Networking, Sessions, and Southern Charm: My EDUCAUSE 2025 Recap

I traveled to Nashville, TN for work to attend EDUCAUSE 2025. I made several new connections, caught up with old friends, and had many conversations with vendors. It was a great trip, though I was exhausted when I returned home on Thursday. Still, it felt good to be back at EDUCAUSE. I hadn’t attended the conference since 2012, when it was held in Denver, CO.

This year, a new feature called Braindates was introduced. These were small group discussions with peers from other campuses and vendors on specific topics. I participated in two Braindates, and on Thursday morning, I led a session focused on upskilling staff. I really enjoyed the format and would definitely do them again.

I flew out early Monday morning and returned late Thursday night. Each day was packed with sessions, meetings, and evening social events. I also had the chance to eat at some great spots. My first visit to Nashville was in June 2024 to celebrate my friend Corrie's birthday, and we had a fantastic time. It was fun to return for the conference and recognize many of the places we visited last year. I’m looking forward to going back again to explore more.

On Monday night, I attended a vendor-hosted event at Husk, a unique venue that appears to be a converted historic home. It was a great setting to connect with colleagues, enjoy some excellent drinks, and eat well. After the social, a few of us headed to Broadway to find a Chiefs bar and watch the game. After a long day of travel, I left at halftime and watched the second half from my hotel room.

While EDUCAUSE offered great sessions and networking opportunities, I did have a complaint about the conference app. It didn’t allow me to add sessions directly to my personal calendar, which made scheduling difficult. I had to manually input events, and with vendor meetings and colleague meetups, it was hard to keep track of everything. At other conferences, like ELive 2025, sessions could be added to my calendar seamlessly. I was double-booked on Tuesday and missed some sessions I had planned to attend. Wednesday and Thursday were smoother after I adjusted my schedule to allow more time between meetings.

Tuesday night, I had dinner at Jeff Ruby's with a small group. The food was excellent—my steak was cooked perfectly, and the sides were great. It was a fun evening filled with good conversation and information sharing.

On Wednesday night, I joined another small group for lively discussion hosted by a vendor. I connected with CIOs from Johnson County Community College, Nebraska Community College, UMass, and UNLV. It was a great venue and a night full of engaging conversations.

It had been a long time since I last attended EDUCAUSE, so it was great to be back and reconnect with both new and familiar faces. I’ll be encouraging staff to attend next year when the conference returns to Denver, Colorado for 2026.

Have a great rest of your Sunday and a wonderful week!

A Busy Week in Review from Dinner with Cousins, Meetings, Chiefs Football, Dinner, Tailgating, and Volleyball… What’s Next?

What a week! It was a busy week at work and at home. We went to Kansas City for dinner, I attended meetings downtown on Wednesday and Thursday, Kansas City Chiefs played Thursday night, Friday we met with family at Shirrons’, and then Saturday was Washburn football with Washburn volleyball in the evening. Busy and fun weekend…

Tuesday night Carrie and I traveled into Kansas City to meet up with some of my siblings and cousins. I know my sister, Betsy, has many more pictures, but I was able to take a few pictures of others at the dinner. We met at YaYa’s Euro Bistro in Kansas City. This was the first time for non-Kansas City cousins to attend. We had a fun time and it was great to see everyone. Catch up and hear stories. Our cousin, Mike, had reserved a private dining space for us which worked out great! I hope we are able to do this again in the future and maybe on a weekend.

On Wednesday, I attended meetings in downtown Topeka for the Kansas Board of Regents. Other CIO’s at the regent institutions were attending the meeting to be available for discussion and comment on funding from the state. Happy to report that the funding was approved. I attended to show support and show that Washburn University is involved and needs support. On Thursday, I went back to the Kansas Board of Regents full board meeting where the proposal was approved. Happy to report that Washburn was approved to get funding, so we will be working over the next few weeks to develop a plan for allocation of funds.

This was my first time attending a Kansas Board of Regents meeting and I found it very interesting. It was good to catch up with fellow CIO’s from other institutions. We went out to lunch on Wednesday following the meeting and made plans for Thursday on who would return and how we would proceed. I have been meeting with other CIO’s the past year and this was only our second time to meet in-person as our regular monthly meetings are on-line. It was good to see everyone and share stories over lunch.

Thursday night was Kansas City Chiefs football. We were invited to watch the game at our friend Chris’s house. It was our “lucky” place to watch last year, so he invited us back to watch the game. The Kansas City Chiefs did not look great to start the game, but came to live and we were able to win the game 27 - 24. The Chiefs are 2 - 0 to start the season, so sitting good so far. 

Friday night, Carrie and I went to her parents to have dinner and visit with friends from Arkansas. Nancy and Jack were up for a golf tournament Jack was playing in with Eddie. Such a fun couple! We at dinner and then sat around listening to stories, some of which we have heard a few times, but some new stories too. I love sitting around and hearing stories be told. I will see Nancy and Jack in early October when I am down in Helena, AR for King Biscuit Blues Festival. 

Saturday took us out to Washburn University for tailgating and football. It was a hot Saturday with the sun beating down for most of the first half. I saw a number of friends and it was good to catch up with them. I saw some friends we had not seen in a few years, so it was good to talk to them. One has their daughter attending Washburn, so it sounds like our friends will be out for more games in the future. 

Washburn football did not start off well and could never recover against University of Nebraska at Kearney. We lost the game 21 - 13, so that was disappointing to lose a game and to lose at home. We play at Missouri Western State University on September 24.

Saturday evening, Carrie, Greg, Erin, and I attended Washburn volleyball. We lost against Northwest Missouri State 3 - 1. We got behind to start 2 - 0, won the third set, and then could not get it going in the fourth set. A rare loss for Washburn volleyball.

A busy week also means that I did not eat too great. Football, tailgating, and seeing family and friends had me eating well over my points for the week. So, at my weigh-in Sunday morning, I gained two pounds over last week. Disappointed, but I am not surprised based on how I ate this past week. 

This week will likely not be much better with our first Royals game of the season on Friday and then Saturday a fancy dinner to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. I will continue to stay focused and hope to get back to working out too. That was the other part I did not get in this past week with everything happening was that I only worked out twice. So, a lot of room for improvement for this week. 

Posting this update mid-day on Sunday as I did not have a chance to write or think about a post during the week. Hoping to get back on target this next week. Have a great week and I hope the weather stays cool.