Thank you, Laurie Paker!

That was a great introduction, I really enjoyed it.

End quote!

[Laughing.]

Whoo!!

Good afternoon, everyone.

Like Laurie said, my name is Tom Wojciechowski.

My pronouns are he and him.

And I am the president of

the higher education web professional's association.

[Applause.]

Thank you.

Please join me in thanking Glenn Donaldson,

the Chair of the Conference,

and all the other amazing people

who help put on this conference for us.

Thanks, guys!

[Applause.]

The HighEd Web Association would also like

to acknowledge that we are here on the traditional

lands of the Potawatomi and Monamani peoples.

[Applause.]

So, the association is more than the annual conference.

A lot of you know that.

We are a volunteer driven, run year round

by dedicated professionals who coordinate the annual conference,

host regional events, publish link online journals, staff

various association committees, and also work

to support and maintain the Higher Education in

Web Professionals Association's nonprofit mission and status.

Our community is HighEd Web.

I would personally like to thank the Board of Directors.

This group of dedicated volunteers meets monthly

and works continuously to advance HighEd Web's mission.

The directors oversee our financial and legal obligations,

do regular strategic planning, and lead

the work in implementing that planning.

They do all this as volunteers.

In fact, 99.99% of everyone you meet

who works at the association is a volunteer.

The other 0.01% is our Operations Director.

[Applause.]

That's Sara, I'm not sure if anyone knows Sara, but, you know.

While she is not a volunteer,

we would be a lesser association

without her amazing work and outstanding dedication.

The association, and more specifically, our committees

could not operate as well as they do without her.

[Applause.]

Thank you, Sara.

Speaking of our committees, we have eleven of them.

chaired by dedicated people from all over the country.

All of those committees have members

that help move their changes forward.

Again, these are all volunteers, who all have day jobs,

but believe in what we are doing,

and want to give back to our community.

Then we have all the good people

who volunteer at the conference, write articles for Link,

serve on ADHOC committees and hold other various jobs.

All in all last year, we had 180 wonderful people volunteer

their time and talents to the association.

So, what I am trying to show,

besides my obvious excellence at copying

and pasting the legal people.

is that the association is us.

It is all of us.

Everyone here and everyone who wasn't able

to join us today, we exist because of our community,

our sense of belonging, and our overwhelming kinship.

I realize that for some first-time attendees that

might come off as a bit much

or strong, a little much.

To a lot of us, this is a once of year homecoming.

Where you can connect in person, with people

you have been talking to

and working with virtually all year.

If anyone here is interested in learning more about

how they can get involved with the association,

Please find any of the board members, just as you saw.

We are more than happy to talk to you.

You can also go to the Get Involved page

on our website to learn more.

As your president, I get the pleasure of updating you

about some of the work we have been doing

as an organization over the past year.

I will start by telling you who we are,

and some of what we do.

HighEd Web at its core is about growth.

We accomplish this by helping

our members share knowledge with one another.

This leads us to being able

to succeed in our professional goals.

The philosophy is the basis of our mission statement,

which I would like to read to you now.

HighEdWeb educates digital professionals who

work at higher education institutions.

We provide educational materials and opportunities

that develop knowledge, skills, and abilities.

As a result, we advance higher education.

[Applause.]

Thank you.

So, change is an important part of growth.

You can't have growth without changing a little bit.

This is our fourth time in Milwaukee. Old website.

[Laughing.]

This seems like a perfect opportunity to look back

and see how we have grown over the years.

Speaking of change, anyone notice that

flash plugin kind of broken right there.

You remember making sites in flash?

We are all happy we don't do that anymore, right?

I asked around about how we've changed

as an organization since then.

Our membership, you know, all the way back

in the ancient times of 2015, was around 700 people.

As of right now, we have approximately 1850 people.

A huge, increase, right?

We had members prior to 2015,

but an exact count was really hard

to calculate because of the records.

I like to think it might have

something to do with this.

But I was told no, records are fine.

But then I also, it couldn't go without this joke,

I really love Obi-Wan.

But I felt there might have been a better one.

So, you know, I found that one, too.

Like how could our records not be complete?

[Laughter.]

Completely inconceivable.

Some of the ways that HighED Web has grown since 2012

are we now offer free membership.

With recent changes in our membership classes,

we now offer free general membership

available to anyone who is employed

by an institution of higher education who wants one.

We all wanted a way to

stay in touch in between events,

as a result, we created a free member

slack workspace for us to do that.

Judging by the fact that they

had to mute several channels,

everyone seems to have found slack and is enjoying it,

so I am that is working out for everybody.

The average height of the board

has increased by 12 inches, no, that is not right.

[Laughter.]

So, while that's a joke, a terrible dad joke,

I am a dad; we are fully staffed at 12 members.

So, last year and this year is one of the few times

we have been staffed and that really helps

us do a lot of things

we weren't able to do before.

We now have an Operations Director.

Sara.

She is our first employee, and hopefully not our last.

That is where we are trying to go,

as she helps with all things we want to do.

Couches in the sponsor exhibits, I have seen

people taking advantage of them.

It seems like a silly little thing

but it actually adds a whole lot.

It gives another space for people

to sit down and relax and connect with sponsors.

Pronoun stickers for attendees to use to allow

themselves, so that way they can let

others know what their preferred pronouns are.

Name badge programs. I love this one.

I mean, I'm a long time attendee,

and I remember the old days of you would have,

I don't have it on, but you would have

your badge, and you would have your program,

and they were two separate things.

Having them all in one has been fantastic,

and I really like that one a lot.

That jersey is pretty sweet, too.

[Laughter.]

We are always exploring potential partnerships and relationships with others,

with organizations that align with our mission.

We couldn't be happier with our current partner, WP Campus.

[Applause.]

I think some of you have heard of it,

I am not sure.

Another way the association has grown

is our commitment to transparency.

One of the ways we accomplish this is by sharing

our board meeting minutes on our membership portal.

You want to know what the board is doing,

or what we are spending all that time working on?

Log in to your membership portal and check

out the meeting minutes.

We created a job board,

and this is another example of growth and transparency.

Something we heard from a lot of folks,

in between conferences is that

they are looking for a place to share

a job that might not be reaching the audience they want it to.

A lot of times we want to reach the people in this room,

and it is hard to do that, so,

that is why we created this job board.

We also post all of our volunteer positions to this.

So, to help with that transparency,

all the jobs that go on within the association

will be posted on this job board,

and anyone who is a member has an opportunity to apply.

A question we get asked a lot as a board,

and as an association, is what do we do

with all the money we generate?

I can tell you from personal experience,

it does not go to private jets and limos.

Trust me.

This chart, which is kind of big,

and intimidating, does a wonderful job of showing

where all of our dollars are spent.

I'm not sure if you can make it out,

but the giant orangish one at the bottom right is bacon.

That is what we spend on food and beverage.

So that is percentage.

But, in 2018, we spent more than $260,000 dollars

on food and beverage at the annual conference.

And as someone said, that is a lot of bacon,

and it is not free.

Membership.

Everyone here is the reason HighED Web exists.

We are nothing without our wonderful community.

A benefit of attending the annual conference,

besides being here in person, is that everyone

here is automatically a premium member.

So, what that means is that you have

full access to all the general membership benefits

and any expanded content we offer.

So, the expanded content includes the recordings

of all the wonderful sessions that you are attending today.

We are testing out live streaming this year.

I don't know if a lot of people knew that.

We are live streaming a few sessions,

which is a great big step for us.

Those videos, along with all of our recordings,

Including our best in track red stapler presentations,

will be available on our membership portal post conference.

And we are really hoping to be able to

stream all of our sessions next year or the year after.

So, that is a great way if you can't make it,

you are going to be able to still interact with us.

One of the reasons, excuse me, one request

we have gotten over the year is if we offer

any kind of group membership or anything like that.

So, I am very happy to announce is that

this year we are offering institutional memberships.

This is a great way for others at your institutions to enjoy

the content that you were able to get.

So, if you think someone in your institution

would be interested in this, you can get more information here.

What this would allow is that anybody who is at your university

that shares your domain name can access

all the videos, all the content you can.

It is a great way to share with those people.

So, everyone knows about the annual conference,

hopefully, we are all here.

But as I have said, we are more than

just the annual conference.

We offer academies, content UX, leadership and technical.

These take place the Saturday and Sunday

before the start of the conference,

and they are a great way for you to take

a deeper dive into one of these important areas.

Thank you Academy Chairs,

and the academy committee that make this happen.

Clap for them real quick, they do a ton of work.

[Applause]

LINK.

Hopefully you are all aware of LINK and you have read

the wonderful articles.

It is the official publication of the HighED Web Association.

The staff writes some amazing articles

and it is a great way to check out

what is going on with HighED Web.

Thank you all for all the work you do with that.

[Applause.]

The HighED Web community is active throughout the year.

One way to stay connected is through HighED Web regional meetups.

These smaller 2-3 hour events, hosted at a university

or college, provide ongoing networking and education

opportunities at a minimal cost.

If you are interested in hosting a meetup,

we would love to talk to you about it.

We are always looking for people who want to host one.

If you want to bring HighED Web

to your town or school, this is

a great way for you to do that

and we want to talk to you about that.

We also have a lot of committees

that help the association advance higher education throughout the year.

These are eleven permanent committees.

These exist all the time.

That is a lot of people, you saw all the legos.

And I know it can get

confusing to know what everyone does

and what everyone's responsibility is.

So, to help alleviate a lot of that confusion,

we developed a charter for each committee.

You can now quickly learn the purpose,

authority, current members, and responsibility of any committee

from our website.

This was another big point of transparency that we wanted to do,

as people didn't know what all of these committees did,

we are trying to help explain so everyone knows

what is going on.

All of our committees are very active throughout the year.

You want to, like our models, they are nice, right?

Thank you, models!

[Applause.]

You may have noticed the shirts you got this year,

there is no printing on the front and

they also come in different styles and cuts.

This is a direct result of one of our committees,

the Safety and Inclusion Committee.

Thank you for your work on this,

by getting this initiative passed for the conference.

[Applause.]

Another important function of the Safety and Inclusion Committee

is maintaining our Code of Conduct.

This is an important document that guides

all of our philosophy and everything

that we do throughout the year.

We constantly reference it.

So, thank you for maintaining that, also.

So last year we announced the

dates for our 2020 Annual Conference

to help you plan travel for future budget years.

So, people have been asking about it, I know,

so, now we get to tell you,

I get the distinct pleasure of telling you where this is going to be.

When we come back from commercial.

No, just kidding.

[Laughter.]

So, before I tell you, I am going

to give you a couple hints,

cuz, you know, we love to give hints,

we like to tease everybody out.

So, I will give you a couple factoids to see

if you can guess it.

So, this city is the geographic center

of the country, I think.

The cheese dip was invented here.

Home of the US's only Purse Museum.

I know it, none of you seem to.

The only US city with a gallery containing

hundreds of animatronic singing plastic fish.

It's super clear right now, you guys!

It's obvious!

No one has it?

Alright, so, aw, I saw some hands.

No, not you!

[Laughter.]

Okay, so now that you have all taken your guess,

we are going to play the little video

which should kind of explain where it is going to be.

Shred.

Sip.

Hopefully it does.

Send.

Repeat.

In Little Rock, we are all about the good times inside and out.

Little Rock, good times with a southern accent.

Come see us.

[Applause.]

Alright.

I am very excited to announce

that the 2020 Annual Conference will be

taking place in Little Rock, Arkansas.

This is the first time the

annual conference has been there

and we couldn't be more amped to bring it there.

That was really hard to say.

Next, it is my pleasure to announce something new.

Accessibility is one of the, if not, most important

topics to HighED Web and society currently.

So, you might be thinking to yourself,

but, Tom, if accessibility is so important

why isn't there a track dedicated to it?

Why is there not a track dedicated to it?

Thank you, Jeff!

That is such a timely and wonderful question.

I really appreciate that.

So we used to have a track dedicated to it,

and it used to be called Usability, Accessibility, and Design.

We did.

But accessibility isn't a one-track issue.

It's in everything we do, it's all about us,

everything is involved with that.

So, as a result we wanted to take that

and we felt like we could do more

other than just disseminate it across the conference,

we felt like we could do a lot more.

So, what I am proud to announce is that

The 2020 HighED Web Accessibility Summit takes place

next year in St. Louis, Missouri on May 27, 2020.

[Applause.]

This event is dedicated completely to ensuring

web and digital is available to all.

You can learn more about it

by going to 2020.webaccessibilitysummit.org.

Thank you everybody who has helped with that.

Lastly, in the theme of growth and change,

not only are we going to have the dates for

The 2021 Conference, but we are

also going to announce the city.

[Applause.]

So, we did this again based on feedback from you,

so, it is another thing we are changing.

We heard from a lot of attendees as the dates helped

a bit with the planning, but knowing the location

will help also to plan for budgeting

and get approval from the powers that be in their institutions.

So, this is a direct result from your feedback,

which is why it is so important to hear from you,

and that you know what is going on.

So, the 2021 Annual Conference will be taking place

on October 3-6th and we will be returning

to the land of zumbas, kimwick rolls, sponge candy.

It's a thing, it's delicious, trust me.

You have to have some.

And this last one will give it away, chicken wings.

We are very happy to be taking our talents back

to the great city of Buffalo, New York.

I'm very happy.

So that gives us this amazing timeline

of all the upcoming events.

Some people are saying this is the most

ambitious crossover ever in the history.

[Laughter.]

Thank you, Jeff, for your help with this slide.

Hopefully there is one on there you will be able to see.

So as soon as I am done talking up here,

we are going to trying another new thing.

Lori mentioned it and talked about it.

The Community Group discussions.

As she said, there is going

to be seven informal group discussions,

covering everything from accessibility, to social media

The locations are listed on the online program.

So, if you need to do that,

that is where it is going to be.

Again, we chose these topics based on

feedback from all of you.

So, thank you for submitting your ideas,

another way you are helping drive what it is

and the discussion that is happening at the conference.

So, I hope this update has given you a brief overview

of what the association does year round

and how it is staffed by a dedicated, talented and

wonderful group of volunteers.

If any of you want to

learn more about the association,

or how you can get more involved,

please stop by the volunteer table in Ballroom AB,

where the sponsors hall is and see the table.

It is staffed by the board members, and any

of us would be more than happy to talk to you about

anything that you want to talk about,

but also, how you can get involved with the association.

Please make an effort to join us at the big social events

at the Milwaukee Art Museum Tuesday night.

It is great way to connect with people, decompress,

make new connections in a casual environment,

and it is always a really good time.

I am really excited about our keynote this year,

it is Eric Kallman.

Eric is a bestselling author, and has spoken

about digital and social influence in leadership

in over 50 countries and reached more than 30 million people

in this decade alone.

If you are interested, there will be a little

meet and greet after Eric's talk.

You can stop by, say hi, get a selfie with him,

and if you have a book, he will sign it for you right there.

We will be taking photos, and those photos

will be available on our Flickr page after the conference,

like we have done with other keynotes.

Also, it's not too late to attend a post conference workshop.

These workshops are a great way

to keep the learning going and gives you an opportunity

to get some hands-on learning with some important topics.

If you want to add one,

you can add it on your own registration,

and do it yourself, or if you have questions, or need help,

just stop by the conference office and anyone there

would be more than happy to help you do this.

Thank you all very much for listening to me.

It has been a pleasure speaking to you.

And in the words of the immortal Keanu Reeves,

you're all breathtaking.

Thank you all.

[Applause.]