This week I attended the Chicago Area Regional HEUG (CARHEUG) 2012 Regional Conference at the Northern Illinois University Conference Center in Naperville, IL. This is one of the six regional conferences HEUG will offer in the US this year. The numbers associated with this conference -- 170 participants from 33 institutions across 14 states -- show how popular our regional conferences have become. The conference team did a fantastic job building a packed agenda with 57 sessions. The venue was perfect for a conference this size.
If you have not yet taken advantage of one of our regional events, I recommend them highly. They are great opportunities to meet your peers, have detailed discussions with vendors, and try out presentation ideas in advance of the 'big show' Alliance conference. Also, if you have co-workers who are unable to attend Alliance because of time or budget constraints, these conferences provide a low-cost opportunity closer to home.
Many thanks to all of the vendors who supported the conference, the conference team who put together all of the programming, and the Northern Illinois University Conference Center for hosting.