What To Do at Spring CUE: #CUE19 Preview

The ride home on Sunday will add about 35 more minutes,
since I live in Reno, but that's just more time for reflection!

Ladies and gentlemen, it is that time of the year once again!  It is time for thousands of educators, technology nerds, and fun loving folk like me to make our annual pilgrimage to Palm Springs, CA for the Spring CUE Conference.  This will be my fourth year in a row and in the past, it has gotten better every year, and I expect nothing less for this year!  In the hours before I hit the road to make the drive from Reno/Carson City, first to Ridgecrest for a night, then the rest of the way to Palm Springs, I am furiously gathering up the essentials (a duffel bag will do for clothes, but my technology bag certainly puts that bag to shame!) and getting excited for everything that I will be doing at CUE.  Since I am leaving after work, a 5 to 5 and a half hour drive with a 3 hour drive on Thursday morning sounded way more enticing than a full drive to Palm Springs from Carson City in one shot, not to mention a room in Ridgecrest was about $60 versus whatever insane amount it will be in Palm Springs the night before the conference begins.  It's going to be a busy conference and the lack of sleep will certainly be no joke, once again!

Of course CUE is going to be full of breakout sessions and poster sessions and keynote speeches and workshops and all of that jazz that is awesome, inspiring, and #FirehosePD worthy (shout out to you, Corey Mathias!), but I'm not going to get too deep into what I plan to go to because I have learned from the past.  The past has taught me not to get to hung up on any particular session because there is a good chance that when you get there, it may be full.  "So Kyle, solve that by getting to sessions earlier!"  Good call, Internet peeps, but I like to get in my networking and conversing and vendor hall time, so sometimes I get caught up and make it to the session, not late, but not as early as I should.  So I always have several backups to make sure that I can get to a session that I want, and if I don't make it, I can always fall back on networking, conversing, and vendor hall-ing (I just made up that word, it works, right?).  And on top of that, I have a lot of things to promote that will be happening at CUE and I want to take a moment to be a little shameless!

First off, you can never have too much CUE gear, like shirts, sweatshirts, and battery banks for your cell phone.  That being said, I will be volunteering at the CUE merchandise stand on Thursday afternoon from 12:45-2:45, Friday from 11:30 to 1:30, and again on Saturday from 9:30 to 11:30.  Come see me to chat and grab some CUE swag before it's all gone!  

Friday morning is something that I have been preparing for and getting excited about for several weeks.  At 8:30 in the main keynote auditorium, along with nine other insanely smart, talented, and exciting people, I will be participating in the CUEBOOM session.  What is CUEBOOM?  If you haven't been initiated yet, CUEBOOM is a session where we will each have three minutes to fire up the crowd about something that we are passionate about.  While I can hardly contain my excitement and wanting to tell the world about my presentation/speech, I am going to hold onto it until Friday morning when I unleash it to the world!  This will most certainly be the largest crowd I have ever spoken to, with 250 being my max currently.  I have been getting so much love and support from so many already, I am so honored for that and the amazing people that I get to share the stage with, and I am also honored to know the coordinator, Ann Kozma, who has given me suggestions and feedback on my presentation along the way.  So hopefully I will see you on Friday, March 15 at 8:30 for CUEBOOM!  And if you can wake up early enough, don't forget about #cuehike at 5:30 AM (I was "ordered" to go by Katie McNamara and Hans Tullman, don't want to let my KernCUE brethren down!)

We all love our stickers.  Many of us fork out lots of hard earned cash just to have a different kind of currency for conferences.  Stickers are the new business card and also serve as a form of art, not just for the sticker itself, but for the laptops and laptop covers that get plastered with stickers after a successful exchange.  FallCUE had the first ever Supermuch Sticker Swap, which, to put it lightly, was kind of a dumpster fire that was interrupted, literally, but a fire alarm, but it was still a great time, regardless of how unorganized it was (but to be fair, it was sorely underestimated how popular it was going to be).  For Spring CUE, I was lucky enough to get a table to promote my stickers!  I will be there with my blue AndersonEdTech stickers, BeerEDU Podcast stickers, a handful of magnets, and some buttons!  So on Saturday, March 16 at 11:45, come check out the sticker swap to exchange stickers, build your PLN, and learn a little about the history behind my stickers and my branding!

Speaking of my podcast, my partner, Ben Dickson, will be attending CUE for the first time!  While I am already excited that he is going to be experiencing something so incredible, I am also excited because we are planning to do some recording for the podcast at the conference!  We are hoping to gather some short clips from folks highlighting their favorite moments of the conference, biggest takeaways, and because it's a podcast where we talk about what we love over beers, their favorite beverage for professional development.  So be on the lookout for Ben and me with our mics, you will most certainly get a sticker and get your voice heard on the podcast!  And what about the other podcast, the Sons of Technology Podcast?  We will also be recording an episode from CUE and trying to release it in time for your drives and flights home, so find Joe Marquez and me and we may have a sticker for you!  Subscribe to both podcasts on your favorite platform.  

These are just the things that are for sure penciled into my schedule.  This doesn't include any after-hours mingling and shenanigans, the Taste of CUE in Downtown Palm Springs on Saturday night, or the sessions that I have yet to decide upon.  It's going to be a whirlwind and you know there will be a follow-up post after the fact.  Lucky for me, I have an off day from work on Monday after a long drive to reflect.  We will see how I feel about getting it out on Monday!  In the meantime, see you in Palm Springs, and if I don't, make sure to follow #cue19, #wearecue, and #notatcue!  

Until next time...