There’s lots to say about the substance of #OER23 and hopefully I’ll manage that in some blog posts soon, but this post is just going to be a self-indulgent opportunity to prolong some good vibes, special energies, and warm feelings.
#OER23 wasn’t my first post-pandemic conference but it feels like a home coming in so many ways. Back into my open education community, back amongst friends old and new, and back up north in Inverness for the first time in a long time. I went hoping to reconnect with people, ideas, and place and boy did it deliver in spades. The social energy was different from other OER conferences too – everyone’s social batteries were dialled down a bit, but the warmth and genuine openness to connection was dialled right up. My heart and soul are full.
I saw people I’ve been writing with across oceans during the pandemic (Lou Mycroft, Frances Bell, Lorna Campbell), I saw people who’ve been a big part of sustaining me through the worst of the last few years (Catherine Cronin, Bonnie Stewart I’m looking at you). I got to hug my dear friend and #ds106radio co-host after Too Long (Maren 🥰). I got to see so many friends and colleagues I haven’t seen in too long, and some that I had never had the chance to meet before in person. And I can’t mention #ds106 without mentioning Jim Groom (if I don’t, he will); I hope some further fun might happen.
I don’t really want to try dissect further why it was so good and why I feel more whole for it. I’m content to just enjoy these feelings for a while longer.
And if anyone is wondering, yeah, I did have all my hair cut off. That is another story…
![5 white women all smiling big smiles](https://ammienoot.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/img_2407-1024x768.jpg)
![A Polaroid photo of all the #OER23 Gasta speakers (mags, eamon, Tom, Lou, Jim)](https://ammienoot.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/img_2417-768x1024.jpg)
![3 people grinning maniacally into the camera in the Black Isle Brewery bar.](https://ammienoot.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/img_2418-1024x768.jpg)
![A Canadian man messing with my pint of beer](https://ammienoot.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/img_2412-1024x768.jpg)
![A sign that says “You can be a mess today. It’s okay” with a picture of an otter.](https://ammienoot.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/img_2362-768x1024.jpg)
![4 people sitting on a bench outside a bar and two of them had definitely not been smoking cigarettes.](https://ammienoot.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/img_2378-1024x768.jpg)
![A picture of my feet with some silver and blue brogues on them.](https://ammienoot.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/img_2460-768x1024.jpg)
![A white man playing air guitar mid way through singing AC/DC at karaoke.](https://ammienoot.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/img_2426-1024x768.jpg)
![A slide from a keynote presentation that says “As a response, we need possible frameworks for imagining and manifesting more preferable future higher education institutions, formats or practices through materialising what Ronald Barnett calls 'feasible utopias'”](https://ammienoot.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/img_2392-1024x768.jpg)
![A candle and a knitting figure with pink hair. The candle has a Seamus Heaney quote: “Hope is not optimism, which
expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in
the conviction that there is good worth looking for.”](https://ammienoot.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/img_2369-1024x768.jpg)