So part of the rationale behind EduCon 2.0 was to try to create a space for people to come together and talk and think and write. And now it’s less than three full weeks away, and the to-do list is starting to get down to the nitty-gritty stuff. (Get programs printed, buy 30 pounds of coffee, get student docents / filmers in place, create list of Best of Philly Cheesesteaks, etc…)

But I’m also trying to make sure that I still think about why we’re putting this conference on, and how we are going to accomplish some of our original goals. What I’m really thinking about tonight is the idea of reflection. Have we created the proper space for reflection? Here are some things I think we’ve done to make the weekend different.

1) 90 minute sessions, not 60 minutes. The goal is to use the extra time to let people talk to each other, to engender more constructivist sessions that allow people to apply what they are seeing to their own situations, to create a back-channel conversation, or even to let people blog as part of the session.

2) 30 minutes between sessions so people can find each other, talk, think, breathe, without feeling like they have to rush from one thing to another. (And hey, the whole conference takes place in a pretty small school, so there isn’t the issue of having to run from one end of the convention center to the other…)

3) Providing a low-cost lunch option in our cafe so that people can eat together and talk.

4) Three sessions a day. Longer sessions, fewer sessions so that we can try to avoid information overload… or at least minimize it.

5) An hour built in at the end of the day for reflection… and this is where I really want input. It’s easy for me to imagine that, after a long day, everyone would just take off and get ready for the evening festivities. I may just want to do that myself. But I’d like to figure out a way to structure that time without, well, imposing structure. I’ve thought about posting possible reflection questions in the conference program and asking people to use that hour to write a reflective post… I’ve thought about providing a notebook for people to write in, in case they don’t have laptops, and I’ve thought about creating "Reflection Rooms" where people could just go and write.

What would you do? What spaces should we create to best engender some reflective time at the conference? Thoughts?