Another member of the Adobe eLearning Community asked a great question on a post I did about the 2nd Annual Adobe eLearning Conference. I started to write this reply below but I changed my mind and decided to make it a blog post on its own. She asked what did we like best about this gathering. Below is my answer but I encourage members of the community to also include their own remarks either here or on the original post.

Well, there were several things that stood out for me but to disclose fully, I was a speaker of one of the sessions last year, but just as importantly to my career development, I was also an attendee like anyone else.

First and foremost, I met other people like myself who were in the eLearning industry. I got to meet industry experts who I might have communicated with in the past, but nothing beats face to face interaction. While I have worked closely with subject matter experts and stakeholders from various organizations that I have worked for, this was the first time in many years I got to really talk with people who did the same job as I do. I probably learned more from that than anything else.

The second was the chance to hear from Adobe themselves; where the direction of the eLearning software was going. For example, in a similar event held in Las Vegas this past fall, Adobe revealed some really cool sneak peeks into what was going into the next major release of Captivate. This leg up will mean that I can prepare to implement by learning the appropriate skills between now and when the next major release comes out. I imagine that Adobe key personnel will be updating us on this development.

The third item but not the least item was my chance to sit in on some of the other speaker’s sessions and learn some new skills from them as well. I sat in on Anita Horsley’s session on responsive design, which I now feel more comfortable working with, I also sat in on Kirsten Rourke’s session on the Creative Cloud which taught us how to work with some of the other applications.

The single most important thing about this conference was the value. To my knowledge, there is no better value for an eLearning instructional designer or developer than the Adobe eLearning Conference in Washington DC. Most conferences are priced in the hundreds of dollars and many are in the thousands of dollars. While you will likely have some travel and lodging expenses the event is absolutely free. Not only is it free but you also will have breakfast and lunch provided as well. This and more importantly the other reasons I mentioned are why this event sold out within weeks of its announcement last year. Make sure you register for this year as well.