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UNC to host first HighEdWeb North Carolina regional conference

 

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UNC-Chapel Hill will host the first ever HighEdWeb North Carolina regional conference at the the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School on June 18.

“This one day, in-person event will provide new and exciting professional development and networking opportunities for higher education digital professionals in the North Carolina region,” said conference co-chair Rachell Underhill. Underhill, who is the Director of Information Technology Systems at The Graduate School, said she was “thrilled” to announce the conference to campus.

Underhill expects registration for the June 18 conference to open in mid-March. She encouraged interested attendees to register early, as she anticipates the conference “will reach registration capacity well before the actual registration deadline.”

A woman presents on a stage in front of a large screen, she's discussing usability
A lightning talk at a 2023 HighEdWeb conference. Courtesy of HighEdWeb

Digital and web professionals can also join UNC’s own internal Web Professionals group, which relaunched in late 2023. The campus group is not officially affiliated with any department or campus unit. The group is co-organized by Underhill and three ITS employees, Paul Cardillo and Gia Branciforte of ITS Digital Services and Daniel Reeves of ITS ResNET.

About HighEdWeb

The Higher Education Web Professionals Association, commonly known as HighEdWeb, is an international nonprofit that aims to educate digital professionals who work at colleges and universities.

HighEdWeb hosts a variety of events, including an annual national conference, day-long summits on topics like accessibility, month-long academies and short webinars. The nonprofit also provides asynchronous opportunities for networking and professional development, like newsletters and a resource library.

HighEdWeb also enables groups to self-organize their own regional conferences. Regional conferences offer participants a low-cost way to network and learn about digital issues in higher education.

The North Carolina regional conference committee has representatives from across the region, ranging from community colleges and both public and private colleges and universities. The committee includes members from multiple UNC groups, including ITS, University Libraries, UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School and The Graduate School.

Call for proposals

The conference has opened the call for proposals and is accepting submissions through February 29. Underhill stressed that HighEdWeb is open to all types of digital and web professionals. Typical presentation topics, she said, “run the gamut from technical development to content strategy, style guides to social media, instructional technology to web governance, data to design — and everything in between.”

In addition to the opportunity to stretch skills and share knowledge, presenters receive free conference registration.

The High Ed Web association logo, which is a tilted globe

New institutional membership for all Tar Heels

The new region isn’t the only exciting announcement for Tar Heels — UNC-Chapel Hill is also now an institutional member of HighEdWeb. ITS Digital Services is covering the cost of UNC’s institutional membership for 2024.

Existing members can connect their accounts to the institutional membership and new members can join for free.

The institutional membership “opens up access for all staff and students to the association’s professional development resources and networking events at no additional cost,” said David Eckert, Director of Managed IT Services. Eckert also leads ITS Digital Services.

As an institutional member, Eckert stressed that every Tar Heel now has free access to HighEdWeb resources. The membership also includes access to communities of practice and training created specifically for people at higher education institutions.

HighEdWeb membership covers access to both future and past events and materials. Eckert said the archive includes “over 10 years of conference presentation materials.”

Another benefit of HighEdWeb membership is lower conference registration costs. In addition to the North Carolina regional conference, institutional members can also choose to attend these upcoming summits and conferences:

 

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