1. www.le.ac.uk/beyonddistance www.le.ac.uk/mediazoo ALT Learning Technologist of the year : Team award 2009 European foundation for quality in e-learning Unique Award winner Why Waste a Good Crisis? Delivering an Exclusively Online, International Academic Conference Terese Bird, Simon Kear, Emma Davies and Richard Mobbs ALT-C Conference, 8 September 2010

2. Learning Futures Festival Online 2010 is the 5th International Conference to be hosted by the Beyond Distance Research Alliance, and will take place from 7—14 January 2010. For the first time this conference will be entirely online, and we invite you to join us to explore positive disruption for learning from a variety of worldwide perspectives and themes. For further details please see: www.le.ac.uk/beyonddistance/festival/www.le.ac.uk/beyonddistance/festival/ own learning in HE

3. Why an online conference? Economic downturn Maximise the opportunity Photo by dpicker on Flickr ALT-C 8 September 2010

4. Other purely-online conferences The first? Supporting Deaf People 2001 1 JISC Innovating e-Learning 2009 2 (446 registrants) International, regular webinars such as The Future of Education 3

5. How to do an online conference “Are you game?” Risk assessment DIY Photo by JoseJose on Flickr ALT-C 8 September 2010

6. Choose your platforms Elluminate Live!Janison bespoke VLE ALT-C 8 September 2010

7. Choose your platforms Second Life Googleopoly – many Web 2.0 ALT-C 8 September 2010

8. eModerating an online conference Familiar with tech and presenter’s topic Begin with simple introduction of software tools ‘Question breaks’ every 20 minutes 2 moderators for groups > 20 –One master of ceremonies –Other to watch chat box Photo by aka.me on Flickr ALT-C 8 September 2010

9. Learning Futures Festival 2010 7 – 14 January 2010 ALT-C 8 September 2010

10. Learning Futures Festival Facts 8 days 8 keynote presentations 8 talks by Professor Gilly Salmon 14 workshops (synchronous and asynchronous) 24 papers 50+ hours of live conferencing £50 for all 8 days; University of Leicester staff and students free Over 75% of presentations converted to Open Educational Resources 231 registrants 22 countries Every continent except Antarctica ALT-C 8 September 2010

11. Advantages ExpectedUnexpected Flexible participationMultiple participation modes Chance to try new technologiesCombined technologies Attractive to time-poorAttractive to international Proceedings recorded“Viral” social media Value for money101.22 tonnes CO2 saved 4 Photo by badjonni on Flickr ALT-C 8 September 2010

12. Lessons Learnt IssueSolution Client-side tech problemsInstructions available sooner Second Life unavailable to someTry to “stream in” Second Life Wireless network not robustHosts to use wired network Participants need to make time 20%-ish attended any given session Photo by szlea on Flickr ALT-C 8 September 2010

13. Opportunity Maximised! 78% increase on registrations over previous year 440% more countries reached (from 5 to 22) 4x as much conference for same price Made modest profit (never made profit before) Innovation

14. Very positive feedback N = 34

15. As a result… Hybrid seminars Online conferencing workshops Learning Futures Festival Online 2011: “Follow the Sun” 13-15 April Photo by Dennis Collette…!!! on Flickr ALT-C 8 September 2010

17. References 1 http://www.online-conference.net/sdp2001.htm 2 http://www.online-conference.net/sdp2001.htm 3 http://www.futureofeducation.com/ 4 Learning Futures Festival 2010 Carbon Report http://altc2010.alt.ac.uk/talks/15038 ALT-C 8 September 2010