2016 Annual Conference & Expo Recap
Thank you to all who attended and supported the 2016 CAEYC Annual Conference. It was an amazing time with great speakers, special workshops and an Expo Hall filled with fun, laughter and explorations of learning. The activity on the CAEYC app, Facebook page and Twitter shared wonderful experiences—good food, ECE program tours, selfies with speakers, quotes from workshops, drum circle photos and videos. Our keynote speakers, Zoe Sameth and Diane Levin, were engaging and inspiring—encouraging us to consider new things and reconsider old things. Special thanks to both for also spending time with our attendees in the HUB at the CAEYC Booth and participating in additional workshops on Friday and Saturday. We had such an amazing opportunity to learn from Mobeen Ansari sharing stories of childhood and families in Pakistan through portraits. Our wonderful sponsors and exhibitors who add so much to the event—the participation in the prize wheel at the CAEYC booth, posting invitations to booths on the app, talking with attendees and engaging in critical dialogue, they are truly an integral part of our event.
We would like to thank our committees for the activities and workshops they supported at the conference—Accreditation, Center for Social Change, Family Child Care, Men in Child Care, Membership and Public Policy. They were present throughout the conference, coordinating workshop presenters, special events, answering questions and providing attendees to learn more about some topics they may not know as much about. Thank you to Southern California AEYC for coordinating and presenting the Film Festival and Southern California Valley AEYC for coordinating the tour of ECE programs on Saturday.
One of our goals, and we hear a great deal of positive feedback that we succeed at this, is creating an event that has something for everyone, workshops, networking, vendors and other experiences. Even as co-chairs we had unique experiences.
We appreciate all feedback and create the next conference with your suggestions. Hope you have been rejuvenated and are ready to continue your career as an Early Childhood Educator.
Thank you and we look forward to seeing you next year in Ontario!
My favorite part of conference is listening to the thoughts, feelings and reactions after participants attend workshops and listen to speakers. There is a buzz of excitement, an appreciation for learning and the presenters seemed to have connected with participants and supported them in their learning. Through the CAEYC mobile app, I was also able to view topics that are important to our field and see the community of learners that was created at the conference. My second favorite part of the conference is talking with early childhood educators at the CAEYC booth. I get to bring a sense of connection to the NAEYC and CAEYC organizations and support fun pictures being taken, thoughts being shared and feel a part of this important work we do with children and families.
My favorite part of this year’s conference and expo was talking with attendees and exhibitors about their experience and the process of planning the conference; I have a few names to invite to participate on the conference committee for 2017. I also had several discussions with attendees about the value of becoming a member of NAEYC/CAEYC. It was a nice opportunity for me to reflect on why to become a member and then consider if we are really offering this to our members and learn what more we can do for our members. One thing that I really enjoyed was watching the activity on the CAEYC mobile app—the conversations, posting from workshops, asking questions…it offers a whole new dimension to the experience as well as seeing what is working for the attendees. One thing that made me smile often was seeing the connections between presenters or exhibitors and the attendees…it demonstrates strong connections throughout all aspects of early care and education. I can’t wait for 2017!