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The website for Northern Voice 2009 just went live, so the date for WordCamp Education Vancouver 2009 is set. Thursday, February 19, 2009 in Vancouver – the day before Northern Voice (which runs February 20-21 in Vancouver – BE THERE!).

The venue for WordCamp Education hasn’t been set yet, but we’ll find a place either on the main UBC campus or downtown. Or at a pub somewhere… hmm…

More details will be posted as soon as they’re known. But if you want to come play with a bunch of education-minded Wordpress folk, be sure to reserve the day.

It sounds like there might be a critical mass of education-minded folk at Northern Voice 2009 (Vancouver, February 2009), and I’d be more than happy to coordinate a WordCamp gathering before or after the conference. So, of the folks that are going to NV, how many would be interested in attending a WordCamp Education shindig?

I just got my signed travel request approval to cover my pilgrimage to Lotusland for NothernVoice 2008. I mean, I was already planning on going, even if I had to stick the trip on my Visa card, but it’s nice to know I can go with blessings The moose is loose!

As I’ve said a few times, this is my one must-attend event. If this is all I get to do in 2008, the year would still be a success. The biggest draw for me is being able to hang out with a bunch of people whom I both respect and admire, and let myself get pulled out of my normal comfort zone to kick out the jams for what isn’t a purely educational, nor a purely technology conference. I’ve blogged before about why I’m looking forward to NV08, and why previous NorthernVoice conferences have been so meaningful for me.

Now, if we can only avoid another outbreak of the dreaded Moose Fever...

Northern Voice 2008 is now on the calendar – February 22-23, 2008 in Vancouver, at the UBC Main Campus at the palatial Forestry Sciences Building. This is the 4th annual event, and I’ve had the extreme pleasure to have attended each of the previous 3 years. It is my one must attend event for the year – if the only conference travel I get approved is for NV08, I’ll consider the year a success. I just filled in the official “Travel Approval Request” form, and should know if the U of C will sponsor my way in the next couple of weeks. If they pass, I’ll find another way. I’m going.

Digging through my Northern Voice photos, I realized something. This is a conference of hand-talking. That’s actually a pretty profound difference between this and many other conferences. When people are talking with hands, they aren’t rigidly stuck on a podium reading endless bullet points. They’re animated, engaged, passionate and interesting. As every single session has been. Well, with some (very) minor exceptions.

Northern Voice has been like a nonstop, open social learning party for me, where I’ve been lucky enough to get the chance to hang out with several of my personal heroes, and jam with a considerable chunk of my blogroll. It’s pushed me to work well outside of my normal comfort zone, trying new stuff and experimenting with things. If that’s not the goal of a conference, I don’t know what is. I am so absolutely looking forward to hanging out with the folks again this year, and seeing what we come up with for a session at the conference.