When I arrived in Washington, D.C. to attend the first APSAConference on Teaching and Learning, I did not know what to expect.Although I have been a regular participant in the APSA AnnualMeeting and attended many workshops on teaching and curriculardevelopment, this didn't seem to be the same. All of my contactswith the program committee and APSA had seemed more informal,specific, and intense. They had clear expectations of this smallgroup of 40. Unlike the Annual Meeting, we would not be presentingour research for 15 minutes, answering questions from the audience,responding to the discussants' comments, and then spend theremainder of the conference as a passive observer. At the plenarysession the expectations were made more explicit. We would spendmore time in our groups of 10 or 15 throughout the weekend—but wewould still only have approximately 15 minutes to formally presentour work. Our curiosity was palpable, how would a group of academicsspend the remainder of our time?