Conferences: Professional Growth or Time to Play?

The Reflective Writing Club  prompt this week is about Conferences. What is the role that they play in professional learning?
I am a conference junkie! I love going to conferences. I love to see what others are doing and I love to present at conferences.I also love getting to travel around the country and spend time in new places. I have been to New Orleans, Baltimore, Boston, San Francisco, San Diego, Phoenix, Dallas, DC, and many more places. It is not only fun to go to the conferences, it is really fun to get to be a tourist and explore new places.
 I have a few favorite conferences that I try to get to yearly:

These two are about teaching:

Learning and the Brain
Every time I attend,  I am like a fan girl. I get to see and meet some of the best minds in education and the application of brain research. I usually buy too many books and create a session to share with colleagues when I return to my campus.


The League for Innovations
Another amazing conference. Specific to Community Colleges and I get to rub elbows with faculty and administrators from around the world (mostly U.S. and Canada). I have presented here about Flipping the Classroom using Libguides. 

These are geared for my discipline:

0-3
Another place where I feel like a fan girl. All of the best minds in my discipline are there and sharing what they know.

NAEYC PDI
In my discipline many of the conferences are geared to classroom staff who work with young children and the majority of workshops are conducted by my peers. This is the one that is different. There is a faculty track and I always come away with major new ideas to share with my department colleagues.

The nice thing about all of these is they are held at different times in the year. I have been very fortunate that my college has funds to send me to most of what I would like to do.
I always return refreshed and energized, ready to try new ideas and to share with my colleagues. I always create seminars and present to my colleagues, minimally in my department. More often, campus wide. Some of the ideas I have learned and implemented as a result of these conferences include:
-Flipping the Classroom ( we actually have a faculty inquiry group that meets monthly all of whom
"flip" the classroom).
-Gamification ( Last semester I "gamified" one of my fully face to face classes)
- Using ILabs from University of Washington modules to enhance delivery of course content
- Implementing a student study day on campus prior to finals week
And so much more.

I love conferences!!!