If you were on FB or Twitter this weekend, then you probably saw scads of Music Therapists around the world posting the hashtag #OCMT2012 for the Online Music Therapy Conference which took place over a 24 hour period on February 17-18.  This was my first time participating in the OCMT and it will certainly not be the last!  Here’s my recap:

OCMT marked it’s second year and I was so excited to participate as both a presenter and a participant.  I have attended a few online courses before (enter stage right: Kat Fulton and her innovative Online Zen and Intro to Toning…PS. I highly recommend BOTH!), but have never actually presented in this online format.  I was a little nervous to present “There’s An App For That: The iPad In Music Therapy” (click to see presentation outline), because I wanted to share video content in my presentation (enter stage left: the AMAZING OCMT organizing committee!!!).  The OCMT committee selected an awesome online platform, InstantPresenter , which not only allowed for video through screen sharing, but built in power point and white board options.  As if that wasn’t enough, the best feature of the platform was text chat through which the participants could communicate questions, comments and feedback to the presenter.  As a presenter, the text chat allowed me to connect with the participants by responding to their feedback throughout the presentation since they could only see me but I couldn’t see them. As a participant, it allowed me to feel connected to the presenter but also the other participants!  Sometimes the text chat turned into much more than that as it was a means for MT’s to convey emotions, lyrics, links, and community throughout each presentation.

I only got to participate in one Keynote session and a few presentations LIVE, but I’m so looking forward to watching them back on the recordings.  Recordings, you say??  Yesiree!  You see, the OCMT presentation recordings are available to watch for the next two weeks!  So for those MT’s like me who weren’t able to stay awake 24 hours straight or those that had other obligations, we can catch up on ALL the presentations we missed at our leisure…in our pajamas no less!

So how about you???  Did you attend #OCMT2012? If not, I hope you’ve been bit by the “online bug” and will consider attending (or maybe even presenting!) next year.  #OCMT2013 here we come!!!