In terms of managing projects, my role in organising the 10th international conference of the Association for Learning Technology in 2003 comes high on the list. The conference was jointly hosted that year by the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University. I was appointed chair of the Organising Committee, which in essence meant being the overall manager of the event. I also served as a member of the Programme Committee.
Due to unfortunate circumstances the internal group that would have given most help with organising the conference was not available for September ’03, so I was faced with putting the conference together myself with reduced resources – a feat that was admirably achieved thanks to a small, very hard working team I was able to assemble around me.
There is no doubt that organising the conference was a major undertaking It attracted over 500 delegates from 13 countries, 24 exhibitors, and seven major sponsors. Handling the money and the mailings was a challenge in itself. There were three key-note speakers, one of whom we flew in from Sydney, Australia. Around 300 papers and abstracts were received, from which were selected 129 presentations, including 25 refereed research papers. That took a lot of correspondence and programme planning.
Feedback demonstrated that the conference was highly regarded, both by ALT and the delegates. Gross income was £252k with the conference achieving its desired level of surplus Hosting the conference helped to reinforce Sheffield’s position as a major player in e-learning, and it certainly demonstrated my abilities to organise.