CDW Brings the Full Campus Technology Conversation Together at EDUCAUSE 2026
Higher education technology rarely fits neatly into one box anymore. Classroom AV touches the network. Collaboration platforms depend on security. AI is finding its way into academic and administrative workflows. Esports crosses AV, IT, networking, and student engagement. Increasingly, the challenge is not simply choosing technology, but figuring out how all of those pieces work together across an institution.
That bigger picture was at the center of CDW’s presence at EDUCAUSE 2026. At Booth 533, CDW showcased solutions and services spanning security, AI, Microsoft and Apple environments, connected experiences, AV, and other parts of the campus technology ecosystem.
For Mark Smith, CDW’s Manager for Classroom Technologies and Esports, bringing those areas together has become an important part of how his team approaches higher education.
“We really have started to lean our team into innovation strategies around a full stack of solutions,” Smith said. “That’s where my team has come in to kind of be a glue across the board and trying to bring all the technologies together and make sure they function, live and breathe, to create a seamless campus.”
Looking Beyond the Next Technology Purchase
Smith said two conversations in particular kept coming up with higher education attendees at EDUCAUSE.
The first centered on curriculum and learning spaces, particularly how institutions can make technology investments today without limiting what they will be able to do tomorrow. For campus teams facing limited budgets and long replacement cycles, that means thinking about lifecycle, interoperability, and whether an investment can evolve with the institution.
“If I invest in a technology today, how does that set me up for future success, tied to retention, recruitment, and not doubling down on a capital investment that’s gonna hurt me later?” Smith said.
The second major conversation was security.
Smith described institutions as increasingly interested in creating “safe, secure, seamless campuses,” while also asking how technologies that may have traditionally lived in separate areas of IT can work together.
That convergence is reflected inside CDW as well. Smith explained that his classroom-focused team recently moved into an organization that also includes hybrid infrastructure, networking, security, architects, and solution specialists. Bringing those groups closer together creates more opportunities for collaboration as projects increasingly cross traditional technology boundaries.
A Booth Built Around the Broader Campus
That approach could be seen throughout CDW’s EDUCAUSE booth.
Rather than centering the booth around a single product category, CDW highlighted several areas of the campus technology environment. Displays focused on topics including AI transformation, CDW services, and connected experiences, while the team was prepared to discuss areas ranging from traditional AV and large-format displays to AR, VR, AI, security, networking, and data center technologies.
The breadth reflects an increasingly familiar reality for higher ed technology professionals: a classroom project may no longer be only an AV project. It may require conversations with networking, security, academic technology, infrastructure, and other campus stakeholders before the first piece of equipment is installed.
For CDW, the goal is to help connect those conversations rather than approach each as an isolated technology purchase.
Supporting Projects from Beginning to End
Another point CDW emphasized at EDUCAUSE was the ability to support institutions across the lifecycle of a project.
The company described its approach as extending from procurement and integration through implementation and ongoing support. That can become particularly important as institutions move toward larger standardized deployments where purchasing equipment is only one part of the work required to successfully roll technology out across campus.
One technology highlighted was DVLED, including a 110-inch all-in-one display. While display technologies continue to change, the larger conversation again came back to understanding the application, expected lifecycle, and how a solution fits into the rest of the campus environment.
Why Higher Education?
CDW operates across many industries, but Smith said higher education remains an important part of the company’s work because of the opportunity to help institutions solve problems.
“In higher education, there’s a lot of voices to hear,” Smith said. “There’s a lot of voices to pick from. But our team continues to say, how do we help solve problems? And so it makes it a natural fit.”
That problem-solving approach also depends on conversation, something Smith saw happening throughout EDUCAUSE 2026.
Asked what made this year’s conference successful, Smith pointed to the trust that allows attendees to walk into a booth and openly discuss the challenges they are facing on their campuses.
For higher ed AV and IT professionals, those conversations may ultimately be one of the most valuable parts of EDUCAUSE. The technology is there to see, but the bigger opportunity is comparing challenges, asking questions, and finding people who understand that campus technology does not operate in silos.
At CDW Booth 533, that meant looking beyond any one product and toward how AV, IT, networking, security, AI, infrastructure, and other technologies can come together to support the campus as a whole.
