What are your favorite conferences, and how do you pay for them?

[Jessica Hinman]

Hey all,

With midwinter conference coming up, I'm wondering what are your favorite conferences to attend?  AASL, ISTE, ALA, state conferences?  And on the same note, how do you pay to travel to and attend these conferences?  Do you pay out of your own pocket, get grants, or do you leave room in your shrinking budgets?  Who do you ask about using school budgets to attend conferences, is this even allowed?

[Cathy Nelson]

This is a great question as many are in tight budget times!!  Before my kids went away to college I used to attend both my state conferneces (library and edtech.)  Now I find myself have to choose.  I have done Educon in Philly too, but have had to let that slide.  Every summer I have gone to ISTE (formerly NECC), and this past summer I went to ALA.  I have successfully convinced my family to wrap out summer vacation plans around ISTE.  My oldest finishes college in the spring, so hopefully i can attend more like I used to.  But I do pay for all out of my own pocket.