Why listen to vendor demos at conferences...

While at the NECC 2007 conference, I spent several hours on the vendor floor. There are two aspects that provide value. First, if you have no direct interest in a product, vendors often tell you all the great ways to use their product to improve student learning. A wise teacher plows through the "product" talk and gleans the good teaching practices that they are demonstrating their product with.

Secondly, since our district already owns district licensing for KidPix, Kidspiration and Inspiration, both of these vendors offer 20 minute sessions on how to use their products. I use both them them quite well and provide training on the software and I still learn something new at every session.