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What You Need to Know About EDUCAUSE 2012

How to navigate the best higher education IT conference.

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Jimmy is a writer and editor who publishes a weekly newsletter. You can find him on Twitter.

The EDUCAUSE annual conference is set to kick off this afternoon at 4 p.m. in Denver, Colo. This event has been the premier higher education technology conference in the country, and the tradition continues this year with a lineup of presenters that includes author Clay Shirky and University of Richmond president Edward Ayers.

Here are a few things you should know about EDUCAUSE 2012:

There are 662 speakers. Most of them are participating in panels, but without an agenda, you might get lost in the Denver Convention Center. To get you where you want to go, build your own program for the conference and access the official mobile app, complete with interior maps. There also are more than 270 exhibitors to meet and a host of events to attend in the Exhibit Hall. View the full list of speakers here.
You can watch online. If you can’t make it to Denver this year, you’re not out of luck. There will be 60 sessions streamed on the web, along with all three general sessions. In addition, more than 30 interactive sessions will be available for online viewing only. Learn more about the technical requirements and the schedule here.
There will be a lot of tweeting. Whether you are in Denver or not, there will be plenty of tweeting going on. The official hashtag of this year’s event is #EDU12. You can follow @EDUCAUSE and @EdTech_HigherEd for conference updates. In addition, three of our editors will be on-site and tweeting live:
- @streborv: Vanessa Roberts, Editorial Director
- @ClarkMarla: Marla Clark, Managing Editor, EdTech Magazine: Focus on K-12
- @TEBuckTMG: Tara Buck, Managing Editor, EdTech Magazine: Focus on Higher Education