That’s Will Richardson, feeling the feel of someone writing a blog about him, in 2006. He and Alan November were keynote speakers at the Edinburgh City ICT conference. It was in 2006, when the total number of blog links numbered 2.4 billion. Today it’s innumerable. John Johnston, David Noble and I had met the year before, about twenty years ago this week, at the Scottish Learning Festival. We had a shared frustration. All the keynotes there, and what we ended up hearing in Edinburgh eight months later, felt like old news. There were amazing educators all over Scotland doing what the (often North American) keynoters told us we should be doing. But we were going even further. John and I had already done the first ever podcasts from our classes. In the works. Fellow Modern Linguist Mark Pentleton, had ventured into a language-learning pod that is now one of the world’s most successful. We decided about now, twenty years ago, that we should find a place where everyone was equal in sharing their ideas, not on a stage, not with PowerPoint. It took the Edinburgh event on May 6, 2006 to trigger an instantaneous spur-of-the-moment decision on a back channel: let’s just do it. “Jolly Judge pub - they have WiFi. 5pm. Before the crowds arrive. See if you can get Will to come …” #TeachMeet was born. We’re rebirthing it for 2026. We’ve never needed disintermediatdd professional learning more. We’re surrounded by governmental initiatives created by people who don’t really know what their vision is. We’ve got pro personalities doing the same day-long workshop on [fill the gap]. What works in Melbourne will work in Milngavie, what received polite applause in Calgary will do just fine in Chengdu. We’ve got various branded crews masquerading as a “grassroots evidence-based communities” while excluding those who don’t fit, and earning a serious dividend or two in the process. It’s time to remind ourselves of this: nothing beats teachers sharing what got them excited with other teachers. That’s what creates meaningful progress in our profession. Yes: there’s always the occasional misfire or idea that doesn’t quite work out. So what? The profession can work out for itself what matters most. So we’re going for it. More details to come. #TeachMeet20. What are you going to do to create something special in your town in 2026? #worldteacherday #worldteachersday

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Schools IT 2000 - Policy framework document on Information and Communication Technologies in Irish Education.