This article is, as you may have gathered from the title, about ILIAS at Learntec. I thought, however, that it might be interesting for you to get a personal perspective of this interesting annual event in the ILIAS calendar - a behind-the-scenes look, so to speak. This is my second year helping out at the ILIAS stand - which makes me a newbie, for ILIAS has been taking part in Karlsruhe's annual trade fair on the topic of education and learning since 1999! 

And who am I? I am Chris - some of you probably know me already. I work directly for the ILIAS Society and am responsible for most of the English language in ILIAS. This is a Sisyphean task which involves me meddling a bit in everyone else's work from time to time and making myself generally popular. Otherwise, I am infamous for having done a musical Devconf contribution. Don't worry. It won't happen again.

This year, from the 6th to 8th of May, ILIAS once more took a proud stance as an open source solution that truly shows that first rate quality doesn't need to cost the earth. The ILIAS stand was staffed by a strong team made up of the service providers Kröpelin Projekt GmbH & CaT Concepts and Training GmbH (who as gold sponsors both had their own little stands within the ILIAS stand), staff from the Society itself, other sponsoring service providers (Leifos, Surlabs and Databay) and institutional members.  This ensured that visitors to the stand were sure to find the right person to answer their questions.

The ILIAS stand also hosted a number of presentations on a variety of topics, given by Kröpelin, CaT, Surlabs, Leifos and many others. I was personally very interested in Fred Neumann's presentation about EDUTIEK, which looks absolutely fantastic and very well thought out.

One highlight of an event like Learntec - for me at any rate - is getting to talk to people who already use ILIAS. I think it happens to all of us at some point, sitting in front of an excel table or wading through a complicated test suite - we start to think 'what is the point?' or 'would it even make a difference if I were replaced by chimp in a bow tie?' But after talking to the huge variety of ILIAS users at Karlsruhe, I feel truly buoyed up - ILIAS provides the digital infrastructure for so much training, especially in the German-speaking world, from public administration to universities, police, doctors and medical personnel, private businesses, etc. It is one thing to know this as a dry fact and another to speak to the users, help answer their questions about upcoming features in ILIAS 10 and listen to some of their stories.

Something that surprised me, but maybe it shouldn't have, is how many companies and institutions are still looking (or have only just started looking) for a new LMS. I had several interesting (and I hope fruitful) discussions with people who were trying to decide which LMS suited their needs, and was able to impress them with ILIAS 10. In one case, I had to disappoint a gentleman by informing him that whimsical squirrel-themed names for objects was not a standard in ILIAS, but rather my own brand of insanity. Are you listening people! More squirrels!

This year I also came armed with my camera and took a few snapshots, which you will see adorning this article. I feel that next year I should bring a larger selection of lenses, a flash and a tripod, as the conditions inside the hall were not always ideal. Luckily I had such a photogenic collection of individuals as my subjects - this should hopefully distract from my shortcomings as a photographer.

After all the visitors, service providers and other community members had left, it was time to help take down the stand. This made me feel rather guilty, as I had decided to skip helping set up the stand on the Monday, and instead took a day off and spent it in Strasbourg. It was only while helping to take down the stand that I realised how much effort and work Matthias and Fabian must have put in on Monday setting it all up. That's the choice: a guilty conscience and a lovely day in France... or a day of punishing physical labour.... Désolé chers collègues, c'est toujours la France !

Anyway. I left Karlsruhe tired.... very tired... but also with a renewed vigour and passion for all things ILIAS. Talking to colleagues from the community and ILIAS users from so many different fields and industries, as well as showing off some of what ILIAS can do for prospective users made me feel part of something special. Sorry Chuckles the Chimp. You can remove your bow tie, I've got work to do!