2020 Educause Conference Moves Entirely Online

The Educause annual conference will be online this year. The organization does professional development for IT leaders in higher education.

The event, taking place Oct. 27-29, will include 250 sessions in a mix of "live-streamed, 'simulive' and on-demand formats, according to Educause President John O'Brien. (A simulive event plays a pre-recorded session at a scheduled time, with the presenters in attendance to answer questions that come up during the presentation.) The conference will also feature virtual networking activities, mentoring opportunities and a "community day" on Oct. 23 to bring together groups to connect before the official event kicks off. Attendees will be able to do "live-chatting" with presenters, O'Brien said, and use LinkedIn connections to expand their professional networks outside of the conference.

To replace pre-conference workshops, Educause will host virtual "learning labs," in which participants will spend time with subject-matter experts and colleagues to learn more about specific topics of interest. "Experience summits" will explore themes, including diversity, equity and inclusion; teaching and learning; cybersecurity and privacy; and enterprise/analytics.

Educause is expecting to host 150 virtual exhibits, which will offer "deep-dives" with exhibitors, online product demonstrations and "digital swag," O'Brien said.

Conference registration by Sept. 16 is $495 for Educause members and $995 for non-members. The learning labs will have various prices, ranging up to $239 for members and $339 for non-members. The experience summits will be $195 for members registered for the whole conference and $395 for nonmembers registered for the full event.

Learn more at the Educause conference website.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured