Abstract: This paper is about the evolution of a teacher education program sponsored educational technology conference as it moved from a student-assisted conference to a completely student directed conference. Situated as part of a graduate-level educational technology course, we detail the evolution of the conference with a contextual history and discusses how the current structure of the student directed conference impacts students’ leadership skills, including developing brand identity, maintaining online presence, establishing equitable expectations, and engaging in practical event planning.We conclude the paper with faculty reflections that examine problems, solutions, and successes.