Help Me Lead!
You’ve described your ideal education technology
conference, and here it is.
Going through the Campus Technology
Conference post-event
evaluations last year was illuminating;
the response to our new
panel-presentation/networking format
was enthusiastic and attendance was
way up, reflecting approval of the
changes. Still, a compelling pattern
emerged: Attendees expressed a need
for stronger IT leadership guidance.
Campus IT (and related) administrators
told us they would be searching for a
“roadmap” to IT leadership in 2007-
2008 and beyond. Accordingly, we have
designed Campus Technology 2007
(Washington, DC, July 30-Aug. 2) to
meet that urgent need.
First off, all-new session and plenary
topics for 2007 are designed to address
the most pressing issues facing campus
technologists, IT administrators, and
their peers today; issues that directly
affect the ability to move an institution
toward a position of IT leadership. Our
panels and presenters will tackle such
issues as creating successful webbased
virtual collaboration environments;
building and furthering open knowledge
initiatives and campus/community wireless
network collaborations; managing
the threat of extreme security breaches;
and finessing funding for essential IT
projects (even when more “saleable”
projects threaten to usurp those funds).
They’ll look at the advent of gaming in
pedagogy (should you get behind it, or is
it a flash in the pan?); open source student
information systems; the growing
use of business intelligence and data
mining for competitive edge; how to take
your institution to the next level of distance
education; and much more.
But importantly, all of our conference
presenters will address these issues in
light of your own ability to move your
institution forward: the political obstacles
you may encounter, the career
challenges you may face, and the
opportunities you should not neglect to
embrace. In addition, special sessions
such as “Making the Transition: Diary of
a New CIO,” “Leading Change Through
Community Partnerships,” “Understanding
Your Critical Leadership Stages,”
and “Leading Community Source Initiatives”
are targeted directly at building
your personal career skills and improving
your professional insight—there’s
even a session dedicated to many of the
unique issues faced by women in IT.
To help steer you to the presentations
focused on your areas of interest, topic
clusters are broken down into the areas
of IT Leadership, Academic Technologies,
Campuswide Systems, Future
Vision for the Campus, and Campus
Forums (designed for free and informal
information exchange). Sessions are
marked with “strategic” or “tactical”
icons, to further define focus.
We are especially proud to present
our outstanding 2007 keynote, Ken
Klingenstein (director, Internet2 Middleware
and Security Initiative), who
will offer concrete guidance about precisely
what changes you will need to
make, in order to lead in a new internet
world. CT2007 attendees may also opt
for leadership-focused pre-conference
workshops; tours of the tech hubs at
the University of Maryland-College
Park; and myriad peer/presenter networking
opportunities.
Early bird registration is now open; our full program will
be available soon. See you in DC!
—Katherine Grayson, Editor-In-Chief
What have you seen and heard? Send to: [email protected].