A Note from your 2014 Conference Planner

I know it is hard to say goodbye to summer, but not quite as much when you have the fantastic VATE Fall Conference to look forward to! If you haven’t already heard, we will be back in Williamsburg, Virginia, at the DoubleTree by Hilton from Friday, October 10 – Sunday, October 12. To say that we are looking forward to it would be quite the understatement!

 We are very excited to offer you an excellent line up of speakers, including young adult author Neal Shusterman, Sherry Levitt and Dr. Cynthia Szwajkowski from the Library of Congress’ Teaching with Primary Sources program, and Dr. Joseph Emerson, a local educator and author.

 The registration form has been available on our website all summer, so we hope you’ve had a chance to check it out! You may have noticed that lunch is now included in your registration price, and Neal Shusterman’s presentation is free – that’s right, FREE! We hope these changes make the conference an even more positive experience. We have a really fantastic excursion planned for Friday night – we hope you’ll consider coming out and having a little fun with us in historic Williamsburg! You can register online or by printing your form and sending it in to us. Remember to book your hotel room, too - the DoubleTree has given us an unbeatable rate!

 We have a special evening planned for Saturday when we will wish VATE a very happy 100th birthday! There will be appetizers, drinks, and most importantly, cake! We will also get to hear from VATE and NCTE superstars Pat Kelly and Leila Christenbury. You won’t want to miss it!

 We are looking forward to providing you a fun and content-rich experience. The original proposal deadline has come and gone, but we are happy to continue accepting your proposals through August 31. You can submit online or print a form to mail in. Please consider presenting – your expertise is invaluable!

 We are working very hard to make this our best conference ever. We hope to see you there!