learning & collaboration from twenty time zones away

On Monday, we participated in the 2010 Smith Leadership Symposium "Motivations, Interactions, and Impact: Understanding Audience Experience" in Balboa Park. Featuring keynote speakers Nina Simon, author of The Participatory Museum and Museum 2.0 blogger, Dr. John Falk, professor in free-choice learning at Oregon State University, and Salvador Acevedo, president of Contemporánea, the symposium attracted people from a wide range of arts, science, and cultural organizations and professional backgrounds.

The symposium brought together an estimated 600-700 people through the addition of two satellite sites in Los Angeles and San Jose, as well as an online audience that participated from their own homes or offices—including a few people from as far as New Zealand. A few shots of the tech set-up are below. Resources related to the symposium are available through the event website.

Discussion among speakers from San Diego, San Jose, and Los Angeles.

Witnessed by a San Diego crowd.

LearningTimes coordinated the webcast.

Paige Simpson, director of the Balboa Park Learning Institute, used a Wordle to set the tone.

Online polls and chats kept everyone engaged and connected.