While many of us in North America were getting re-acquainted with the Fall routine, Maplesoft was involved in a major event, the Maple T.A. and Möbius User Summit. In the past, the Summit has alternated locations between Europe and North America, but following the success of last year’s Summit in Vienna, Austria, we recently broke new ground and expanded the reach of the event to include more countries around the world in order to localize the themes and to meet the growing demand from educators to take learning online.

The first event, organized by Cybernet, took place in China. The second of five events on the calendar took place in London, England. Held from September 7-8, this installment was a major stop in the tour, drawing many residents of the UK to hear talks from some of our strongest proponents of Möbius in Europe. The London Summit drew several delegates from the UK alone, many of whom were completely new contacts for us! Other attendees came from as far away as Russia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Australia, as well as some from Sweden, Denmark, Italy and the Netherlands. The turnout was brilliant!

Make progress or make excuses

The bulk of the London Summit was divided into three driving themes: Showcasing the Successful Delivery of Online Education; Best Practices for Digital Testing and Assessment; and Creating Engaging and Interactive Online STEM Content. Each theme consisted of 3 user presentations delivered by representatives from renowned institutions like University of Manchester, University of Birmingham, London Imperial College, University of Waterloo, Chalmers University of Technology, and more.

Maplesoft Application Engineer Surak Perera may have inadvertently set the tone for the day when he kicked off theme 1 with a quote from Tony Robbins: Make progress, or make excuses. One thing’s for sure – excuses were nowhere to be found at One Moorgate Place. The audience was captivated and engaged, and wasted no time bouncing questions and ideas off of our presenters. In fact, they were so eager to learn from our Maple T.A. and Möbius users that Jonny Zivku, Maple T.A. Product Manager, had to interject several times in order to keep the schedule moving! Each presentation reinforced the ability of Maple T.A. and Möbius to be used for diverse purposes such as distance education or analyzing incoming students, and in a range of subjects including multidisciplinary engineering cohorts, or simply core mathematics. Each presenter demonstrated that these tools can take you as far as the user’s mind is willing to be stretched.

Evening Reception

As heads were getting full and bellies were getting empty, the group left the luxuries of modern day and stepped back into what must have felt like a scene from Downton Abbey in the Main Reception Room of the venue. On the menu was the most culturally appropriate dish: fish and chips! Oh, and don’t forget the tea and wine!

There was no better way to wrap up the Summit than with Steve Furino’s interactive presentation and open discussion “Collecting Data about Collecting Data.” Small group discussion enabled the attendees to reconcile their inspiration from Day 1 with the practicality of putting it into practice once they return to their schools.

Overall, the London Summit was a smashing hit. The centralized location drew attendees who had a lot of common experiences which made for optimal discussion. The final question posted was the most revealing of everyone’s experience: where will the Summit be next year?

While that’s not yet decided, the Toronto Summit – the next stop in the Summit Series – is just a fortnight away (November 2-3). So for now, we’re saying “Cheers” to jolly good times in London, and “Can I get a double-double, eh” to Toronto!

Until then, you can experience the London Summit as if you were there with the full presentation proceedings and videos. They’re now available on our website!