It’s recently been conference season not only across the country but across the world. In a two week period there were AHPERD conferences in Minneapolis, South Carolina, Missouri, Kentucky, New Hampshire, New York State, Connecticut, Illinois, Pennsylvania plus the Asia Pacific Conference and the AHPERVIC conference in Melbourne, Australia.

Following the hashtags from each conference became a daily occurence for me as I followed members of my PLN at conferences while they tweeted what was happening. If you attend a conference, you do our community a big favor by tweeting using the official hashtag. Not only are the conference organizers happy to see their event getting positive press, but it also allows those who can’t be present participate and share in the experience. Periscoping and sharing resources (with permission) are a great way for you to allow others to become exposed to new ideas.

When it comes to officially sharing resources, some conferences (thank you Oregon) are happy to allow full access to the materials from presenters, and some (Illinois) have the completely opposite view. And although I can see both points of view…I know which approach I prefer. Whenever I see that conferences are eager to share resources I am pinning them to this Pinterest board.

During the two weeks of following conferences from afar I noticed the differences between states, most notably the number of health sessions that were on offer. I have blogged before about the imbalance in size and voice between the #physed community and the #healthed community and this is evident in the amount of time allocated to #healthed sessions. On one conference brochure I counted only TWO sessions that were health related! If we as a community of health teachers don’t speak up about the lack of health sessions we can’t expect to see an improvement. So what can you do?

1. Contact the health representative on the executive board of your AHPERD. Let the health representative know that you are unhappy with the professional development opportunities provided for health teachers at the state conference.
2. When you hear of a great health presenter in your area, pass their names on to the health representative responsible for booking speakers at your state conference. Most often, people who are presenting on the circuit enjoy doing so, and are likely to snap up the offer to present and share their passion and expertise with other like minded teachers.
3. Offer to present at the next conference! If you don’t feel confident, team up with other teachers, or suggest a demo slam where multiple teachers all share an idea in 2 minute time slots. If you need an extra push – volunteer to present next year. You’ll find that will be great motivation to encourage you to put a presentation together.

Here are this weeks slowchat questions. Answer each daily question in turn, or all at once. It’s all good!

Q1 How happy are you with the number of #healthed sessions at your state conference? #slowchathealth

Q2 How can we encourage teachers to offer to present at conferences for the first time? #slowchathealth

Q3 What #healthed topics would you want presented at the next conference that you attend? #slowchathealth

Q4 What elements can make, or break a successful conference presentation? #slowchathealth

Q5 Which #healthed presenters would you recommend to future conference organizers? #slowchathealth