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!

Nashville Birthday Bash: Honky Tonks, Brunch, and Bourbon Steak!

On Our Way to Nashville

Here we are in the middle of July and it is hard to believe that a month ago we were in Nashville, TN for the 50 birthday celebration for Corrie. We had a great time. I meant to write this following the trip, but we were busy following the trip and did not get it done. We had a wonderful time in Nashville and plan to go back in the future. We went to so many great spots to listen to great music, drink, and of course we ate at some great spots too. This will be a few of the places we went but not an inclusive list.

Drinks at Assembly Food Hall

We were in Nashville from June 13 - 17. We packed in a lot during our time there. We would sometimes sleep late to about 9:30 or 10, but we were out the door and doing things in Nashville everyday we were there. We would not head back to take naps or breaks, but it was nonstop and a great time. Picture to the left was a spot we ended up a few different times called Assembly Food Hall. A variety of places to eat or get drink. Fun spot!

Group at Brunch

There were ten of us total on the trip although all ten were together I believe only two days together. Picture to the right was brunch at Adele's where we went Saturday morning on June 15. We all came away stuffed and happy. I want to go back there in the future for dinner. We spent that day going between drinking spots while the ladies went shopping. 

I am jumping around a bit, but on Thursday we spent the day on Broadway going around to the various bars. It was so fun with great bands at each and every stop. Some places would have multiple bands playing at the same time, but the way the bars were set up, you could only hear one when in the vicinity of that band. Most bands would take donations with a bucket or with a QR code to send money. We did both methods while we were going around Broadway listening where we would drop cash into a bands bucket or send Venmo through their QR code.

Dinner at Bourbon Steak

The highlight of the trip was the birthday dinner for Corrie at Bourbon Steak. We had reservations for ten and we had talked about doing a private dining room but ended up leaving it in the main dining room. When we arrived, we were surprised they took us to the private dining. It was incredible with the views, the food, and the company. The picture to the left, or the others in Flickr album, do not give it justice. We had our own wait staff that took good care of us. Javier was in charge of the wine and we had three bottles of wine through the night. It was a fantastic evening! 

To see all photos from our trip, you can browse them using the images below.

Fun memories to celebrate the birthday for Corrie. It was fun hanging out with everyone to celebrate big birthday weekend for Corrie. Carrie and I hope to go back to Nashville sometime soon.