On April 9, the Steel City will serve as a magnet for some of the top web minds from around the Mid-Atlantic and beyond when HighEdWeb Pitt makes its conference debut.
The daylong regional will unfold at Pittsburgh Technical Institute.
“HighEdWeb Pitt is going to be good for anyone who works in a team (we all do!), wants to communicate better and wants to be exposed to a breadth of great content in an intimate atmosphere,” said conference organizer Dave Olsen, developer at West Virginia University.
“Everyone working on the web today — from social media managers to news teams to obviously our traditional designers and developers — is working as part of a web team,” Olsen said. “We may not be lined up organizationally as a team but any web product today requires input from multiple people with different skill sets.”
From social media managers to web writers to developers to everybody in between, High Ed Web Pitt’s lineup can help attendees see the bigger picture and understand what their colleagues — on their own campus and others — do for their audiences.
“A conference like HighEdWeb Pitt is a great opportunity to not only hear a talk that specifically pertains to someones’ job duties but talks that expose someone to the issues facing other team members,” Olsen noted.
Attendees could listen to Meredith Chapman from the University of Delaware explain how “Social Structure Saves the Day” and also hear Joe McGill of Washington University talk about mobile-friendly forms, he added.
“Frankly, between Georgy Cohen’s keynote, ‘Without People, You’re Nothing,’ and Jackie Vetrano’s and Patrick Collette’s session, ‘It’s All Geek to Me!,’ the theme of communication and team building is really strong at the conference,” Olsen said. “The cherry on the top is that in addition to the great line-up of regular sessions we also have two wonderful keynotes.”
Known to higher education audiences through well-received and thought-provoking presentations and her leadership of MeetContent.com, Cohen “brings a mix of industry and higher education experience related to content strategy and will be covering her experience with teams,” Olsen said.
Currently the director of online content at Suffolk University, opening keynoter Cohen has earned the Best of Conference Red Stapler Award at HighEdWeb 2011 and has keynoted HighEdWeb Arkansas.
The closing keynote features one of the most influential voices in the fields of mobile, adaptive design and UX, Brad Frost, discussing “Beyond Media Queries: The Principles of Adaptive Design.”
“Brad Frost brings an amazing wealth of experience related to the web and mobile having worked on high-profile projects like TechCrunch’s redesign,” Olsen said. “Also, he has spoken at An Event Apart, SXSW and Breaking Development so an attendee knows they’re getting the best insight into today’s hot issue, mobile.”
Registration will begin at 8 a.m. with Cohen’s keynote setting the talks in motion at 9 a.m. Two tracks of breakout sessions run throughout the day, covering topics including governance, strategy and content creation. The conference is expected to wrap up by 4 p.m.
Registration cost is $60. For more information or to register, visit pitt.highedweb.org or follow @highedwebpitt on Twitter.
