It was wonderful to host and connect with our customers at PeopleConnect 2019. If you joined us in Austin, thank you! If you missed the conference, we had a great three days with 250 higher education peers who came together to learn, network, and share new and exciting opportunities to advance the missions of research, teaching, and service. They made our annual customer event a huge success!
What our customers said about PeopleConnect 2019
Most customers rated our sessions 4.6 out of 5 stars, and 95.8% of attendees enjoyed the overall content presented on stage and within sessions.
We heard some notable quotes from customers and partners during the conference:
- “Awesome event and by far the best I have attended in the last four years!”
- “Very informative conference this year, I liked presentations that had a lot of substance.”
- “It is clear you folks have worked hard to get your vision and follow through aligned.”
- “I am glad I came here and learned so much. Will go back and ensure we buy more from the HigherEd Wheel.”
- “It will be great to see your commitment come through on your promise.”
- “You have a great team and looking forward to your execution strategy and commitment!”
ScholarLab and Birds of a Feather Success
Birds of a Feather, a favorite of PeopleConnect attendees, was a time for over 125 higher education professionals to connect on specific topics regarding their institutions. During this valuable time of conversation and connection, attendees walked away with more insight into using PeopleAdmin products and ways to increase productivity.
In our ScholarLab sessions, we held 112 sessions over three days, which translated to 56 hours of face-to-face training. It was incredible to connect and hear about all the ways PeopleAdmin adds value to our customer’s day-to-day life.
From the Stage
In the first keynote presentation, Dr. Bryan Alexander shared his experience and predictions on how technology trends will impact higher education. He discussed emerging technologies and how they intersect with post-secondary education, including artificial intelligence, blockchain, virtual/augmented/mixed reality, and macro-level impacts likely to occur in the wake of the rising automation revolution. In our second keynote, Dr. David A. Thomas, president of Morehouse College, shared the soul of his institution and how the pure intention of a place drives his students, faculty, and staff to success. He offered a fresh perspective and insight into leadership and strategy for the 21st century while encouraging us to find the identity of our institution and align with that mission.
Rishi Rana, General Manager of Higher Education, shared his vision to transform and reinvent higher education. He showcased the infamous HigherEd Platform wheel. While, David Gibson, Senior Higher Education Strategy Leader at Microsoft and Ed Venit, Managing Director at EAB discussed their partnership with PeopleAdmin. Their collaboration is solution-oriented with the needs of institutions always at the forefront. Marcy Daniel, Chief Product Officer at PowerSchool and Tricia Sharpton, Director of Product Management for Higher Education – gave us insight into what’s to come for PeopleAdmin in 2019 and beyond, including more information the HigherEd Product wheel and what it brings to customers.
Concurrent Session Take-A-Aways
We also held over a dozen sessions on new and upgraded products, HR best practices, and heard from several customers on how PeopleAdmin products work for them. Each session focused specifically on bringing the most value to our customers.
The HR Core sessions were an opportunity to discover best practices and actionable data analysis. Attendees heard from some of the brightest minds in higher education at Gonzaga University, Portland State University, Des Moines Area Community College, and Ohio Northern University on how they can continuously support recruiting, hiring, assessing, and retaining their talent pool.
PeopleAdmin is eager to launch Faculty Information System this summer. In each of these sessions focused on all things faculty, attendees learned about innovative ways to simplify faculty recruiting, hiring, promotion & tenure, and engagement. It was a great opportunity to see a sneak peek of what’s to come with the latest product development at PeopleAdmin and hear from a customer at the University of Alabama at Birmingham about their exposure to our brand-new product!
Our Ecosystem sessions were all about PeopleAdmin Connector (PACx) and the importance of integration, data flow, and analytics when it comes to solving problems due to lack of interoperability and data exchange between disparate higher education solutions. In these sessions, experts in the product, customers from State University of New York System, University of Kentucky and Clovis Community College, and partners SkillSurvey and Spark Hire showcased the advantage of interoperability on the HigherEd Platform.
Customer Celebration and Honor Roll
Our customers bring so much to the table in empowering what we do, so we were thrilled to honor three customers during PeopleConnect for their dedication.
- Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Award to the University of Alabama at Birmingham Faculty Affairs Team
- Academic Innovation Award to Cleveland Community College Human Resources Team
- HR Innovation Award to LSU Health New Orleans Human Resources team
The customer celebration was a blast with the Austin local Matchmaker Band. We felt honored to celebrate our customers. Ultimately, we hope customers and partners returned to their institution with ideas and inspiration for improvement and we encourage them to turn what they learned into action! Stay tuned for more information on PeopleConnect 2020!
