by Lisa Forbes

In June of 2020, David and I started a Google listserv called Professors at Play. We had 5 members. Five months later, we have 554 members. This summer, there was so much excitement about Professors at Play, we knew we had to do more – create a bigger platform. So we had a crazy idea to host a Professors at Play Virtual Playposium. 

It was a labor of playful passion and we were able to throw it together in a couple of months. We sent out a call for proposals, secured keynotes and a featured speaker, opened registration, ordered stickers for sticker packs, mailed sticker packs, created the playposium schedule, communicated with presenters and registrants, and tightened up some logistical details. 

In the end, 361 people registered for the Playposium. Like, whoa. We had 2 keynote speakers, 1 featured speaker, 9 main session presenters, and 11 Fun Club breakout sessions. It was jam-packed with fun and play! Actually, it was a bit like trying to drink from a play firehose that was shooting out fireworks! Don’t worry, if you missed the day or just didn’t soak it in because it moved so fast, we recorded all of the sessions which we will post soon.

 We knew it would be a fun chance to gather and talk about play but we had no idea exactly how great it would be. The passion and playful perspectives of the presenters/speakers in addition to the energy and interest from the participants was breathtaking. David and I worked hard to organize this event but it would have been nothing without you. Our community. Our presenters. And Play!

We received some really great constructive feedback about the Playposium and interest in future Professors at Play engagements and gatherings. Most people seemed pleased:

 Looking forward, people want more events. Shorter events. In-depth demos. Monthly workshops or discussions. A collaborative resource list. Casual meet ups. Partnerships for research and publications. Blogs or articles on tips and tricks. If you would like to help with any of these ideas, feel free to shoot us an email! We love to collaborate and highlight our members’ expertise and ideas. Perhaps the thing I am personally most excited about is the idea to have an actual in-person “play retreat” in some great beach city. (The beach is my happy place.) I’d love to meet up and have some workshop sessions but also just have some idle time (away from regular life, kids, family, friends, work duties) to be able to think, play, and implement the play ideas into our teaching practices. Who is with me?! Stupid COVID.