HFDcon 2024

The future is now: HFD has been supporting the digital transformation process at universities for 10 years now. We think it’s a good time to look back on what we have achieved together, explore digital horizons and celebrate change.

To mark the anniversary of Hochschulforum Digitalisierung, we are bringing the network meeting back to Berlin this year and inviting you to the Stadtbad Oderberger. More than almost any other venue, this special location stands for dynamic adaptability on a historical foundation – and thus offers the ideal setting for looking at the university landscape together and developing future scenarios together.

Originally designed as a “public swimming pool”, the now listed municipal baths are unique in that they are both an indoor swimming pool and a venue for events. But don’t worry, the HFD won’t go down the drain. For our deep dive into digital education, a lifting floor is raised using hydraulic technology so that we can keep our feet dry.

We want to network knowledge and make good practices visible, but also learn together from worst experiences and thus advance university teaching from everyday practice with vision.

At HFDcon 2024, you can expect a participatory program that is largely designed by the participants themselves:

• Diverse workshops
• Barcamps
• Space for personal exchange
• Good coffee
• Informal finale in the evening
• and much more

Would you like to help shape the content of the program and the evening event at this year’s HFDcon? If so, we look forward to receiving your submissions to the corresponding calls– starting June 7 and up to and including July 21 .

As always, HFDcon will include thematic workshops focusing on digital teaching and digital support. We cordially invite you to actively participate with your own workshops (90 min.)!

Do you specifically use artificial intelligence or machine learning in your courses? Does your university reach new target groups through blended learning scenarios? Are the support facilities at your university particularly successful in helping teachers with media didactics? In short: Do you implement innovative teaching concepts? Then we are curious about your experiences and look forward to receiving your contributions up to and including July 21, 2024! Students are also welcome to present their experiences and projects. Please fill out the following form:

Would you like to exchange ideas with like-minded people in an uncomplicated and direct way? Do you have a project idea that you would like to test in the community before implementing it? Our open barcamp offers you the opportunity to present your own experiences from projects, teaching or university work, to discuss them or to develop them further together with the HFD community.

Each Barcamp session lasts around 90 minutes and can be freely organized. No prior submission is required – you can announce your session spontaneously on the day of the event. The community then decides which sessions will take place in a grassroots democratic manner according to the bottom-up principle on site in the Barcamp pitch.

Do you still remember your worst teaching nightmare? What bizarre technical glitches have ever turned a digital learning experience into a disaster for you as a student? Or have you experienced that a promising didactic idea completely flopped during implementation? We would like to invite you to share experiences of this kind with like-minded people at HFDcon and look forward to your submission to the Fail Night!

Let us prove that it’s not just worth talking about best practices: In a short, humorous contribution, you have 10 minutes to present your worst fail in the most entertaining way possible – and get the audience involved! The Fail Night will take place as part of our evening event following the daytime program. You can submit your worst experience using this form up to and including 21.07.2024:

To celebrate our 10th anniversary, we would like to bring HFDcon to a festive and informal close with you in the evening at the Stadtbad Oderberger. In addition to plenty of space for exchange and networking as well as snacks, a special highlight awaits you : The Fail Night!

After focusing on good practices and successful strategies during the day, we also gain something positive and inspiring from failures and mistakes on Fail Night. In short, humorous presentations, various stories are told about when projects didn’t work out, unexpected problems arose or the idea was simply not realized. We are all familiar with such experiences and sharing them reminds us that every mistake offers an opportunity for innovation and new perspectives.

Registration for HFDcon 2024 will open on August 7.

We look forward to welcoming you to the Stadtbad Oderberger on November 13, 2024!

And for all those who can’t wait, you can take a 3D tour of the Stadtbad Oderberger here.

Would you like to find out more about HFDcon itself? You can find basic information about our network meeting here.