaker with lots of experience, and the audience was completely impressed with his knowledge and the product.
• World Usability Day calendars left over from our Tucson World Usability Day event. I gave these to Whitney Bates and Amanda Crocker from National Instruments, who were doing a usability presentation. I wish I’d been able to see what they had to say, but their session was scheduled opposite Neil’s. I hope to connect with them later, though!
• Some booklets about U.S. guidelines on accessibility and compliance that I got from the U.S. government. They have a ton of information available, just for the asking! I gave these booklets to the people at the Accessibility Tips topic lunch table.
• Our “Winter Journey through the Ninth” book – you just never know when you might run into someone interested in WWII, aviation, history, or Harry A. Franck!

I was also happy for the chance to hang out with some of my buddies from way-back-when, as well as some new friends. We were “networking” well into the night!