“My Take” on EDUCAUSE: OSU’s Andy Vogel Shares His Experience
EDUCAUSE is not a tradeshow conference. The conference is for people in our vertical to unite and share. My plan at EDUCAUSE is to map out sessions, attend meetings and check out the show floor. I add these to a schedule on my calendar. My schedule never sticks.
My value increases with relationship currency. I would attend my scheduled sessions and then get caught up in conversation on using Qualtrics as a loan checkout system or hearing how a community college flipped its LMS. The blunt and candid discussions allow me to reexamine how I provide services on my campus.
Several impromptu discussions occurred in the Young Professionals Hub. Informal conversations ranged from CIOs, instructional designers, service desk managers, and AV techs. I loved being able to jump in and out of these conversations. This is partly why I did a poster session. The informal talks were helpful for me to understand my topic better, Is AV IT? Because, quite frankly, I do not have the answer. But the audiences did.
The vendor expo is light when compared to shows such as InfoComm. But that is because the “wow!” and shiny factors are the people. Do not get me wrong, seeing extensive projection mapping is always inspiring.
Networking events are superficial the objective is to collect business cards and build your LinkedIn party. The EDUCAUSE speaker, Priya Parker, states that gatherings should be purposeful. EDUCAUSE’s purpose is to improve our vertical by caring for each other. I had an impromptu lunch with Young Professional members, where we talked about ticketing systems, how our campuses duplicate IT services and the great resignation woes. I also spoke to a professional from Stanford University about how both of our mothers are currently fighting stage 4 cancer. Did we come up with solutions for our problems? Absolutely not. We did find ease knowing that neither of us had all the answers. The impromptu lunch provides an immersible peace of mind.
And that is “my take” on EDUCAUSE 2022.
EDUCAUSE is not a tradeshow conference. The conference is for people in our vertical to unite and share.
Connect with Andy Vogel…
Twitter: https://twitter.com/vogztron
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-vogel/
Portfolio: https://u.osu.edu/Vogel.234