Hi all, If you were considering going to OrigamiUSA's Annual Convention this year (or perhaps even if not), I wanted to give folks a heads-up on some of the new things the elves of website and convention have in the works. We'll be spiffing up this year's convention website pages over the next month with a plan to go live on May 6, but we wanted to give people some advance notice of a few new treats:
Pictorial class previews One of the most-requested items is a preview of what classes will be taught. This year, we'll be posting proposed class listings on the website as soon as they are submitted. So you'll be able to visit the site and see, in near-real-time, what people are proposing to teach. There will be a space for people to upload a photo along with their other description (this is optional, so if you're not a photographer, no worries). And of course, there's fine-print caveats: there's no guarantee that any given class will materialize (all classes are taught by volunteers and volunteers' plans can change). But it'll be a great way to see what's coming down the pike and just might give folks some ideas for classes of their own. Pictorial schedule and model menu We'll also put online the final class schedule with pictures taken of the actual model menu artworks (we'll take our own pictures, whether or not one was uploaded with the class description so even if you uploaded a photo, you still have to ship or bring a model for model menu). The class schedule will show the times and places of all classes and are color-coded by level. The schedule itself will be posted Wednesday night before convention (that's when the final schedule is frozen); the photos will be added Friday night of convention (by a frenzied team of volunteer photographers and uploaders). Then the pictorial schedule will be available via the website throughout convention weekend (and beyond; we'll keep an archive of past classes from prior years). To get a better idea of what we're talking about, we built schedules for last year's classes for practice. You can see those schedules here: http://origamiusa.org/convention_classes_2012_sat http://origamiusa.org/convention_classes_2012_sun http://origamiusa.org/convention_classes_2012_mon Of course there's no pictures here. For 2013, there will be pictures, too. Now it's not going to do much good to have an online schedule unless there's some way to connect online during convention, right? We saved the best for last: WiFi in the Great Hall Yes, that's right; at long last, we'll have WiFi in the Great Hall (where everyone hangs out). So bring your iPhones, iPads, Galaxies, Nexii, tablets, phablets, laptops, Google Glasses, facetops, twittops, whatever. You'll be able to view the model menu on your own device, post reviews of classes right after you take them, tell all your Facebook and Google+ friends (not to mention Origami-L!) what a great time you're having, and more. As always, these changes and upgrades are brought to you by the convention and website volunteers. If you have suggestions for further improvements, we'd love to hear them. If you'd like to help out, we'd love to hear that even more! Contact the convention team at the email addresses listed here: http://origamiusa.org/convention2013_contacts And we look forward to seeing those of you that can come in New York in June! Robert O/b/o the website and convention teams
