Chairing the annual Mountain Plains Adult Education Association Conference for 250 adult educators in Coeur d'Alene this past spring provided an opportunity for the author to offer a hands-on, conference planning experience to graduate students. Wanting to try something outside the typical classroom experience, the author organized a special topics course on conference planning which could provide experiential learning that not only espoused but also employed adult learning principles in an authentic context. Effectively applying principles of adult learning is the goal of adult educators which include: (1) the need to know; (2) a sense of autonomy; (3) the importance of life experiences and knowledge; (4) the readiness to learn; (5) the need for practical and applicable learning; and (6) internal motivation. This article describes how one instructor successfully operationalized these principles in a college course in which students planned and executed a professional conference for adult educators.