I recently went to my first higher ed technology conference, the 2019 Online Learning Consortium (OLC) Accelerate conference which was held in Orlando, FL. It was my first national conference in several years, so I was excited in general to get back but this was also an opportunity for me to see how something more directly connected to my current work felt. I was not disappointed.

The conference was a decent size, with over 1,000 people on site (and more attending virtually, more on that later). It had people from all over the country and from all aspects of digital education.

Here are a few of my major takeaways:

Parity for All (Almost)

A big difference with this event than prior student affairs conferences I’ve been to (ACPA from 2013-15) is that there was a good mixture of those who worked on campuses and with them. It wasn’t just the vendors, it was those who were interested in connecting with other professionals from the vast ecosystem of digital education. I was one of those people. Our programs utilize a deep and diverse stack of tools to augment our student experience so it was great to be able to talk with folks from our current partners as well as meet with those from organizations we’re considering working with. I even got to see some of my campus based colleagues. Higher education is made up of partnerships with outside organizations in pretty much every functional area. Digital education programs have some of their own unique aspects in this regard, but we also touch every aspect of student support as well. The only thing that bummed me out was that OLC still does differentiate registration price between campus based professionals and those with companies. I’m looking forward to going to SXSW EDU next year which is one flat rate for all registrants, which is refreshing.

Sponsor/Vendor Presence

So following up on my prior point, there was a ubiquitous presence of sponsors and vendor set up at the conference looking to make connections and build their business. There was a lot of interesting tools and organizations to check out, and there was a deep integration of sponsors into socials, programming, and different raffles incentivizing engagement. I feel like higher ed can be a little resistant to stuff like this, but OLC feels like it thrives on making meaningful partnerships with these organizations that partner with campuses. Seeing that this was possible in this way reframed this for me. It really helped to have this funding since the whole conference experience benefitted. There were fun social events put on by vendors, awesome raffle prizes, and even monitors provided for their “discovery sessions” (basically poster sessions but with your computer) so that the audience could more easily view the content.

Live-streaming!

Something else that was refreshingly ubiquitous at this conference that I haven’t seen as much myself was the proliferation of live-streaming for sessions. I know more and more “virtual tickets” for conferences are popping up, but the way it was done for this conference was having people volunteer to be Session Chairs for each live-streamed presentation. They were able to manage the chat and relay questions live to the presenter(s). I imagine this is becoming more common, but seeing it firsthand was new for me, and I appreciated how they integrated this in for sessions and as a meaningful volunteering opportunity.

Overall Relaxed Vibe

As one might expect with a technology conference, this event had a laid back style and flow. There was a lot of different stuff going on at once and people tended to show up in more casual dress. They also served snacks and drinks throughout the time of the conference, which was a nice touch. Since it was held at a hotel near the Disney parks, they utilized those as an evening option for attendees to have fun and socialize after full days of educational content. I felt very at home with this overall experience, which I hadn’t really encountered at any conference before.

I’m very grateful I had the chance to attend this conference. I was also able to present a few discovery sessions in addition to the presentations I attended. I got a lot of helpful context and information to add to my ongoing development in this space. I look forward to hopefully attending again next year as I work to make OLC my new professional home!