Blackboard World '07

It has been a whirlwind of a week and weekend for me. I am writing this on a plane right now and I feel like I am back to my days of consulting and traveling except this time it was work and then pleasure. In any case, I am just getting to update this blog now.

Last week I spent the week in Boston, Massachusetts at Blackboard World 2007 Conference and Expo. We were able to show off DigitalChalk to a different audience than at the ASTD conference. This time, it was geared completely towards education. Blackboard is the predominant course management software player in the higher education market and they hold an annual conference to debut new features that they are rolling out and to allow third-party vendors to also setup and show off the new technology that they have. We did just that!



It was great to meet everyone there and show off DigitalChalk. It was very exciting to see how interested people were in the product and learn the new ways that they would like to use it. Todd Nelson, Director of Business Development for Blackboard, introduced me to George Kroner on the Blackboard Building Blocks team to discuss a seamless integration between DigitalChalk and Blackboard that would enable instructors to create a lesson in DigitalChalk from the Blackboard system even easier than it is now! This will be a great feature enhancement that I am excited about and I will certainly keep you up to date on as we start development and get it into the release cycle.

Wednesday night was the big party and everyone had a blast. Blackboard had setup a Dance Club, Food & Bar and an Arcade. I had a crazy time playing pool with a group of Blackboard administrators for a school system in Louisiana. Don't let the "administrator" word fool you, they were crazy and a lot of fun! Gotta love the candles... enough said! You know who you are! ;-)


Finally, on my way home I had a layover in Washington DC at the Ronald Reagan airport. While I was there, eating a quick dinner before I jumped on my next flight, I recognized a face in the crowd walking by. It was none other than Fred Thompson, who I am guessing will very soon be announcing his candidacy for President of the United States. I quickly chased him down and spoke with him for a couple of minutes and snapped a picture. Never know, maybe this is a picture of me with a President.