Those of you who have bookmarked BbWorld.com may have noticed that we have announced the program.  I am really excited to see so many clients speaking on such great topics including Mobility, Social Learning, Technology Adoption, Analytics in Action, Digital Content, and more.  Whether this is your first time attending BbWorld or DevCon, or you are a returning attendee, BbWorld can be an overwhelming experience.  There’s so much to see and do and you just don’t want to miss anything!  There are a few tools that are now available to help make the most of your experience at BbWorld and DevCon. MyPlanner Not only is the schedule of sessions available, but you can now begin planning your conference itinerary.  The MyPlanner itinerary builder is now available on BbWorld.com.  Login and use MyPlanner to search for sessions and save them to your own personal itinerary.  You can then download these to Outlook and then sync with your mobile device.  Search by date/time, product, audience, role, session type, and keyword. This is a great way to make sure you don’t miss anything! MyExhibitor The Exhibit Hall at BbWorld is a great place to meet with Blackboard’s partners and learn more about how they can help you meet your institution’s needs.  You can start working with exhibitors now using the MyExhibitor tool, available through the MyPlanner. Search for partners by keyword or category, and add them to your personal exhibitor list. Be sure to login to MyPlanner now and take advantage of these great tools to make the most of your conference experience.

Planning for BbWorld and DevCon has been going great.  The Call for Presentations ended in January and we have received some of the best submissions ever!  We have received more than 325 presentation submissions from 200+ institutions for BbWorld and 30 submissions from more than 20 institutions for DevCon. I am working with the Client Program Committee, which is made up of 50 client volunteers, to review all of the submissions and choose the best ones for BbWorld and DevCon 2011.  With so many high quality presentations, it is going to be difficult to select the ones that will make it! As we receive confirmation from presenters that their session is selected, we will post these on www.bbworld.com. More information will be updated on the website over the next few weeks and months, but in the meantime, be sure to register. Are you on Facebook? Don’t forget to join our BbWorld 2011 group.  It’s a great way to collaborate, network and get to know each other before the conference starts!

Take out your calendars and mark the date – Registration for BbWorld 2011is now open! As you look ahead to next summer, I hope you’ll consider joining us in Las Vegas for our annual user conference, one of the best professional development opportunities of the year.

If you joined us in Orlando, it’s hard to forget the incredible opening keynote with Greg Mortenson and if you stayed till the end, you got to hear from Tom Vander Ark. And through the course of two and a half days in between, we kept you busy with dozens of sessions, networking opportunities and executive discussions, not to mention special receptions, that left you excited (and exhausted) and ready to head into the school year with best practices and new ways to deliver a more impactful learning experience at your institution.

Don’t you want to join us again?