I’ve just come back from HighEdWebDev 2006, a conference for higher education web professionals held in Rochester, NY. At risk of overstating the experience, I’d say it was the best conference I have attended in my admittedly short career. From the logistical organization, to the quality of the presentations and workshops, to the outings at night, and of course all the mingling and “networking”, all in all it was a top class conference.

With the conference goodies, they included a standard 8.5 x 11” notebook to take notes, and by the end of the 4 days mine was almost completely used up. I’ll be compiling my notes into something more cohesive and organized in the coming weeks, look for this online. But while the experience is still fresh in my mind, I figured I better get down my initial thoughts and impressions.

Update: Photos from HighEdWebDev2006 | Presentation Materials / Handouts

The Added Touch of Deluxe Amenities

There’s something to be said for the effect of your surrounding environment in influencing your attitude and perceptions. Walking into the Hyatt, you feel like a professional. I’m not usually one to want to be wearing my formal clothes (even if formal for me is “business casual”), but being in a classy place like the Hyatt makes you want to be at your best and look the part. A good start to feeling like you’re a professional.

Starting if Off Right – Orientation, Food & Drinks

One of the first official events of the conference was an orientation and then dinner on Sunday night. Billed as a “Welcome Reception”, there was plenty of food (the cocktail shrimp was in particular demand), a complimentary drink, and the first real opportunity to meet other conference attendees.

Opening Advice from a Googlyte

I don’t know if that’s a word, and if it isn’t, I’m claiming this as the first place you heard it. Our guest Googlyte was Todd Markelz, Assistant Webmaster at Google, and former web administrator for Cornell University. His talk was in many ways a tribute to our profession as web professionals in higher education. As someone who used to work in the field, he reflected on what he missed about working in higher ed and his sentiments were a good reminder to appreciate the things we sometimes take for granted.

The Marathon

And at the end of the opening keynote, thus began the marathon that was session after session of information. If people’s brains could fume smoke at information overload, the fire alarms in this place would’ve gone off – and I say this in the best possible sense. I packed my little brain with loads of information on topics including:

• video production for the web
• web accessibility
• web standards
• creating online communities
• card sorting
• developing tools for assessing the usability of HR websites
• assessing the usability of online admissions
• incremental redesign
• how to implement simple polling and survey tools
• building a framework to administer workflows
• conceptualizing and building a mentor-mentee matching system
• the future of the web and the implications for web developers
• understanding “Fair Use”

The Insights

And that was just the formal sessions I attended. Before and after and in bewteen each session, there were plenty of opportunities to meet other like-minded web professionals – people who share similar frustrations, challenges, goals and ambitions. These were the times to talk about things like:

• the organizational structure of different web teams across other institutions
• the centralized support (or lack thereof) and the associated responsibilities of different web teams
• development environments / frameworks (i.e. being convinced more and more that we should really look into Ruby on Rails)
• strategies for implementing campus-wide initiatives
• strategies for inspiring change in institutions that move like a snail on a turtle on an elephant’s back

Work, Life and Everything In Between

Unlike any other conference I’ve attended, I got to meet some really cool and interesting people. It’s rare that you can meet someone for the first time and share so many common values, but this was the case at HighEdWebDev and I think it was largely an effect of the type of people that get drawn into (and hopefully stay in) our profession.

Meeting these cool and interesting people happened everywhere including:

• the “open night” dinner on Monday (I opted for the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, had some ribs, chicken, 4 sampler beers and some good conversation)
• drinks up in the Presidential Suite at the top of the Hyatt (drinking some Labatt’s, talking about everything from CMS to American and Canadian politics, to TV shows, to life in Vancouver)
• all the meals in between
• a night outing at the Rochester Museum and Science Center (with two rides on a school bus, an open bar, and ticket to a show at the Planetarium…Laser Zeppelin would’ve been cool, but the constellation show was just as good)
• more drinks in the Presidential Suite (again featuring Labatt’s Blue…go figure, I drank more Labatt’s in New York than I ever have in Canada)

Take all of that in, and you get a lot of laughs, good times, and new friends.

Hopefully, It’s Just the Beginning

I’ve come back with a renewed optimism and excitement for the work I do. I think as much as anything else, the conference reaffirmed for me that there is a lot of room for growth.

With the new contacts you make with people across the continent at other universities, there are opportunities to learn from each other and venture into new initiatives here at home. Who knows, maybe these new ventures will lead to something worth presenting next year.

And getting back to the good people you meet at HighEdWebDev, I can look forward to hopefully having dinner and drinks with them again sometime down the road, maybe at HighEdWebDev 2007.