Announcing the 2011 Global Education Conference!

Because I was traveling, my co-chair for the 2011 Global Education Conference, Lucy Gray, took the lead on announcing our new conference website, dates, and call for proposal. But while I might be a week (or two!) late to the party, I promise I'm just as excited!

Part of my excitement is that we are organizing the conference in a Ning network. This has some tremendous advantages, including ease of communication, but also a proposal system that allows you to connect with potential presenters in advance on ideas you care about, and to comment on specific proposals. This particular brainstorm came about as part of the Library 2.011 Conference I'm running out of the Library 2.0 Ning network, so let me know what you think--I'm kind of stunned by the implications of an open proposal and networking process.

But on to the actual announcement!

The second annual Global Education Conference, a week-long event bringing together educators and innovators from around the world, will be held Monday, November 14 through Friday, November 18, 2011. The entire conference will be broadcast online for free using the Blackboard Collaborate platform (formerly known as Elluminate/Wimba).

The Global Education Conference is a collaborative and world-wide community effort organized by the Global Education Collaborative, Classroom 2.0, and Web 2.0 Labs, and is aimed at increasing opportunities for globally-connecting education activities and initiatives. Last year’s conference featured 387 sessions and 60 keynote addresses from 62 countries with over 15,000 participant logins. Sessions will be held in multiple time zones and multiple languages over the five days, and all of last years sessions are currently archived as a standing educational resource at http://globaledcon.weebly.com/recordings.html.

The Call for Proposals for the 2011 event is now open at http://globaleducation.ning.com/page/call-for-proposals. Presenters can submit proposals for general sessions focused on one of four possible tracks: Teacher Track; Student Track; Curricular Track; and Policy and Leadership Track. Proposals should focus on ideas, projects, and initiatives that promote global understanding and collaboration. The deadline for submissions is October 15 and participants will be notified of acceptance by October 30. Keynote presentations are by invitation only.

Session proposals are to be non-commercial. Interest in commercial sponsorship or presentations should be directed to me at steve@hargadon.com.

As we did last year, we encourage non-commercial organizations to become conference partners (we had over 90 partner organizations last year!). Conference partners will be given a spotlight session this year. More information at http://globaleducation.ning.com/page/conference-partners.

We'll also be hoping for another incredible outpouring of volunteer support like we had last year (those of you who helped were AMAZING!). If you'd like to help promote awareness of the conference by serving on our International Advisory Board go to http://globaleducation.ning.com/page/intl-advisory-board, or if you are willing to volunteer to help moderate sessions (making you an absolute rockstar!) go to http://globaleducation.ning.com/page/volunteers-1.

For further information, please join our network at http://globaleducationconference.com and follow conference announcements on Twitter (@GlobalEdCon) and the hashtag #GlobalEd11.

Library 2.011 Conference Proposals Due Thursday September 15th!

Almost 2,500 people have signed up from 133 countries to participate in the Library 2.011 worldwide conference. The conference is free, being held virtually, and should be a GREAT event. You can sign up any time at http://www.library2011.com. Three quick notes:

1. Presentation proposals are due this Thursday, September 15th. Library 2.011 presents a unique opportunity to showcase the excellent research and work related to libraries and librarians. If you would like to present, please take a few minutes of your time to submit your talk proposal. It just requires an abstract--your entire presentation doesn’t need to be completed. For instructions on how to submit your proposal, visit: http://www.library20.com/page/call-for-proposals. To view examples of presentation topics for each subject strand, click here: http://www.library20.com/forum/categories/library-2011-conference/listForCategory.

2. We have a terrific list of partner organizations who've joined us (including ALA, SLA, ALISE, ASIST, and the Ontario Library Association). Whether you are a small school library or a multi-national organization, we want to encourage you to become a conference partner. There are no financial obligations for being a partner organization--all we ask is that you actively promote the conference to your membership and network, and encourage participation as well as presentations and submissions. More information at http://www.library20.com/page/conference-partners.

3. Once you've signed up at the conference website, you can let us know if you want to volunteer or to serve on the International Advisory Board. Links to do so are on the site!