10 Reasons To Attend The iNACOL Symposium

Have you registered for the iNACOL Symposium yet? If not, you definitely want to do so today as spots are filling up fast!

This year’s event is October 23-25 at the Swan & Dolphin resort in Orlando, Florida (near the home of a very famous mouse). The theme this year is Personalizing Learning: Equity, Access, Quality, and promises to be full of innovative and interesting information.

In honor of this quickly approaching event, we took a little impromptu poll of our team and others in the education field about why they attend the Symposium every year, and here are their responses:

1. The Learning. Okay, we had to write that, but at the same time, it is so true!

2. The People. Of all the conferences we’ve been to, this may include people from the largest variety of roles within education including principals, teachers, policy makers, superintendents, state chiefs, EdTech, thought leaders and more.

3. The Breakout Sessions. There are more options than you could imagine, within a variety of strands. Definitely more hands-on and interactive sessions than most conferences.

4. The Swan & Dolphin. Great venue, easy to get to, a variety of locations for sessions, and you canwalk along the river and watch the Epcot fireworks whether you enter the park or not! Oh, and who doesn’t love an opportunity to go to Disneyworld?!

5. Networking. Lots of conferences have great people, but not all of them have built-in opportunities to network.

6. Karaoke. You never know which EdLeaders might step up to the mic (okay, we’ll be nice and not include a picture of anyone singing here).

7. The Keynote Speakers. iNACOL always gathers a great lineup of keynote speakers who present throughout the conference. Last year, Manny Scott ended the conference with such a powerful speech. We’re eager to see who will there this year!

8. Student Panel. That pretty much speaks for itself. No other conference does this as well as iNACOL and it’s something our team looks forward to every year! Hearing from the students is powerful, inspiring and a great reminder of why we do the work that we do.

9. The Pre-Conference Workshops. These small group workshops offer highly interactive, focused sessions for administrators, educators and policymakers for competency-based, blended and online learning.

10. The Exhibitor Hall. Each year, exhibitors fill the hallway with the latest technologies, software, products and services in education. It’s so much fun to check out the new items every year!

Why do you attend the Symposium? Leave your reason(s) in the comments or tag @nacol and @Getting_Smart on Twitter and let us know!

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Getting Smart Staff

The Getting Smart Staff believes in learning out loud and always being an advocate for things that we are excited about. As a result, we write a lot. Do you have a story we should cover? Email [email protected]

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