LEGO® IDEA Conference: Billund, Denmark
First, let me say, “LUCKY us!” We were able to play with the owner of LEGO® and jammed with David from Little Kids Rock. Who says big kids can't play?
We are always excited to be invited to attend the conference at LEGO® Headquarters in Denmark and have been attending nearly every year since 2006. During the past two years the conference format has changed to one where we play and work with some of the leading global minds who are transforming how the world thinks about play.
Specifically, this year we worked on the theme of Quality. We discussed and debated about the questions of what quality is and how to measure it. The conference was set up with a blend of guest speakers and short presentations, along with deep dives into problem solving sessions for specific countries. Denmark, Kenya, Philippines, Mexico, South Africa, and the USA were the countries that we focused our attention.
I attended the Mexican breakout and learned more about an exciting emerging program in that country. The two days were broken into sessions starting with fact finding, problem identification, and then action planning. We worked together with people who are on the ground in Mexico, some provide programing while others are setting policies. We were challenged to explore ways to improve what they are currently doing with their available resources. It was a great learning experience. It was also interesting to see the early development of their home daycare systems. My Mother was one of the pioneers of this system in Ontario back in the 80's.
The theme of play was woven into the entire conference. David, from Little Kids Rock, kept us all entertained with interactive music and countless opportunities to play with sound and experiment with instruments. He closed the conference with a great song about why adults do not like to play and what they think about play in general.
You can watch highlights of the conference and see the close by following this link:
http://www.legofoundation.com/en-us/lego-idea-conference/2016-lego-idea-conference-videos