The 1994 Conference Speaker Program has really come together in the last several months. The themes of the conference of integrating technology with education and internetworking are very well represented.
Our kickoff is George Luginbill who will present his views on making technology available to education. We are all wrestling with the problem of converting our hard won expertise with administrative computing into a package that the educators in our districts can use. Educators are discovering the need for the technology in the classroom, but generally do not have the skills for district-wide deployment. George has been working with districts and county offices to solve this problem and make a marriage between the two areas work.
We are trying a new format by including a terrific luncheon speaker on Wednesday. We don't want to give you a chance to slow down! Dr. Philip Bossert's credentials show him to be the perfect speaker to address the implementation of large scale networks. He put Hawaii on the digital map and will be sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly of these large scale projects. My district is working through these problems right now and I am really excited about hearing Dr. Bossert's insights.
For lunch on Thursday we have a treat with Edward Dry speaking on the current state of client/server technology. We have been hearing about the advantages of this technology for some time, but for those of us who have dabbled in it, we know that there are some major hurdles to be jumped. Ed will share some of his experiences and those of some of his customers. This talk should be very informative as well as entertaining.
Friday morning kicks off the last day of the conference with Mark Kasperowicz discussing something we deal with every day -- getting to the heart of our customers needs and delivering on them. As downsizing (or rightsizing) continues to change our industry, we must continually reevaluate ourselves in these terms. Mark has run some large Information Systems shops and has lots of good ideas for us.
The breakouts this year are heavily focused on internetworking and the Internet. By the end of two and a half days, you should have a working knowledge of what is available on the Internet, how to use it, and how to build the bridge in your organization to access it. To bring the point home, an Internet lab will be available during the entire conference so you can actually see the physical boxes that can make the connection happen, and you can sit down and "surf" the net.
Finally, we will close with a panel discussion on Friday with a number of Internet and internetworking experts to answer any questions that you still have. This panel, moderated by Brian Lloyd and Mike Loring, will be a rare opportunity to talk to so many experts in the same room at the same time--that is if your head doesn't explode with all this new information.
Thank you for joining us this year.