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California Educational Data Processing Association |
The DataBus - Vol. 37, No. 5
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Greg Lindner, Yolo County Superintendent of Schools
The next fall conference of the California Educational Data Processing Association (CEDPA) will be held at the Radisson Hotel in Sacramento, California. This year's conference will be held on October 29-31, 1997 (Wednesday through Friday), with preconference sessions scheduled for Tuesday, October 29, 1997 and concluding with our Second Annual Golf Tournament. Conference announcements will be distributed to all recipients of CEPDA's newsletter, The DataBus, and to all California public school superintendents and technology coordinators.
This year marks the second time that the complete breakout session schedule is being distributed with the announcement. This was made possible through the efforts of speaker chairperson Warren Williams and Russ Brawn, who together were able to completely develop the breakout program in time for it to be presented in the announcement.
The annual conference features a main speaker program including a keynote speaker and two other main speakers, several breakout sessions on various interest areas, and a vendor exhibit representing approximately 50 plus different product and service vendors. Also returning to this year's conference is the Internet Room, a popular venue of the past three conferences. This room will demonstrate network connectivity of equipment from various manufacturers, integrated to provide connectivity and access to the Internet.
Once again this year we are holding a golf tournament to be held on Friday, October 31, following the conference. Due to daylight savings time the tournament will be a 9-hole, scramble tournament. Entry fee is $35 per person, which includes the golf fees, cart rental, drink tickets and awards. NCompass Systems, Inc., is sponsoring the golf tournament this year and will underwrite the first 30 full-conference attendees who sign up. If you are among the first 30 who qualify, you will have your registration fees refunded. Those interested in participating must register with Greg Lindner by August 30th in order to be included in the tournament. Greg may be contacted at (916) 668-3738 or by e-mail at .
For the second year in a row, CEDPA has put up a Conference Central on its website. The Conference Central is a clearinghouse of information relating to this year's conference, including the complete program and an up-to-date listing of participating exhibitors. Please visit http://cedpa-k12.org for conference information and other general information about CEDPA.
Also featured this year are two preconference sessions that will be held on the afternoon of Tuesday, October 29th. These preconference sessions are open to full conference registrants only. The fee for each session is $55, or you can sign up for both sessions for $100. These fees are in addition to the full conference registration fee of $225.
The first preconference session will be "Cisco Brings Switching To The Desktop." This session will focus on why switching is a good investment in a LAN architecture. The discussion will include details on Cisco's buffering VLAN strategy, Cisco Group Multicast Protocol (CGMP) for multimedia and voice, and RSVP for bandwidth reservation. Gigabit Ethernet and ATM alternatives will also be explored by Cisco engineers.
The second preconference session will be presented by Allied Telesyn, Inc. and discuss "Using A Switch In Your Network." Allied Telesyn will provide information on where, when, why and how to use a switch and demonstrate the benefits of switched technology and the applications that it is most pertinent to.
Our keynote speaker is Dr. Linda G. Roberts, Director of the Office of Educational Technology and Special Adviser to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education. Dr. Roberts coordinates the Department's technology activities and plays a key role in developing the Clinton Administration's Educational Technology Initiative. She was instrumental in creating affordable access to the Internet for schools and libraries, and mobilizing state, local and other efforts to upgrade the ed tech infrastructure.
Our other main speakers for Thursday and Friday are Sandra Tiffany, Assemblywoman from Nevada's Clark County, the home of the fastest growing school district in the United States, and Kent Keel, the Executive Director of Information Technology for the Kent (Washington) School District.
This year's conference follows the format of past conferences. Registration begins on Wednesday at 8:00, with the conference commencing at 9:00 a.m. Following the opening remarks by CEDPA's president Greg Lindner, Dr. Roberts will give the keynote address. Breakout sessions will follow for the remainder of the day. Wednesday's activities will conclude with the CEDPA-hosted President's Reception that evening.
Thursday will begin with interactive panel discussions that will lead into the all-day vendor exhibit. We expect more than fifty vendors to be on hand to show you their latest products and services. Sandra Tiffany will deliver our noontime address. The vendor exhibit will continue after lunch, concluding in the door-prize drawings that afternoon. Vendor-hosted hospitality suites will cap off Thursday' s activities.
Friday's featured speaker and panel discussions will be both interesting and informative. CEDPA's business meeting will conclude the conference activities. The golf tournament will begin about 1:30 at the Haggin Oaks Golf Course, about 15 minutes from the Radisson hotel.
While planning for this year's conference, there are several important dates to remember. They are:
The complete conference announcemenand a registration form package are now available in Adobe PDF format from CEDPA's website. There is also a link on that page to Adobe's website to download a free copy of the Adobe Acrobat reader which you will need to process the PDF files.
Additional conference announcements can also be obtained directly from CEDPA by contacting CEDPA's secretary, Jane Kauble, at (562) 922-6141, or by e-mail at .
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