Just a couple of weekends ago I was part of something special. InterventionCon 2013. It’s an excellent little convention that I suspect will only grow moving forward. If you haven’t checked out the things that happen, you should. Find them here: http://interventioncon.com/

This is the part where I come clean, so that you understand where I’m coming from for the rest of my little review here. I’m most likely the least connected person at the convention. It took a change in my day job to force me out of the Luddite zone and into the realm of smartphone and iPad and constant connectivity. Even now, I struggle with “being connected”. There are way too many times when I think I should be enjoying what’s happening around me rather than viewing it through the lens of a phone camera. I regularly disconnect… on purpose.

Disconnected might actually become a theme for me.

With that in mind, I will say the weekend’s convention was a fantastic success. You know why? Because I didn’t hear about bad things happening or people that weren’t happy or anything like that. The only things I heard about –  live and in person – were positive, empowering experiences. People that I walked around and spoke to were all having a great time. They were headed for the arcade or the game room or a panel on how to make something. They were learning and sharing and creating amazing stuff. Your on-line life in person. I think the in person portion was really working well. I am tickled to be part of it all.

The one thing I felt though, was a sense of being a bit disconnected. Children’s programming almost seemed like it’s own little world to me. I know that some inquiries were made to folks in other areas of the con and they weren’t even aware of what we were up to (or where we were). Living in our own little world was not a bad thing! The families that were there and participating really made me smile. I was so happy to be part of the whole thing – but particularly one mom’s first time ever making a paper airplane. The simple fact that we could help them “make” something and have them create such a great family memory is amazing.

The problem? The real problem? How do we come up with something even better for next year?

The Children’s Programming Staff is working on ideas to put out there already… 2014 is going to be awesome.