Wow! With the opening of the Expo Hall, welcoming more than 8,300 people, and hearing Kofi Annan inspire us, (yep, I got to sneak in a photo with him too), I’m not sure today can top yesterday but I’m willing to try.
Today’s highlight for me is a new feature that the Local Arrangements Team cochairs, John Wilkerson and Kirstin Kahaloa, and I worked hard to bring you. I-Engage talks are 10-minute presentations similar to TED Talks. Our I-Engage theme for this year focuses on how international education and migration work hand-in-hand with our calls for peace and justice. You can come and go as you like during the session, so if you find yourself with a few free minutes today join us in Room 122 between 9:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. I’m the clean-up batter at 10:45 a.m., and I’ll be presenting a talk called “Moving at Human Speeds.” You’ll need to come to learn more!
Today also kicks off the poster fairs. If you haven’t attended one of the poster fair sessions in the past, you need to do so this year. We’ve been working hard to make these fairs better and better each year and I think you’ll find them highly engaging. Not only that, but they are an excellent way to build your network of go-to people. In these fairs you get to engage with presenters in a one-on-one setting, taking in information at your own pace. They begin at 8:30 a.m. and last until 3:30 p.m. Tomorrow there will be a variety of fairs taking place including four new fairs this year, Professional Development for International Educators, Innovative Curriculum Design for Partnership Degree Programs, Best Practices in Addressing Gender and Sexuality in International Education, and Supporting Outreach and Engagement with Alumni. To learn more about the various poster fairs being offered this year, visit www.nafsa.org/ac13posters.
My biggest challenge for the day is to figure out how I’m going to make it to everything today. I’ll be starting my day at the Annual Business Meeting (free breakfast!) and then I’m off to tackle the day. My calendar includes the I-Engage talks, introducing Dr. Leila Sadat, squeezing in a few partner meetings, hearing Dr. Q, and then, if I’m still standing, I’d like to stop by a few of the exhibitor’s receptions I’ve been invited to. I foresee lots of caffeine in my future. If you see me looking like Mean Joe Greene, be my Tommy Okon and hand me a bottle of Coke—and with all due respect to the Olympia Restaurant, I don’t do Pepsi.
Question for the day: If you see me today and you made it to the I-Engage talks or one of the new poster fairs, what did you think of these new offerings?
Bonus question: What’s the one change we could make in national policy in the United States that would make your life in international education easier?