[Year 12 SofDev] VITTA Conference 2008

[Adrian Janson]

Hi everyone (and apologies for the cross-posts),

Thank-you to everyone that attended the VITTA conference for 2008!  I hope
you all had a productive and inspirational time!

It takes a great deal of work putting together a conference of this size and
quality.  Thank you to all of our keynote speakers: Heather Watson, Pia
Waugh, Derek Robertson, Andrew Owen and Roger Lawrence - all of whom were
engaging and thought provoking.  I now just have to find a way to introduce
Nintendogs into my Year 12 SD class.... hmmm....

We have recorded all of the keynotes and will be making these available, as
well as all of the presentations, via the VITTA web-site very shortly.

Making a move to a new conference venue was always going to present
challenges - and we take on board all the comments that have been made -
both during the conference and via the Edulists.  I thank you all for you
for your patience is navigating the venue and with some of the logistical
issues.  We will certainly look very closely at all of the issues that were
raised in deciding where to host the conference next year.  If you would
like to offer further feedback or suggestions (either on or off the list) -
it would be much appreciated!

The overwhelming feedback that I received from those I spoke to about the
program itself was very positive.  We tried to offer as wide a variety of
sessions as we could - and offered the closing keynotes on the Monday and
Wednesday because we had so many quality speakers available.

The Conference dinner on the Tuesday night was a great success and
celebrated the ICT achievers, the Cisco Academy winners as well as the VITTA
Outstanding Achievement award.  Over 250 were in attendance - and I feel
that this was one of the key advantages to holding the conference at a
hotel.  We have many regional attendees who stayed at the venue as well as
some from interstate (25 from Tasmania) and even attendees from Fiji!

A few thank yous (I will make them brief!)

I would like to publicly thank the VITTA Conference Committee as well as all
of the members of the VITTA Committee for all of their hard work leading up
to and during the conference.  Thank you to the VITTA office staff and a big
thank-you also to the technical team headed up by Swinburne University.
Thank you to all the VITTA helpers and to the Rydges staff who were very
accommodating and helpful throughout.  Special mention needs to go to both
Renee Hoareau (VITTA Executive Officer) and Lisa Chadderton (VITTA Project
Officer).  

Have a good Christmas break - see you all in 2008!

Cheers,
Adrian
 
Adrian Janson, 
VITTA President
Director of ICT, 
Melbourne High School, 
Forrest Hill, South Yarra 3141 Australia.
Phone: 03 9826 0711 International: +61 3 9826 0711
Fax: 03 9826 8767 International: +61 3 9826 8767
E-mail: janson.adrian.a at edumail.vic.gov.au
School WWW: http://www.mhs.vic.edu.au
My WWW: http://www.adrianjanson.com.au
Blog: http://jansona.edublogs.org
Twitter: http://twitter.com/AdrianJanson
Delicious: http://delicious.com/adrianjanson/



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