I was an attendee at the San Francisco Live conference. Based on my experience there is that we should consider, doing quick presos on the applications/tools being discussed (5-10 minutes max) maybe two or three at a time, then break up into two working groups where you try out the app/tool with one (or hopefully two) folks who have experience with the app/tool.
I like agree with your format suggestion, Alice. Being able to hear a 10-minute preso that would give me an idea of what the tool is and why it could be useful to me as an educator would be great - as long as I had that opportunity to get set up and explore the tool under the guidance of some actual users.