I suspect that most of my fellow Northern Voice speakers are as tired– or more– than I am. So I hope we get a blanket pass for not yet blogging more in the aftermath of Northern Voice. I’m trapped in the airport here for five more hours, but I have another presentation to finish preparing for, so it has to wait.

Northern Voice was a fantastic event that I can’t recommend highly enough. I know some people looked at the informal, laid-back nature of NV and assumed it was lightweight, but it’s really the kind of (un)conference that will give back as much as you want to put into it. Needless to say, the “networking” opportunities are endless (I hate to use the term networking because it sounds so business-like and clinical when the reality is so much warmer and rewarding… let’s say that the opportunities to connect were endless.

I learned a lot. I think I had a mini-breakthrough in the model I have been developing regarding education, social software, technological change, and learning communities. I met an astonishing number of accomplished and interesting people. I finally got to work with a number of people that have influenced my thinking and met many more who will do so in the future. I met some real friends, not just like-minded colleagues. And Vancouver is a great city. Despite their funny looking bills, two-dollar coins, and the whole rational metric system thing, I would have no problem spending a lot more time in Canada. Hard to imagine how the whole weekend could have been much better.