Register Now for 2013 LDSTech Conference
The annual LDSTech Conference allows attendees to learn about Church technology, browse booths, share ideas with project managers, and work on current projects.
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
- The fourth annual LDSTech Conference is October 17–18, 2013, in Salt Lake City.
- The conference is free, and everyone is invited to attend, regardless of technical skill.
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The fourth annual LDSTech Conference will be held October 17–18, 2013, in Salt Lake City, Utah. LDSTech fosters collaboration on technology projects between the Church and volunteers from the technology community.
This conference covers the latest in Church technology and consists of two full days of information-packed sessions about Church technology, community sessions for testing and developing Church software, and opportunities to interact with other community volunteers.
While the event is free and open to everyone regardless of technical skill, those interested in attending are urged to register prior to the event at tech.lds.org/conf after signing in with their LDS Account.
Organizers already have several hundred preregistrations and expect 500 to 1,000 attendees. “Last year at this conference, we had about 1,400 register, with about half of them showing up and actually attending,” said Alan Smoot, a solution manager in the Church’s IT department, ICS, which sponsors the LDSTech conference.
The event will be held at the University of Utah’s LDS Institute of Religion building (1780 East South Campus Drive, on Salt Lake City’s East Bench) all day on both October 17 and 18, 2013.
Morning schedules for both Thursday and Friday begin at 8:00 a.m. with a free continental breakfast. Keynote speakers will open each day’s session at 9:00 a.m. Blaine Maxfield, managing director of ICS (the Church’s IT department), will be the keynote speaker on Thursday, and David Warner, managing director of the Church’s Priesthood Department, will be the keynote speaker on Friday.
Two 45-minute presentation periods will begin each day at 10:00 and 11:00 a.m. Check the conference schedule for the different subjects. Lunch will be served each day at noon. From 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. will be a time for networking, browsing the booths, working on projects, and sharing ideas with LDSTech managers. This sharing time will be open but limited to 15-minute discussions, demonstrations, mini presentations, or just talking about the ideas.
The list of applications and projects available for display, demonstration, and to work on during the conference afternoons include LDS.org applications, meetinghouse technologies, mobile apps, and more. Attendees can sign up for as many project sessions as they want during the two days.
One purpose of the conference is to provide a time and space for project teams to work together. Several project work sessions are scheduled as part of the conference. Smoot suggests attendees join the project on LDSTech after signing up for a particular project session. “We’ve found that anybody can be helpful when it comes to testing,” said Smoot. “People can test beta versions using their own computers, devices, and logins. That kind of diversity is hard to replicate internally.”
Many LDSTech conference attendees want to learn more about Church technology rather than participate on projects. Because of this interest, expanded educational offerings with more presentations, more booths, handouts, and other information about a variety of Church technology resources are being offering during the conference. Morning presentations will be recorded for remote viewers to stream online after the conference.
The halls and foyers of the conference area will have information booths and experts to provide information about popular Church products. Classes and tutorial sessions will be held on a number of common Church tech products, such as the LDS.org calendar or personal video conferencing.
Registering now and then signing up to attend sessions helps ensure a presentation or project will have a large enough room reserved to hold all attendees. It also helps presenters plan their presentation to suit a particular size of audience and provides a final headcount of who will be physically attending the conference. Follow the steps ontech.lds.org/conf to register and then sign up for the projects and presentations.
Lodging information for those from out of town and transportation information are also included on the conference information page, tech.lds.org/conf.
