“To advance Web professionals, technologies and standards in higher education.”

As a group with its roots in New York, we’ve been holding conferences for 10 years. As we’ve grown, one item that has been added to the regular conference agenda is “Professional Development.” Under this title, such general topics as Giving Effective Presentations, Making the Case for Resources, Negotiation, Strategic Planning, Project Management and Student Employment have been presented in the past or will be presented this year.

Some might reasonably ask, “Why?”

It comes back to our mission. Part of that is to advance you, as a Web professional. Between an increase in responsibilities at work and ever-present challenges on the home front, going back to school for a formal degree isn’t always an option. But if you can, in one stop, meet new people that are facing the same challenges in similar jobs, bring back tips to help you at your current job, and learn new skills to help you at your next job, I think we all win.

We need more leaders in higher education who have come from Web backgrounds, who understand the medium and help colleges and universities meet the “perfect storm” of challenges that threaten their that existence. (This was recently discussed at Penn State’s Web Conference, and Mark Greenfield also addressed this at a past HighEdWeb conference.)

So I hope you, like me, aspire for that next step in your career, and that we’ll see you in some professional development sessions at HighEdWeb 2009.

Steve Lewis (@stebert) is the president of the Higher Education Web Professionals Association, sits on both the conference and program committees for the #heweb09 conference,  and is Web manager/information security coordinator for The College at Brockport.

A view of attendees -- and their sea of glowing laptops -- in a #heweb08 general conference session.

We’re Web pros, and no matter in what part of the profession we work — from marketing to programming and everything in-between — we live and breathe technology, requiring that we be connected wherever we go.  This is never more apparent than at HighEdWeb, where you can always find a sea of the latest laptops, PDAs and cool devices galore.  With this in mind, we’re commmitted to providing a strong infrastructure at the conference venue: Hilton bandwidth will be increased from 10 Mbps to 100 Mbps just for #heweb09, ensuring that when you come to HighEdWeb 2009: Open. Connected., connections of ALL sorts are guaranteed.

So grab your portable electronic device of choice and  register today to join us October 4-7 in Milwaukee, WI, for HighEdWeb 2009: Open. Connected.

Colleen Brennan-Barry

#heweb09 co-chair Dan Frommelt at HighEdWeb 2008, accompanied by the infamous & awesome #heweb backchannel. (photo by opacity)

• Follow @HighEdWeb on Twitter, and use the tag #heweb09 for conference-related Tweets.
• Join the conference’s online community: http://highedweb2009.ning.com.
• Add your @name to the Twitter roll call of #heweb09 attendees.

Colleen Brennan-Barry

Web pros have a meeting of the minds during the annual HighEdWeb poster session.

OK, so “Open. Connected.” is the theme of #heweb09, and this picture is technically from 2008.  But hey, one of the perennially great things about HighEdWeb is the constant opportunity to meet and share knowledge with other higher ed Web pros. The conference workshops, presentations, keynotes and events are amazing, but so too are the informal conversations that crop up all week long at meals,  in the halls,  at social events — heck, even in the elevators and bathrooms!  It’s this chance to connect with colleagues and peers that helps to make HighEdWeb one of the most valuable professional development opportunities of the year. 

So who will you connect at #heweb09? Join us in October to find out!

Colleen Brennan-Barry

Web Heroes? You decide.

You might be wondering what in the world is happening in this photo — we know we would be. Well, HighEdWeb pros work hard, and then they play hard, too. After a great, long day of workshops, networking, and presentations, it’s time to kick back and let off some steam. At #heweb08, we let out our inner heroes in a fierce Guitar Hero party and competition. There was some wackiness (purple fright wigs? Really?) and laughter, and a really good time for all. (Oh, and the guy on the right in the green striped shirt? Yup, he was the winning Guitar Hero to rule them all.)

So what wacky hijinks will we get up to at #heweb09? Join us in October to find out!

Colleen Brennan-Barry

One of our beloved #heweb traditions is the presentation of the Coveted Red Stapler Awards™ to the Best in Track presenters.  Here we have our HighEdWeb 2008 award winners, posing for a dignified and somber group photo with their shiny new trophies.  Who will win this year’s most desired cool office supply in recognition of truly awesome #heweb09 presentations? Join us in October to find out! 

Colleen Brennan-Barry

• Jeffrey Veen
• Kyle Ford

-Sara

In this first installment, we are presenting the 5 sessions that won “best of” for each track:

APS8: Hello, Is Anyone Out There? Using Web Analytics to Understand Your Audience (transcript)

MMP8: Getting Them to the Table, and Keeping Them There: Campus Web Redesigns (transcript)

SAC1: It Isn’t About the Feature Set: Selecting a Web Content Management System that Works for You (transcript)

TPR3: Cross-Site Scripting: What is it, and how can you protect your site from becoming a victim? (transcript)

UAD5: The Accessible Video Interface (transcript)

Stay tuned for more

Stay tuned for more of what the HighEdWeb conference has to offer. There are several ways to find new podcasts as they become available:

• Recommended: Subscribe to the feed for this blog. Links to the audio will be posted here as they become available.
• Or, sign up in iTunes.
• “Download the podcast” links will also be added to the details sections in the schedule.

A few more details

The background music for the intro/outro was sampled with permission from the song “Underground” by The Raining, a local Portland, OR band. And finally, a big thanks to all of the presenters who agreed to let us distribute their sessions. We know that a lot of work and preparation goes into each presentation and it is great to be able to share them in this way.

We launched the intial, basic set of “best of track” podcasts within a week of the conference in order to meet growing attendee demand; however, this rollout proved to be premature, so we have removed the podcasts temporarily. We will re-post the optimized, finished files in the coming weeks.

Thanks for your patience, and please check back for updates on this process.