Happy Summer! I’m Sheila B. Robinson, aea365’s Lead Curator and sometimes Saturday contributor. Last year at this time, I contributed these ideas for enjoying AEA’s annual conference even for those not attending, and they’re well worth repeating this year.
Hot Tip #1 – Leverage the all new beautiful Evaluation 2015 site to Build Your Professional Network: The Evaluation 2015 Online Conference Program is searchable by Topical Interest Group, time slot, presenter name, organization, audience level and keyword. If you are attending, researching the conference program in advance of attending is a must-do in order to make the most of your time. Even if you are not attending, you can search the conference program for colleagues working in your area and connect via email to raise a question.
Hot Tip #2 – Check the AEA eLibrary for Handouts and Related Materials: AEA’s online public eLibrary has nearly 2000 items in its repository and that will grow considerably as the conference nears and immediately following. All speakers are encouraged to post their materials in the eLibrary and anyone may search and download items of interest, whether attending the conference or not.
Hot Tip #3 – Follow Hashtag #Eval15 on Twitter: If you are on Twitter use hashtag #Eval15 to tag your conference-related tweets. If you aren’t attending, follow #Eval15 to stay abreast of the conversation and @aeaweb, AEA’s Headlines and Resources Twitter Feed in particular. Check out #Eval13 and #Eval14 for an idea of what folks were tweeting last year and the year before!
Bonus Cool Trick – Get the H&R Compilation: Not up for joining Twitter quite yet, but want to get the field’s headlines and resources for the week nevertheless? You can subscribe to AEA’s Headlines and Resources compilation to arrive via email or RSS once each week. Learn more here.
Hot Tip #4 – Check in Regularly or Subscribe to EvalCentral: Chris Lysy maintains EvalCentral, a compilation of 57 evauation-related blogs where you can always find the newest posts. Lots of bloggers will be in attendance at Evaluation 2015 and EvalCentral allows you to find many of them all in one place. You can also check out AEA’s list of evaluation bloggers and evaluators on twitter.
Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org . aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators.