ELearning Baltics 2008 was a very successful event, with 180 participants. It marked a change in focus from the German region Mecklenburg-Vorpommern to the whole Baltic region, from the German-speaking community to an international one, and from eLearning for SMEs to eLearning at the workplace in general.

Through a scholarly conference, a user forum, and several workshops, eLBa 2009 will offer a framework for stimulating discussions from an interdisciplinary perspective. The user forum eLBa Business is geared towards decision makers in companies, employment agencies, and educational service providers. The keynotes will be delivered by Reger Larsen of Fronter AS (Norway) and Prof. Hanna Risku, Donau University Krems (Austria).

The international conference eLBA Science encourages interdisciplinary discussions about eLearning at the intersection of informatics, education, psychology, and design. Several workshops are offered, including three pre-conference workshops titled: Tools and Learning for Creativity and Innovation, Inclusive eLearning: Special Needs and Special Solutions, and the Baltic eLearning Markets.

The general focus of the conference will again be on workplace learning, covering all kinds of -œworkplaces-, such as schools, classrooms in colleges and vocational schools, university classrooms, and workplaces in organisations such as companies, institutions, corporations, etc. Elderly people and people with special needs require special workplaces and special workplace learning as well.

Along with the pre-conference workshops on 17 June, a B2B Matching Event is taking place. It serves to initialize contacts to potential trade- and project-partners from the entire Baltic region. The participators will have to book meeting dates in advance.