Want to Host a HighEdWeb Regional? Here’s How

Right about this time for the past few years, the HighEdWeb Association has announced its slate of regional conferences for the coming year. This year, we’re planning on doing something a little different.

The Association will provide up to five grants to teams in different regions of the country who respond to our request for regional conference proposals (RFP). These grants will constitute the funding and resources to hold 2015 HighEdWeb Regional Conferences.

To complement the association’s grant funding, HighEdWeb will also provide:

• a planning calendar
• branding and naming guidance
• tips on how to gain local sponsorship
• templates for the conference program
• templates and instructions on maintaining the conference website
• a list of Association support contacts

The RFP will be released next week, but to get your wheels turning, here’s an idea about what kinds of questions we’ll ask:

• Name of chairperson
• Roles and names of other committee members. For example, each regional conference needs individuals to handle financial matters, marketing and communication, technical matters, and logistics.
• First and second choices for regional date
• First and second choices for regional location
• Essay (less than or equal to 500 words): Why a regional should be held in our area.

In addition to these questions, there will be a list of requirements for participation in the regional grant process. These requirements help the Association set the appropriate numbers of attendees, presentations, and expenditures for the event.

We will take proposals  until Thanksgiving (November 27, 2014), and then the Regional Support Committee will take a look at them over the Christmas break. We’ll announce the locations of the regionals in January 2015, and conferences will be held during the first and second quarters of 2015.

We look forward to being able to evaluate the proposals during the holiday break and make announcements of regionals in January 2015.