Impressions of the NAEYC Annual Conference in Anaheim, CA

By Rana DiOrio, Founder, Little Pickle Press

It was a thrill to attend the The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Annual Conference. The energy and enthusiasm of the educators and administrators eager to learn the state of the art in early childhood education is infectious. As I do with all of these conferences and events, I want to share with you some of my impressions.

The Attendees. There was a sea of humanity at the conference. The demographic was 95% women. This self-selected group of some of the finest educators and administrators from all over the country (and some from all over the world) were friendly, enthusiastic, supportive, curious, and grateful to be here.

The Exhibitors. The over 1,000 exhibitors at the conference ranged from children’s media publishers to booksellers to educational toy purveyors to classroom supply vendors to government agencies to nonprofits serving children. I’d like to highlight where we spent our time:

Barefoot Books  is another indy publisher of high quality children’s media with a similar mission to LPP. Both Leslie Iorillo, our Art Director, and I really enjoyed speaking with Sarah Spencer, Global Sales Director.

Charlesbridge is a top notch publisher of children’s picture and early reader books. We visited our beloved Editor, Judy O’Malley, who was working in the booth and also enjoyed meeting one of their prolific authors, Stuart J. Murphy.

BookVine is a children’s bookseller with a carefully-selected collection of the finest children’s literature available. LPP connected with Isabel Baker, President, and is hopeful to add its books to BookVine’s distinguished repertoire. Leslie purchased BookVine books authored, illustrated, and signed by the highly-acclaimed Patricia Polacco, with whom she is pictured at left.

I stopped by the Council for Environmental Education (CEE) booth and met Geoffrey A. Castro, Manager of Operations and Marketing. After a brief conversation it was clear to me that What Does It Mean To Be Green? ought to be included in the organization’s curriculum and recommended reading. We’re on it!

I also collected a bookmark from Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children’s Entertainment (TRUCE) from one of the special interest tables outside of the Expo. I will investigate further.

The Mission. The objective of the NAEYC Annual Conference is to learn, share, and experience the latest information, products, and services in the field of early childhood education.

The Passion. With professional development resources hard to come by in these difficult economic times, the fortunate conference attendees resonated an attitude of gratitude. I marveled at how many educators were collecting suitcases full of information and new resources for their classrooms and schools. You could feel their excitement about getting home and integrating the new treasures into their lesson plans.

The Call to Action. If you are an early childhood educator, I strongly recommend that you join the NAEYC. If you are a parent, encourage your school to send its teachers, librarians, and administrators to the NAEYC conferences. If you are a blogger or Tweeter, please check out the amazing group of contributors who support the NAEYC. You may find them by searching #naeycAC on Twitter or by checking out the Twitter feed on the Annual Conference website http://www.naeyc.org/conference/. Follow these folks (and Little Pickle Press too, please).


The Facilities. I’d be remiss if I didn’t opine about the facilities for the conference. Hats off to the NAEYC for selecting a conference venue that is LEED Certified and recycles all of its waste! I also appreciated the easily accessible and usable, smoke-free outdoor space where we could find something edible to eat and enjoy it in the sunshine or in the shade of the beautiful palm trees.

To learn more about future conferences or to become an NAEYC member, please visit http://www.naeyc.org/conference.