A few years ago, the Web Conference made a connection. We brought in a speaker, Dan Frommelt, who was first seen by committee members at the HighEdWebDev Conference. The following year, the connection with this broader conference strengthened when Mark Greenfield brought us his unique view of the Higher Ed Web experience. Both speakers were well received, based on conference evaluations, and we were implored to continue bringing views from other higher education institutions. Dan and Mark have been impressed by the Web developers at Penn State, and enjoy the conference to the point where they have happily returned to Happy Valley each year.
This year at the conference, you will see a noteworthy strengthening of the connection we have with the HighEdWebDev Conference. Not only will Dan and Mark be returning, we will have two new (to us) speakers from other higher education institutions who will present a session and/or a tutorial. Matt Winkel, Communications Officer for Web and New Media at The College of New Jersey will join us along with Steven Lewis, Web Manager and Information Security Coordinator at SUNY, Brockport. This fortunate circumstance brings a unique opportunity for all of the conference attendees to benefit from the diverse perspectives of individuals from other institutions.
To that end, we will be finishing our agenda a bit differently at the Web Conference this year. Instead of a regular closing keynote presentation, we will offer a town meeting with our colleagues from other higher education institutions, led by our own outstanding communicator and CIO, Kevin Morooney. The planning committee is thrilled by the prospect of allowing the conference attendees to drive the topics discussed by this diverse group!
Of course, this format will present some challenges and opportunities. We must trust that the attendees will be interested enough to either ask a question, or "write in" a question for us to pose to our panel. Based on the energy that I've seen at the end of the day in past years, I'm confident that this will not be a problem! We will also need to rearrange the setup of the room to facilitate the town meeting format. It should be very entertaining and has the potential to be incredibly fascinating.
P