Elvis has left the building…
Alliance ’14 is in the bag and what an event it was!
There was enough excitement at the conference to compete with the very best that Las Vegas had to offer – not least because Oracle chose to make the announcement about their new investment in products specific to the higher education industry at Alliance ’14!
This is a great time to be involved in the HEUG as we explore with each other, and with Oracle, what opportunities the deliverables from this investment might provide for our institutions and the HEUG organization.
These discussions, and many others, started at the annual PAG/TAG Summit which is held on the 2 days prior to Alliance. The volunteer members meet face-to-face with each other and with the Oracle strategists to discuss, debate, review, plan and prioritize system and technology issues, developments and enhancements and to set goals for the forthcoming year. They also meet with the HEUG Board to help inform the continuous improvement of our organization in its dual mission of education and advocacy. As members you can inform future discussions by contributing to the community listserves and by responding to PAG/TAG polls and surveys throughout the year. Get involved in 2014!
After the summit there is no rest for the PAG/TAG volunteers. They put a lot of effort into planning and running the conference tracks and the special sessions like the Community and Birds of a Feather sessions – these provide great networking opportunities – a chance to meet others in your community and share issues, solutions and best practice. The PAG/TAG also facilitate the sessions in their track, supporting the presenters that the PAG/TAG selected for the conference. I know that they would appreciate your feedback on these – which sessions ‘rocked’ this year? Make sure you complete the session and conference evaluations – these really do inform planning for future events.
In addition to the educational content of the conference there was some great entertainment! For those of us missing our pets whilst away from home there was the treat of the visit from the Guide Dogs of America. Then we had Shawn Achor for Tuesday’s keynote who had us all smiling at one another and plotting disruptive behavior in the airport gate queue on our journey home (or was that just me?) but certainly feeling happy ! Finally the conference was rounded off in true Vegas style with, amongst other entertainment, an amazing array of acrobatics from the iL CiRco performance, fantastic live music from Phat Strad – the all-girl rock electric string quartet, and my personal favorite FOCUS3D – the DJ and drummer duo!
I hope, like me, you have returned to work energized and enthusiastic (having recovered from the exhaustion and jet lag!) and will continue to use HEUG online to contribute to and learn from discussions with your colleagues across the globe over the coming weeks and months – Don’t let what happened in Vegas stay in Vegas… keep the conference spirit alive – Viva Las Vegas!