SAME-TEC 2007 is finished and to me it was a great conference.  And I am not the only one to think so.  A lot of people came up to me and told me how wonderful that it was and what they learned.  I met a lot of teachers from many parts of the country - Rik Villarreal from Western Technical College, Doug from Springfield CC, Ricky from Paris CC (enjoy the camera you won from attending the Fully Charged session!), and many, many more (20 hours of conference and travel makes my brain forgetful right now).  A number of teachers told me that have some excellent resources that they want to link to NetWorks resource library to share with everyone.  I can’t wait to see them!  Many people were chomping at the bit to start an Externship in Mems, Nano, PLCs, RF ID, and other ideas.  Gordon Synder and Mike Q’s Wiki,  Blogs, and Oh My session gave everyone some great ideas (if you missed it, we will have a webinar on each session soon (ed. WebWare 1 Sept 28, WebWare 2 Oct 12, Blogs and Podcast Dec 14, and Second Life in Education Mar 21)).  It was really great to finally meet those two in person.  We have done a lot of work together over the phone and Internet. 

In fact, I think that is probably the most important factor of SAME-TEC - is to allow educators and Industry to get together, network, share ideas, and just meet people who are having the same challenges and have the same interest as you.  Many new friendships were created, and many old friendships were renewed.  And some great knowledged gained to boot!  Now that is a Conference!

Mark Viquesney