Information Technology faculty in the region’s community
colleges know they have a good thing going with the annual Working
Connections IT Conference. The low-cost, five-day event of hands-on
training, networking, and sharing of IT successes and challenges not
only keeps faculty coming back but leads them to spread the word among
their peers.
 The AIM Institute and the Midwest Center for Information Technology
(MCIT), a consortium of 10 community colleges throughout Nebraska,
western Iowa, North Dakota, and South Dakota, have offered the
conference each June at the Iowa Western Community College
since 2004, funded in part through a National Science Foundation grant. See conference origins.
“Working Connections has grown very successful because of the
high-quality, low-cost training received by the participants and the
camaraderie they develop over the week and from year to year,” said
Dave Vankat, MCIT project manager and coordinator of the conference.
“Over 95 percent of evaluations indicated they would recommend Working
Connections to a colleague.”
Conference Extended Beyond Community Colleges
To help ensure that the conference continues to offer top-quality
training at a reasonable cost, this year the conference organizers
decided to share the wealth. Betting on a hunch that others would see
the benefits as well, they invited faculty and IT professionals from
outside the community college circle. Not only would this move enable more
technical tracks, but it would help provide long-term
sustainability.
Their bet paid off. Attendance increased 81 percent with an all-time
record of 163 participants choosing from nine technical tracks. Due to
the outreach effort, 50 attendees were high school faculty, IT
professionals from business and government, and instructors from
community colleges as far away as Pennsylvania.
Web 2.0 Kicks Off the Conference
The conference kicked off with keynote speaker Gordon F. Snyder Jr., who presented New Uses for Web-Based Emerging Technologies.
Snyder focused on web-based technologies that are quickly reshaping mass
media and social networking. Frequently referred to as Web 2.0, these
technologies are not only changing the way we learn and interact, but
are also opening up new marketing opportunities for companies to tap
into.
Additional Technology Tracks Offered To accommodate the additional students, this year’s event offered an
additional three technology tracks. Of special interest were tracks in Microsoft
Office 2007 and Vista, both of which were released earlier this year,
Vankat said.
The Problem-Based Learning track also generated a lot of buzz, due in
part to a grant initiative started by the Omaha Chamber of Commerce to
promote the use of actual business problems in Nebraska schools. Other tracks included AJAX programming, C++ Programming
with Robotics, Red Hat Linux Essentials, Dreamweaver & Fireworks,
Cisco IT Essentials I, and Digital Video Production with Final Cut Pro.
Vankat heard positive feedback from the new attendees, which he
attributes in part to the conference’s low $500 price tag. But he also
praises the host college.
“Iowa Western Community College is a great setting,” Vankat said. “It
has a beautiful campus and their food service is very good.”
Emerging technology, great setting, good food, and low cost. Sounds like a winning combination.
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