You heard it here first!

Details to follow!

If you are planning to join us at 3PM (EDT) webinar today, please head over to the BigMarker Demo room (http://www.bigmarker.com/demo) beforehand to make sure everything is good to go regarding your browser and other hardware.  Then you’ll be ready to click http://www.bigmarker.com/edcamp/live for the event! Thanks all!

So you want to host your own edcamp?

Awesome!

Join a collection of experienced edcamp organizers for a lively discussion about planning, marketing and holding your own edcamp. Discover tips, how-to’s, gotchas, resources and ideas to help make your event one that participants will RAVE about.

Point your web browser of choice to http://www.bigmarker.com/edcamp/live on Saturday, September 10th at 3pm and be prepared to learn a lot!

See you there!

EdCamp Co-Founder Kristen Swanson did an absolutely PHENOMENAL job sharing the story behind EdCamp at TEDxPhillyEd on Saturday, June 25th!

Kristen made it look easy as she told the audience how the first EdCamp came to be, paying homage to the events that inspired ours:  BarCamp Philly, TeachMeet and of course, EduBloggerCon. We are, as she so aptly put it, ‘standing on the shoulders of giants.’

She passionately explained that it’s TIME FOR US TO TAKE CONTROL OF OUR OWN PROFESSIONAL LEARNING – by working with our districts to embrace and integrate the EdCamp model into district PD. Several forward thinking districts are already doing just that!

Here is the video she presented (unfortunately it played without the audio track. Hopefully, the crack TEDx video production team can fix this before Kristen’s talk is posted to the official TED Talks YouTube channel):

Congratulations, Kristen! And thank you, TEDxPhillyEd organizers, for giving Kristen (and EdCamp) a chance to be part of the magic yesterday!

Go, EdCamp, GO!

Best,

The edcamp philly organizing team

p.s. Interested in planning your own EdCamp? Check out the official wiki: http://edcamp.wikispaces.com/!

This just in…

EdCamp Phily Co-Founder Kristen Swanson, Director of Technology for the School District of Springfield Township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania will be presenting at TEDxPhiladelphiaEd on Saturday, June 25th!

Kristen is one of the esteemed presenters including John Hunter, Dr. Joyce Valenza, Zac Chase, George Moore and many others. She will be sharing her passion for EdCamps and their role in quality district professional development.

Go, Kristen, GO!

Your Fellow EdCamp Philly Co-Organizers

Thanks, everyone, for all you did to make EdCamp Philly 2011 so great!

(Click the image below to read the full article on Philly.com!)

It’s SHOWTIME! Here are a few last-minute items/reminders…

Wifi access: use the login credentials you got at the registration table (remember, these can’t be shared or used on more than one device at the same time!)

Twitter hashtag: #edcampphilly

Flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/edcamp/

Flickr hashtag: #edcampphilly2011

To share notes, presentations, observations, photos, and blog posts to our Posterous, send email to edcampphilly@posterous.com.

If you need help with anything during the day look for any of the organizers. We’ll all be wearing spiffy black Edcamp polo shirts.

Click here for our OHAI page (thanks JPToto!)

((( Click here to access the edcamp Philly and edcamp Chicago Wallwisher )))  

Click here for the full-screen version of the live updating Edcamp schedule!
(Yes, we know the embedded one below requires you to use the scroll bar!)

We, your friendly neighborhood edcamp philly organizing team, want to share these last-minute tidbits to help ensure your edcamp experience is smooth, trouble free and dripping with awesome:

Event Location

• EdCamp Philly will be held in Jon M. Huntsman Hall on the University of Pennsylvania campus. The address is 3730 Walnut Street Philadelphia, PA 19106. Click here for a map of the area.

Registration / doors open at 8:00 am

• Please be patient as you see the organizing team and volunteers scurrying madly in the minutes leading up to 8:00 am … that is when we will begin checking people in!

Parking

• There is street parking in the area and a large parking facility called Penn Garage 30 at 38th & Walnut directly across the street from Huntsman Hall. Click here for a pic of the garage. Here’s a photo of the rates they charge. The garage opens at 7am.

Use the Huntsman Hall entrance on Locust Walk

• Here’s a photo of the correct entrance to use (and here is another.) Do not use the entrance on Walnut. Just walk around the building and enter on Locust Walk. There will be signs all over the place to guide you.

Bring your Photo ID! <= this is IMPORTANT!

• UPenn security has a list of all registered edcampers and will check that list and your photo ID every time you enter the building. This includes if you leave the building for lunch. Please have your photo ID with you at all times so you can enter the building when needed. (TSA-style pat-downs are optional and are available for a small fee.)

No Walk-Ins!

• We’re sorry but the list of edcampers is now final and we can’t allow walk-in or on-site registration.

Breakfast

• Once you’ve checked in, come to Room 240 to enjoy some light refreshments and coffee courtesy of our terrific sponsor, PAECT!

Wifi

• The first 200 attendees will be provided with a unique access code at registration. DO NOT LOSE THIS CODE! Also, do not SHARE your code, as it can only be used on one device at a time. So sorry! Please plan accordingly.

T-Shirts

• Spiffy new WHITE event t-shirts designed for this year will be available (on a first-come, first-served basis) until supplies are exhausted.

Session Schedule

• Once the schedule of sessions for the day is determined, it will be posted in this super-cool live updating Google Doc. Feel like bookmarking it now? Go ahead!

#Edcamp Greeters

• We are going to provide greeter/volunteers with bright YELLOW EdCamp Philly shirts (from last year, like these). Greeters will be instructed to guide people and answer questions. If you would like to volunteer, please let us know when you sign in!

Twitter Hashtag

• #edcampphilly

Flickr Group & Flickr Photo Tag

• http://www.flickr.com/groups/edcamp/ <= why not go ahead and join it now?
• edcampphilly2011 (yes we know, it’s different from the Twitter hashtag [we meant to do that])

Event Posterous: http://edcampphilly.posterous.com/

• Thanks for the idea, Edcamp Boston! If you take any notes, shoot any videos, take any pictures, prepare any slides, or write up any summaries of your Edcamp experience, make sure to send them here to the posterous! We’d love for this location to be a complete record of what people saw, thought, and felt before, during, and after Edcamp! Just send an email from the account you registered with to edcampphilly@posterous.com.

Live Streaming

• Individual session participants are invited to live stream their events if they so desire. We do not have an official conference channel. Sorry! Watch Twitter for any shared live streaming URLs.

Web 2.0 “Smackdown” at 3:30 pm in the auditorium

• A “Web 2.0 Smackdown” is a fun, lively session where people from the audience take turns coming up to the podium and are given a very short amount of time (measured in minutes) to show and possibly demonstrate a particular Web 2.0 tool. Don’t miss it!

Door prizes will be given away after the Smackdown

• We have a MANY AMAZING door prizes to give away thanks to our terrific sponsors! You must be present to win – we will handing out raffle tickets as attendees enter the auditorium for the Smackdown.

After party at City Tap House starts at 4:30 pm

• This year’s after party will be held at the City Tap House at 3925 Walnut St (about three blocks west of Huntsman Hall). The festivities start at 4:30 and go until 6pm. There should always a group heading that way at the end of the day, so come and hang out for some FREE food, drinks (on you) and conversation (free for everyone)! Click here for a map.

“Leave No Trace”

• Huntsman Hall is a pristine, exclusive, PRIVATE meeting space being made available to us by our awesome sponsor, Wharton Computing. Please clean up after yourself. While you’re at it, please clean up after others. We want to be invited back next year and need your help to ensure that happens!

That should be it! If anything changes or if new information becomes available, it will be posted here on the blog. Have a question? Post a comment!

SEE YOU SATURDAY!

Edcamp is a loooonng day full of learning, fun and meeting new people. What better way to celebrate your new friendships and keep those awesome conversations going than at the after party?
This year’s after party will be held at the City Tap House at 3925 Walnut St (about 3 blocks West of Huntsman Hall)

The festivities start at 4:30 and go until 6pm. There is always a group heading that way after the last session, so come and hang out for some food, drinks and conversation!
Click here for a map.

Have you seen the weather forecast for Saturday? It’s still a forecast but it’s been getting better every day!

If the weather turns out the way it appears it will, areas like this out on Locust Walk will be teeming with lunching edcampers!

More details including event-day logistics, parking, etc. are coming soon! Stay tuned!

See you in Philly on Saturday!

Your friendly neighborhood edcamp philly organizing team