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I’ve spent the past few days getting everything in order for my trip to the Ohio Educational Technology Conference in Columbus. The conference runs from February 11-13, 2013. This year, I have a pretty full schedule. Part of that is due to the fact that I’ve been heavily involved in the planning for a new aspect of OETC. For the 2013 conference, a small team of edtech professionals from around the state have been working in conjunction with eTech Ohio to put together OECTx, the “official UNconference of OETC.”

OETCx is an event that’s happening in conjunction with the eTech Ohio Educational Technology Conference on Tuesday, February 12, 2013. This event will take place on the second floor of C-Pod (rooms C-224 through C-226) all day.

The idea is to combine social network tools and a participant-driven schedule to make the eTech conference more interactive and engaging.

In 224 and 225, we’ll have a number of areas set up for “unconference” style sessions. We’ll use a format similar to the popular EdCamps, where topics are decided on the fly and participants engage in conversations about those topics. This format allows anyone with an idea to collaborate with others around that shared interest. It also gives regular session presenters the opportunity to have followup sessions to continue the conversation and get feedback from attendees on their sessions.

Meanwhile, in 226, we have a number of sessions scheduled. These will include a simulcast and real-time discussion of the keynote, roundtable discussion of BYOD and 1:1, an Ignite-style session where teachers will share ideas in 5-minute presentations with 20 auto-advancing slides, an App Smack Down, and several scheduled sessions that will be in the conference planner.

Great minds like Ryan Collins, Toby Fischer, TJ Houston, Ryan MacRaild, John Rundag, John Schinker, Alvin Trusty and others have been collaborating since last October to plan this great event. Despite the fact that we are located all across the state, we have  leveraged a number of free digital networked technologies to plan, prepare and execute the event. We have done the entire thing with NO BUDGET! As I tweeted the other day:

As educators across the state begin their journey to Columbus for 3 days of the best edtech conference in our state, I sincerely hope you consider stopping by Upper C-wing of the convention center sometime Tuesday and be a part of something new and innovative at OETC13. I look forward to seeing everyone there!