E-Learning Conference and Expo Draws More Than 5,000 Government, Academic and Corporate Professionals To Event in Washington, D.C.
SANTA ANA, Calif.– Dozens
of New Products Introduced and Thousands Network with Nearly 130 Exhibiting
Companies
Last week, more than 5,000
corporate, academic and government professionals looking for the newest information
and products for e-learning solutions packed the meeting rooms and the exhibit
floor of the Washington, D.C. Convention Center during the 11th annual e-learning
Conference & Expo (formerly TeleCon East/IDLCON).
The event is produced by
Advanstar Communications and drew nearly 130 exhibiting companies showcasing
the latest equipment, technologies, applications and services for decision-makers
involved in e-learning.
“There is a lot of excitement
about e-learning and what the technology can provide for corporations, academic
institutions and the government and by focusing our efforts on this space we
attracted nearly 1,200 conference participants, more than double from last year,”
said Joe Flynn, general manager for Advanstar Communications’ Collaboration
& e-learning Group.
“We are thrilled that with
many technology events waning, we were able to evolve the TeleCon East event
and receive very positive and enthusiastic feedback from both attendees and
exhibitors.”
Nearly 130 exhibiting companies
spanned more than 35,000 square feet of exhibit space, the largest in the event’s
history. The vendors that participated showcased the latest in Web-based content,
technology and services — from state-of-the-art learning management services
(LMS), portals and collaborative software, to complex multimedia simulations
and learning-specific hardware and delivery systems.
Such companies as Astound
Inc., Click2learn, Mentergy, DigitalThink, Element K, Instruction Set, SmartForce
Oracle, THINQ, and VCampus demonstrated their latest technologies for the attendees
in the corporate, academic and military fields.
One of the highlights of
the event was the stellar line-up of keynote speakers, all of which drew standing-room
only crowds to hear their ideas and insights on e-learning.
The event kicked off with
William J. Janklow, governor of South Dakota who spoke about the importance
of technology in education, followed by Tom Kelly, CLO, Cisco Systems, who discussed
the new world learning challenge: keeping pace in the Internet era.
On Thursday Andrew Sadler,
vice president, Strategy and Alliances, IBM Mindspan Solutions, talked about
the new economy transformation: the knowledge economy; followed by Steve Thomas,
CEO, Pathlore who talked about e-learning’s next challenge: management.
On Friday, Robert E. Downes,
executive secretary of the Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative, Readiness
and Training Policies and Programs for the Office of the Secretary of Defense,
talked about collaborating across the public and private sectors to create the
future learning environment.
His speech was followed
by Dennis Bonilla, vice president at Oracle University, who discussed e-learning
— an imperative when becoming an e-business.
Following the keynote address
on Thursday the e-learning industry (ELLI) Awards and the United States Distance
Learning Association (USDLA) Awards were announced.
The ELLI Award was presented
by Gene Smarte, editor-in-chief of e-learning magazine to the Advanced Distributed
Learning (ADL) Initiative, which was developed on a presidential directive to
develop a federal plan for using learning technologies to improve education
and training and to lower costs.
The USDLA Awards were presented
by the board of directors of the USDLA, and acknowledged the efforts made in
distance learning, highlighting those instructors, programs and distance learning
professionals who have achieved excellence in the field. Winners in each of
the categories were:
Winners
for Excellence in Distance Teaching
- Dr.
Paul Resta, The University of Texas at Austin, Higher Education
- Melodee Mercer,
Department of Veterans Affairs, Government
- Mary S. Ellsworth,
Model Secondary School for the Deaf, Gallaudet University, K-12 Education
Winners
for Excellence in Distance Learning Programming
- MBA Online,
UT TeleCampus, The University of Texas System,Higher Education
- Defense Acquisition
University, Fort Belvoir, Virginia,Government
- NASA Connect,
Office of Education, NASA Langley Research Center, K-12 Education
- BeST, IntuMed,
Health-Care and Telemedicine
- Pensare Knowledge
Community, Corporate/Business
- Aurum Technology,
Corporate/Business
Winners
for Most Outstanding Achievement by an Individual
- J.
Stephen Lytle, University of Central Florida, Higher Education
- Steve
Larkin, Internal Revenue Service, Government
- Julius
Edlavitch, M.D., International Pediatric Chat, Health-Care and Telemedicine
- Bryan
Polivka, Caliber Learning Networks, Corporate/Business
The e-learning conference
program was designed to provide corporate professionals, educators, and government
personnel with the full spectrum of e-learning solutions, from networks to hardware
to applications as well as from software to content, attendees were equipped
with end-to-end solutions.
The sessions were divided
into the three tracks: Corporate Training Sessions, the Academic Track, and
the GovLearn Sessions.
Sponsoring associations
of the e-learning Conference & Expo included the American Management Association,
the United States Distance Learning Association, the Federal Government Distance
Learning Association, the Washington Metro Distance Learning Association, the
Instruction Management Association, the Information Technology Training Association,
the Digital Learning Association, the International Multimedia Collaborative
Communications Alliance and the International Multimedia Telecommunications
Consortium.
Upcoming e-learning and
collaboration events produced by Advanstar Communications include The Wainhouse
Research Summit to be held July 26-27 at the Sheraton Boston Hotel in Boston;
TeleCon 2001 Conference & Expo to be held Oct. 22-25 at the Anaheim Convention
Center in Anaheim, Calif.; e-learning Chicago to be held Nov. 7-8, 2001 at the
Chicago Marriott O’Hare; and The 12th annual e-learning Conference & Expo which
will be held April 8-11, 2002 at the Washington, D.C. Convention Center.
For additional information
about exhibiting and/or attending the future events, visit www.elearningexpos.com.
About Advanstar Communications
Advanstar Communications
Inc. is a worldwide business information company serving specialized markets
with high-quality information resources and integrated marketing solutions.
Advanstar has 106 top business and professional publications, 108 exhibitions
and conferences, 79 Web sites, and a wide range of direct marketing, database
and reference products and services.
Advanstar serves targeted
market sectors in such industries as telecommunications, CRM/call center, e-commerce,
retail, travel, hospitality, beauty, fashion, health-care, pharmaceutical, manufacturing
and processing. The company has more than 1,400 employees and currently operates
from multiple offices in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia.
For more information on
Advanstar Communications, visit
Contact Information:
Advanstar Communications Laura Dalton
ldalton@advanstar.com
Amy Riemer (media relations)
ariemer@mediaone.net
