FETC vs NECC vs TCEA vs ????

Do most of you go to any of these shows? If you do, what are the pro's and con's of them. FETC, NECC, VSTE, GaETC, TCEA, CUE, there are a ton of conferences. I am curious to hear from teachers, IT directors, administrators which shows you like. Large ones, small ones, targeted ones, local ones, warm ones, shows during school, shows during summertime. I think that a lot of the members would love to know why FETC is better than NECC, for instance.

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Permalink Reply by Richard Kurtzer on January 8, 2010 at 1:10pm

Dave,

From my experience (I'm a manufacturer), if you need to pick one show this year it's a toss up between FETC and ISTE (Formerly known as NECC). The size of both of those shows ensures great quality and quantity of attendees, ed tech exhibitors and conference sessions.

Based on the show dates It's probably too late to get a decent flight/hotel for FETC at this point so you'll probably want to look at attending ISTE. Last but not least, Denver is a great place to be in June.

-Richard Kurtzer

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Permalink Reply by Jim D on January 9, 2010 at 3:02pm

I went to NECC (I think it is ISTE now) and it had around 400 or more vendors there. They had more breakout sessions than I could muster time for. It is well worth it if you can make it. I heard that FETC and TCEA are about the same.

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Permalink Reply by Dave Peterson on January 9, 2010 at 3:05pm

I've been to all of them, as a vendor. From the vendor standpoint, they are all about the same. If you have a regional product, then the NYSCATE's, and VSTE's, and NCAET are the best bet.

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Permalink Reply by Lori Gracey on January 11, 2010 at 6:48am

Speaking from a bias and from having attended the TCEA convention for over 25 years, TCEA wins hands-down if your focus is the classroom. With over 450 sessions and 16,000 attendees, there's always something to learn. This year, they're featuring an iPlayground and have a free convention app for all smart phones. They have free BYOL (Bring Your Own Laptop) sessions and Model Classroom demonstrations. They have a free pre-conference Edubloggercon and an open source playroom, Second Life and Gaming playground and free geocaching. Add in the over 900 vendors and you get something bigger than FETC and with more teacher presentations than NECC.