This past July 14-15, 326 attendees converged on St. Charles, Illinois, for the 2014 CSTA Annual Conference. This number continues the impressive growth of the conference, representing a roughly 20% increase from 2013. On Monday, 12 professional development workshops were offered, six in the morning and six in the afternoon, with a total attendance of 386. Tuesday was filled with 24 presentations across a variety of topics, including a new feature this year: 20-minute mini-sessions that focused on innovative classroom practices. Keynote addresses by Yasmin Kafai and Michael Kolling were thought provoking and inspiring.

Putting together the conference is the joint effort of a large community. The program committee (Dave Reed, Doug Peterson, Duncan Buell, Tammy Pirmann, Philip East, Patrice Gans, Kristen Fisher, Dan Wheadon, and Chris Stevenson) has the challenging task of selecting the agenda for the conference, with the help of a large corps of reviewers. Lissa Clayborn and Tiffany Nash organized and ran the event logistics, and onsite volunteers, led by the Chicago and Chicago Suburbs CSTA chapters, kept everything running smoothly.

If you were able to join us in St. Charles, we hope you had an outstanding experience. If not, you can still take advantage of much of the professional development. Many of the speakers’ slides are already posted on the CSTA Web site and more will be posted soon. In addition, many of the sessions were videotaped, including the keynotes, and these will also be going up on the CSTA site in early September. If you are looking for an activity for an upcoming CSTA chapter meeting, showing a session video and basing discussion on it is a great option.

We are always looking for your feedback and ideas to make your CSTA Annual Conference even better. Feel free to post your thoughts here, or contact a member of the program committee directly if you prefer.

Dave Reed
2014 CSTA Annual Conference Program Chair
College Faculty Rep, CSTA Board of Directors