MAEA Conference

So the conference went very well.

There were some complications. We were originally told we were going to present once on Friday and once on Saturday. Then we were notified that we had three total presentation times, so we canceled the one we were not originally aware of. However, they canceled the wrong session. So in the end, we had two sessions on Saturday.
This was not the end of our complications. One of the professors from Grand Valley was not able to attend the conference last minute. This meant our GVSU "vendor" table was not set up and we could not help much without the information to provide. There was also some confusion at the registration table. We heard that the people running the registration and information tables associated this professor with our organization and were telling people our sessions were canceled as well. However, they were not canceled, so it is possible that we could have had more people show up to our presentations than actually did.

Even though some things went poorly, so many things went well!
Most of us had the opportunity to meet one of the past Presidents of NAEA, who is also a past President of MAEA, and the current President of RAEA (Retired Art Education Association). He had so many enlightening things he shared with us, and I am sure we can use all of it to our advantage as an organization.
We were all able to see two very influential keynote speakers. These individuals were inspiring and thought provoking. Depending on our own schedules, different individuals in our group were able to attend various workshops and sessions held by other individuals. Each one was well worth the time, and sometimes money, spent to go be educated ourselves.

When we were not attending workshops and sessions, we were walking around the vendor tables. We got to test a variety of art supplies, get free samples, and sign up to get catalogs and a chance to win some supplies. More importantly, we got to network. We were able to talk to people who could potentially help us in our future careers and we got to see who is out there to supply our classrooms with materials.

My favorite part about the trip, though, was that we were able to get to know each other more. I know it sounds super cheesy and lame. However, we need good connections among the members of our organization to be successful in all the activities we choose to do.