Wow, what an incredible start to BbWorld ’09! The Gaylord/National Harbor Conference Center is a-buzz with clients and Blackboarders alike who are excited about the announcements made yesterday, the networking, sessions, sharing and learning that is going on this year. For those of you who couldn’t make the trip to DC, here’s a snapshot of what happened on Day 1:

From David Robinson, LMS Administrator – Georgia Gwinnett College

What were we thinking? Why would a brand new college in the throes of creating a college culture, constructing a campus, and preparing for accreditation decide to pilot a still-in-beta product with live courses in an untested integration? When I put it that way, maybe we are crazy, or maybe as was said of Hamlet, “Though this be madness, yet there is method in it.”

From Jim Till, Chief Marketing Officer and Vice President of Marketing at Xythos

Jim Till, Chief Marketing Officer and Vice President of Marketing at Xythos (a Blackboard Company) has spent the last 15 years working together with customers and partners in the content management, collaboration and data storage areas. Last year, Jim began blogging about his work at Just Sharing, which is an entertaining and insightful read on key trends and developments in enterprise content management (ECM), collaboration, Software as a Service (SaaS) and online storage and security.

Last week, Ray Henderson, the newly appointed President of Blackboard Learn, launched his self-titled blog, Ray Henderson. His blog will serve as a unique channel for him to share insight about industry issues like openness, standards and interoperability and his musings on various things in e-learning. If you don’t already know, Ray was formerly Vice President and Chief Products Officer at ANGEL Learning where he led product strategy, product development and go-to-market efforts. After the ANGEL Acquisition in May, Ray joined Blackboard as the President of Blackboard Learn.

From Michael L. Chasen,  President and CEO of Blackboard Inc.

I’m writing today to communicate the exciting news that Blackboard has acquired ANGEL Learning and to share with you some of the thinking behind the combination. 

Why put these two organizations together?  This combination was about getting better.  At Blackboard we’re always trying to improve, both by focusing internally within our company and by looking externally to other organizations we admire, like ANGEL.  We admire them not just for their story of entrepreneurial growth and impact on teaching and learning, but also for very specific strengths that we wanted to add to our story and deliver to our clients: