Early in my teaching career I made the mistake of thinking that conferences weren't valuable to me if I was being presented with knowledge that I already had. A great mentor named Donna Palley helped me adjust my thinking about this.
When you attend a conference you should be thinking of what you can learn, what you can teach to others, and what information you discover about whether your school or district is on the right path.
In advance of going to any conference make sure you ask if you will be able to share what you learn in some kind of useful way. There are conferences that you will attend where the intent is for you to learn something specific to your discipline. But if you are invited to go to a conference on — for example — The New Science on Reading and How to Change Your District. Well, then you want to make sure that you will have anyone to talk to when you get back. If there is no plan, no interest, and no money to even investigate a new reading program for the district, then you still might want to attend but to to the conference knowing that the edification you find will be for you alone.
Before the conference look at all of the offerings and decide what you want to go to. If you are going with a group talk to them about what presentations would be good to go to together. At the same time talk with them about sessions that would be good to divide up to have one of your party attend each one.
During the conference don't take notes for yourself. Take notes as if you are going to present what you are learning to the superintendent. This allows you to have a great set of the notes you would already have taken but you can also talk to others about what you have learned. You might not get to talk to a superior about every conference you go to but using this method allows you to have the same notes you would have taken in a format that you can also present to others.
Consider how the notes you take can be used for multiple purposes. At a conference long ago I was writing notes in a notebook and thinking that I could later turn the notes into a PowerPoint to share with colleagues. I had an epiphany and just started taking the notes of a PowerPoint. If I never shared them, I had the notes, but they were always ready to be shared. This process about considering an audience also helped me take better notes because I was always thinking about clearly sharing what I had heard.
Another way of taking notes is possible if the presenter shares their slides ahead of time. With this method I set up a table with two columns and put a screen capture of the slide on the left and my notes on the right. This method is also useful for when you want to search somethin that the speaker is talking about in real time. If they reference something you can quickly search it and either insert a link or insert the image they are referencing.
I am conflicted about asking AI to summarize presentations at conferences. I have fed PowerPoints into AI and gotten summaries. While accurate they miss everything that the presenter shared in terms of lived experience and anecdotes. When I present I don't put the great stories on the slides — I add my stories when the slides pop up.
Be fully present for any presenter. In a small session you might arrive a few minutes early and simply tell the presenter that you will be on your computer but that is your method of getting all you can from what they want to share. You also may want to avoid anyone noticing that you aren't fully present. I was at a conference in the winter and I was in a tight spot with other pressing issues I needed to attend to. I chose a spot in the balcony where I could both listen and do background work.
Attend a conference with the mindset that you will be called into the Superintendent's office when you get back.
