#MACUL17

March 16th - 17th 2017
Detroit, MI

#macul17

Michigan's Association for Computer Users in Learning (MACUL)
Cobo Center





This is the first of what I hope will be yearly "checking out new conferences" adventures. For many years, ISTE has been THE destination, and rightly so -- it is a huge, national conference. However, this year I wanted to try something new (and cheaper).

MACUL (an ISTE affiliate), bragged it is one of the Midwest’s largest educational technology conferences with 5000+ educators from across Michigan, the region, and Canada. What I didn't realize is just how close to Canada we were....
Looking out from the Cobo Conference Center  - there's Canada!

Funny story - I didn't realize it, until I was speaking to some locals, that I was looking at Canada. They were surprised that a person from KS was at the conference...I mentioned that I thought it had a international pull...to which they said, Canada is right over there.

And that was how it was - lots of surprised people that girls from KS were at the conference. And a given that some from Canada were :)

Although, I definitely felt that the conference was geared toward local Michigan folks, we enjoyed and benefited from our time.

A huge draw was the list of speakers
Three powerhouse keynotes -
Sir Ken Robinson, Jane McGonigal, Jennie Magiera

Plus these featured speakers -
Barbara Chamberlin, Hall Davidson, Steve Dembo, Leslie Fisher, Matt Miller, Tom Murray, Kyle Pace and Anthony Salcito!

We loved how close our hotel was to the conference center!



This was the view from our hotel window!








I loved their huge Makerspace!

I learned to solder!
Made a button :)
Added bling to my name tag

And I gathered lots of ideas.

I loved that you could play and that there were lots of supplies to make with.



Lots of good sessions were also attended. I'll have to sort through some highlights and share them out!


I'm also very excited to try out IPEVO's Wireless Interactive Whiteboard System and their document camera that I was allowed to take home. The IPEVO rep was awesome!

Good thing I packed an extra goodie bag for bringing home EXPO goods :)