I am exhausted beyond belief and completely out of my gourd psyched to be attending my second ISKME Big Ideas Fest (#bif2015) this week in sunny, if not exactly warm, San Jose, CA. We're only about four hours into the event and already my poor, travel-weary brain is exploding with thoughts, ideas, and schemes. I've met professional heroes, colleagues I didn't know I had, and folks from all over with inspiring stories to share. I'm so glad I came.

I am exhausted beyond belief and completely out of my gourd psyched to be attending my second ISKME Big Ideas Fest (#bif2015) this week in sunny, if not exactly warm, San Jose, CA. We're only about four hours into the event and already my poor, travel-weary brain is exploding with thoughts, ideas, and schemes. I've met professional heroes, colleagues I didn't know I had, and folks from all over with inspiring stories to share. I'm so glad I came. Again.

One of the things I'm most looking forward to this week is a mash-up of two of the major sources of my design thinking experience: Big Ideas Fest and (one of) the best weekly edu Twitter chats: #dtk21chat

In case you're new to us, #dtk12chat is an international community of k-12 educators, united under a common hashtag, who support each other in our use of design thinking and related tools and approaches in our work. One of the major highlights of the community is an hour long, live Twitter chat that happens every Wednesday evening from 9-10 EST. Vocab check: A Twitter chat is merely a specific use of Twitter wherein a bunch of folks interact live through the simultaneous use of a particular hashtag, in this case, #dtk12chat. The Twitter chat is usually only 1 hour a week, but the #dtk12chat community is so widespread and supportive that the network is active pretty much 24/7.

I am Uber-excited to host a SPECIAL #DTK12CHAT ON FRIDAY, DEC. 4 AT 6PM PST, LIVE FROM THE BIG IDEAS FEST MEDIA LOUNGE

We attendees of Big Ideas Fest will have a good amount of the "action collab" design thinking process under our belts by this time, so we'll have some nice, provocative thoughts to share, workshop, and develop. As host, I'll have some questions ready to go to spur discussion and I'm hoping to capitalize on the usual group dynamic to guide the conversation, as it normally does. 

If you'd like to join us on-site in the Media Lounge, please bring a device that can access Twitter and on which you can type your quickest. If you don't have a device, don't worry, come anyway and we'll pair you up with someone who does so you can follow along. If you don't have a Twitter account but would like help to get started using it as a powerful PLN-growing device, come between 5:30 and 6:00pm PST and we'll help you out. 

I'm a firm believer that we learn better together, so I'm hoping everyone reading this can join us for this special #dtk12chat event on Friday, whether it be in person at the Big Ideas Fest Media Lounge or online, wherever you happen to be.

If you have any questions, just reach out to me on Twitter (@bryanlakatos) or email me at: bryan.lakatos@gmail.com

Happy designing!