EMEA 2024 Wrap Up

Hello from Stuttgart, Germany! Or should I say Guten Tag? This week I am presenting sessions on behalf of MusicFirst at the EMEA 2024 Conference. Last year I attended this conference in Vicenza, Italy and I had SUCH a great time getting to know the music educators from the US Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) School System and I am THRILLED to be back again this year. There are some wonderful presenters here with me, including my good friend Dr. Bryan Powell, Dr. Peter Boonshaft, Dr. Deb Confredo, and many others. The conference is being held at the Patch Middle School at the Patch Barracks, US Army Garrison in Stuttgart.

DoDEA has some pretty incredible music educators working for them, and I am very happy to be presenting 3 sessions to them on topics such as AI in Music Education, Tech for the Overscheduled Music Educator which highlights all of our software offerings, and More Time for Artistry with PracticeFirst - our incredible tool for automated online assessment. All of my session materials can be found HERE. Feel free to take a look.

I attended LOTS of sessions yesterday, and my favorites included the Keynote Address by Dr. Peter Boonshaft - there wasn’t a dry eye in the house during his talk, and everyone felt inspired and uplifted by his wonderful stories about teaching music. I saw an amazing student drumline called the Stuttgart Legacy Drumline (see picture below). Dr. Deb Confredo, President-Elect of NAfME did a terrific presentation on Advocacy. Bryan Powell had everyone jamming on ukuleles and guitars and having a great time as only he can do. I had some terrific conversations with everyone there and I can’t wait to present my sessions today and I look forward to coming back many times in the future.

If you’re interested in what it’s like to teach abroad for the US government, I did a podcast with one of the amazing DoDEA teacher, Amy Black, last year. Here is that episode: