Last year I wrote my first blog post for ILIAS - covering ILIAS at Learntec. It was met with rave international reviews. [1] So anyway - far be it from me to deny my adoring fans...

The ILIAS stand at this year's Learntec was obviously THE place to be seen. It was sponsored by Leifos GmbH, Kröpelin Projekt GmbH, Surlabs and Databay AG, with the first three having their own little stands within the overall ILIAS stand. There were also various authorities and experts from the institutional members present, such as Bettina Solzbacher (CSS authority and organiser of this year's upcoming ILIAS Conference). Together with the staff of the ILIAS Society who were present, this meant that for users of ILIAS, potential users of ILIAS and people who just wanted a free pen, there was no shortage of expertise, talent and beauty ready to help.

Directly opposite the ILIAS stand, one of ILIAS's service providers, The OC Group, from Ravenna, Italy, had their own stand, adding a bit of Italian flair and creating a very cosy little ILIAS ecosystem. 

This year again saw the ILIAS stand host a whole range of interesting presentations, for example:

Indeed, this year once more, AI seemed to be one of the main themes at Learntec - walking around, it seemed that everything now has added AI goodness. The future is already here - at the ILIAS stand too, obviously - for example there seemed to be lots of people enthralled by SURAgent, Surlab's AI Content creation solution, and watching the presentations on AI by Leifos and Surlabs.

Leifos also reported interest in their Compliance Plugin, which reduces the administrative burden associated with mandatory training by partially or fully automating the process, whereas at the Kröpelin Projekt GmbH stand they noticed that customers were particularly impressed by their customisation solutions and how they modify ILIAS to match their customers' corporate identities and their individual usability requirements.

For those interested in EDUTIEK, this year also saw Fred Neumann and Fabian Wolf run a small but apparently productive workshop on the topic. A deeper dive that I unfortunately missed, as I wasn't there on the first day.

In fact due to the stellar cast of service providers and other experts this year, I didn't have as many in-depth conversations as last year (because who talks to the monkey when there are so many organ grinders around? [2]) but the conversations I did have, once more reminded me how many different people use ILIAS, and not just in German, making it clear to me how important language maintenance is in ILIAS. For me, these conversations with ILIAS users and the other people working at the stand is one of the best parts of Learntec, giving me perspective and goals for when I am back at my desk.

I also took the opportunity to walk around Learntec and look at the other stands and talk to people from other organisations. It struck me how well known ILIAS is and how much it can do. In one package it can do most of what was being offered at any number of the other stands combined - and all of that while being open source, flexible and community driven.

So anyway - Thursday evening came along, we had taken down the stand and I was once more sitting at Karlsruher main train station with sore feet but with a warm feeling of being part of a great community and a great product. I am already looking forward to next year!