A few people have emailed me to ask why there hasn’t been much communication from me during the conference.

There are a couple of reasons. the primary reason is that I’m busy trying to learn as much as I can from as many people that I can.

The secondary reasons are that the conference is located in the opposite end of the city from my hotel and I’ve been unable to get any of the interviews I’ve requested.

Due to the location of the media hotel, I have to spend an hour each day in transport and my transportation windows are limited. I cannot return to my room during the day. In short, I’m unable to settle in for a long period of time and write.

What we have here is a clash between the new journalism and a public relations firm that is using the old-fashion media control tactics. They are trying to get the media to repeat their message and are minimizing uncontrolled interactions.

My apologies to all my readers for this.

I hope to make it up to you by writing great analysis pieces during my flights home. I’m in the air for about 17 hours to get back to Toronto and this should give me a chance to finish some pieces.

This afternoon, I’m interviewing Dr. Ahmed Dewidar, Senior Education Advisor & Monitor, Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Egypt. This interview should be interesting and offer insight into how Canada is making a difference in education.

Good morning from Doha,

It’s 0900hrs local time (GMT+3) and I’m well into my second full day in Qatar.

Today’s agenda is as follows:

1000 (0200 EasternTime) – depart for conference at Ritz-Carlton
1230 (0430EST) – interview with Dr. Abdulla bin Ali Al-Thani, vice-president education of the Qatar Foundation and chairmen of the WISE conference.
1430 (0630EST)  – attending the session on Managing International Mobility
1600 (0800EST) – return to my hotel

The entire conference schedule for today is available on the WISE website:
http://www.wise-qatar.org/en/day-2

I will be visiting the College of the North Atlantic – Qatar tomorrow morning.

@aratisharma asks: anyone recording the presentations?f
Response: Yes, I’m told the panel discussions are recorded. All official media is being uploaded to the Press Room section of the WISE website: http://www.wise-qatar.org/en/newsroom I will keep an eye out for unofficial recordings

@davescrivener states: wow, its pretty business heavy and leans so the right w/ Fraser n’ MSF, what’s being discussed? Enjoying updates

Response: Dave, I see a balance at the conference and do not see an ideological problem. The conference has a stated goal of increasing private sector donation in education across the world. Higher education is a bit of the conference, but not the focus. Most of the Canadians here are academics and/or teachers.

The following list of Canadian delegates to the WISE 09 conference was provided to me. There are many familiar names for those of you who follow Canadian post-secondary education, and a lot of unfamiliar names as well.

You may, like me, find the number of people involved with Aboriginal/Inuit and continuing/distance education to be an pleasant surprise.

This is my first post from the World Innovation Summit for Education in Doha, Qatar.

As most of my readers are in Canada and the Northeast United States, much of my “live” blogging will be read hours after the events.

The time difference between Doha and the Eastern Time Zone is 8 hours. Most of the events I’m covering will occur while you are sleeping.

I’ll be filing one story each day for The Globe and Mail’s website. That will be the polished copy of the Canadian perspective of this conference.

The postings here will involve background information, interesting factoids, and commentary on the summit. Some of this information will be included in my daily filing for The Globe, some will not.

Feel free to post questions in the comments section, I’ll do my best to get the answers.