The First Annual Pachyderm Users' Conference
A program of the Edward and Betty Marcus
Digital Education Project for Texas Art Museums

The first annual Pachyderm Users' Conference was held Dec. 12-14, 2006, in Austin, Texas. This groundbreaking meeting brought together museum and campus leaders, trustees, and educators for a series of dialogs with Pachyderm authors, developers, members of the open source community, students, museum experts, and the Marcus Foundation Board to discuss the outreach and programmatic use of Pachyderm in museums and institutions of higher education. While examples from many disciplines were featured, a special emphasis was placed this year on examples from the arts and arts education.

Keynoters Peter Samis (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) and Holly Witchey (Cleveland Museum of Art) offered stimulating conversations on the impact of digital media in museums and higher education. During the two-day conference, conference attendees shared their experiences and learned from colleagues in a variety of breakout sessions, including:

• Panel Sessions:  Discuss issues from design and creativity to planning and support with museum and higher education leaders.
  
  
• Hands-On Workshops:  Learn to capture and prepare images, audio, and video clips for use in Pachyderm.
  
  
• Conversations with Developers:  Find out where Pachyderm is going, help to influence future development work, and help to design upcoming features in interactive sessions with the core open-source development team.
  
  
• Critique Sessions:  Bring your Pachyderm work in progress and receive feedback from other authors, designers, teachers, and students.
  
  
• Showcases:  Bring your finished projects to demonstrate in a Pachyderm Showcase that highlights the variety of disciplines using Pachyderm today.

Registration includes entrance to all conference activities as well as to all receptions and meal events. Registration opened November 7, 2006.