Heading from Brisbane Australia to Las Vegas for DevLearn 2024 was my first international conference, and I must say it didn’t disappoint.
With over 4,500 delegates at the conference, it was by far the biggest one that I have ever attended.
My focus was on meeting xAPI gurus with whom I’ve been working with for the past 5 years. It was fantastic to meet them in person and not via a video screen. I made plenty of new connections as well, and lots of catching up to do over the next few months.
As mentioned, xAPI and AI were my focus on this conference. I attended around 8 different sessions and some KeyNotes that covered everything from xAPI introduction to using xAPI and AI. I was mentioned in the xAPI and AI – Charting futures session with Jason Haag and Chad Udell on my work with xAPI and AI.
Of course, I attended all of Megan Torrance‘s sessions – I’ve seen them online and the passion and excitment that she brings to xAPI is seriously contagious.
I also got to meet Duncan Webster from RISC where we did a video as part of the xAPI in Action Series
So, overall and brilliant conference and experience. Below are a couple of my takeaways gathered from my notes over the 4 days:
There is a technology cycle that we should be looking at as we move forward. There are four things to look at Speed, Quality, Transformation and Impact. If we consider the humble camera as an example.
Speed: The speed in which Digital Cameras have improved
Quality: DSLR and Lightroom improved the resolution and Software to manipulate that
Transformation: Pinterest Flickr became available, transforming how we present and delivery photos
Impact: Geo Location tagging for easy searching and Tik Tok made Vertical Video cool
When you consider this in the way of AI, the speed is astronomical when compared to other technologies. I heard someone say that we jump 10 years in technology every 3 months. This may sound extreme, but on the face of it, sure sounds relative to me!
Another phrase I heard was Do it > fail > learn > change and I got a lot of out this simple statement. It does summarise my journey in Learning Technology.
An interesting presentation made reference to AI and Plagiarism. This triggered my thinking when the presenter said ‘It’s not plagiarism. It assigns weights to input data and these are patterns based on mathematical equations.’
An example of not being plagiarised can be talked about as a Dr treating a broken ankle. He has done this 1,000’s of times before, however the Dr uses this experience to fix based on patterns they have learned, is this plagiarism?
There was a very heavy emphasis on AI for this conference. Pretty much to the point of saturation (may explain why I may not have been accepted as a presenter, there was no AI in the content!).
One of the impactful takeaways I had from all of the AI presentations was ‘The real creativity is still to come’.
We don’t need to know HOW AI works, just like you don’t need to know HOW a watch works to tell the time. So why try and figure out the ‘black box’, just learn how to use it effectively.
I also had the fortunate opportunity to be selected as part of 40 vendors to showcase real-world projects to over 1,000 delegates. In this case, I was able to demonstrate Remote Reviewer. This was an exhausting but truly exhilarating experience. There were lots of questions (around AI, of course) but also lots of leads. Let’s hope some take up the offer to test in Beta!
There were so many more takeaways, especially around xAPI and Learning Engineering. This space is very transformative, and I look forward to where this is all going!
Here are a few snaps from the conference. Don’t forget to check out the converstaion on LinkedIn
Stay Curious
