Without a doubt, the K12 Online Conference was an enormous success. Tens of thousands of educators from around the world came together to share, learn, and collaborate. As any conference organizer knows, an immense amount of work goes into making an event run smoothly, and the Help Desk committee truly did a phenomenal job of supporting those in need.
Whenever someone needed assistance, the members of the help desk stepped up and lent a hand. Whether it was sunrise in Shanghai or sunset in San Antonio, it seemed at times as though the members of the Help Desk were on call 24/7. From email to Skype, hanging out in the Meebo Chat room or supporting the Fireside Chats, these people dedicated their time to making sure that everyone else was able to enjoy a smooth, seamless conference.
When one of our volunteers had to step down for personal reasons, Jen Wagner was quick to step up. She was always ready to jump in and lend a hand whenever and wherever she was needed. I can’t thank her enough for volunteering her time and energy to make sure people had a positive conference experience.
John Evans and Susan Lister were truly the heart and soul of the Help Desk committee. In addition to the dozens of emails, and countless hours manning the live help desk chat window, the two of them combined for nearly 200 edits to the Help Desk Wiki! They truly went above and beyond the call of duty to ensure that everything ran like a well oiled machine. Before the conference even began, John and Susan spent hour after hour brainstorming proactive solutions to problems people hadn’t even experienced, and thanks to their time and efforts, would never encounter. I wish to extend them my own personal thanks, for their dedication was truly inspiring and their efforts heroic.
Congrats to the entire Help Desk Committee on a wonderful conference!
One last note. I just want to also extend heartfelt thanks and congratulations to the conveners of this wonderful event. Darren, Wes, Sheryl and Lani have truly created something magical in the K12 Online Conference, that will keep growing year after year after year. This was truly a wonderful event, that participants won’t soon forget. If most of the attendees are like me, they’ve got enough professional development still queued up to last until 2008! Thanks for putting together one of the best professional development opportunities available, online OR offline.
Steve Dembo
Committee Chair
K12 Online Help Desk 2007