Northern Exposure

I'm not sure if it is the same in other sectors, but education has a large number of conferences that educators can attend throughout the year. They range from small regional events, to larger state-wide events, and then the massive nationwide shows in exciting locations. Sadly, I've never been able to attend a national event. The school district I work for has a long standing policy against paying for out of state travel.

It's a shame because I think some of the information at those larger shows would be helpful, but who am I to buck the status quo?

While most conferences are targeted specifically at teachers, there are a handful of events that are made just for the technology folks. Michigan happens to have one such event, and each year I make it a point to attend. It's probably the single most useful professional development I participate in each year.

@mrsbozz and her building principal joke that it is basically a "nerd fest", and while they aren't exactly wrong, it's still something I look forward to each year. The conference has been taking place just outside of Traverse City for the past ten years or so and we get housed at the Grand Traverse Resort. Needless to say, if you get one of the higher rooms in the fall, the views can be quite spectacular. Even from the lowly fourth floor, I still got a pretty good view of the fall colors. If you are lucky enough to get a room on the other side of the hotel, you get amazing views of Traverse City and the Grand Traverse Bay.

@iikrypticsii and I rolled into town a bit before the conference actually started, so we hit a local joint to get a burger and have a beer before we headed back to the hotel to get registered. Although the patty looked preformed, it was actually a really good (if not messy) burger.

We headed back to the hotel, got checked in, went down and registered for the conference, and then we headed to our first session. It was a pretty good one about AI and whether some of the tools out there are legit or just a bunch of fluff. The presenter was quite honest in his opinions and made sure not to jump on the AI bandwagon like a lot of people are lately these days.

After the afternoon sessions we had dinner, and then we hit up the vendor area. I talked to a ton of vendors this year which is a bit uncommon for me, but given my potential retirement in the near future, I felt it was a good idea to get some "networking" in. I even attended an after party on the top floor of the hotel. It was actually a bit disappointing. I thought it was going to be a quiet intimate affair, but it turned out pretty much everyone was invited to it. It was loud, and hard to carry on a conversation.

Breakfast is always one of my favorite parts of this conference because they usually have a few omelette stations as well as a full breakfast buffet. I got a little greedy on the contents of my omelette, which made it hard for the chef to keep it together. It tasted fine though!

After a morning of sessions, we decided to skip lunch and play hookey.

I made the half hour drive or so up to the small town of Suttons Bay where we visited a local place called Hop Lot Brewing. I visited this place maybe ten years ago when they first opened and it was pretty cool back then. It's crazy to see how much they have grown. In fact, they are now voted the #2 Beer Garden in the country two years in a row. Pretty cool.

I've made it a habit of taking my worker to places like this over the years to expose him to some of the awesome stuff that our state has to offer. Plus, I kind of feel like a father figure to him, so this gives us a chance to talk about life stuff and not just work stuff. I can dole out advice over a pint and not feel self conscious about it!

We grabbed a bite to eat and then spent some time walking around the property and talking over a couple of pints. I got a delicious brown ale to get started and then finished off with a nice marzen. My worker got a sour beer that he loved, and then tried an IPA which he absolutely did not!

Given the fact that we did a bit of walking, I'm going to include this as a #wednesdaywalk post sponsored by @tattoodjay.

The wings had a honey garlic chili sauce on them and were honestly some of the best wings I have had in awhile. I'm still dreaming about them!

After lunch we headed back to the resort and made it back just in time to attend the last session of the day. Then after more vendor time we had dinner and finally the entertainment for the night was a band.

They weren't horrible, but they were great either, so after a couple of song and them making a rough attempt at Bon Jovi I headed back to my hotel room.

Friday morning saw another omelette and a couple more sessions before we called a wrap on the conference and headed home. It's really starting to sink in that these might be some of the last years that I get to attend this conference before I retire, so I am trying to make the most of it!