The news was announced yesterday on the conference blog, HighEdWeBlog:
The Higher Education Web Professionals Association is currently accepting proposals from sponsor groups/institutions who would like to host the 2008 conference.
While October doesn’t seem the best time to welcome 400 to 600 higher ed professionals on any campus – which is probably why it’s hosted by a hotel in Rochester -, this conference is definitely a big hit in the higher ed community and could help promote the “techie” side of your institution.
The call for host site, available as a PDF file, explains the decision of the association to change locations in 2008 by 2 main reasons:
First, our attendance has grown about 30% a year over the last three conferences. If this trend continues (and we hope it will!), we will simply not have a space in Rochester to effectively host the event in its present format.
Second, the Association seeks to be national or international in scope. This reflects the diversity of conference attendance (our 2006 conference drew from 42 states and eight countries) as well as the universality of the issues we face in higher education. However, about a third of the attendees in 2006 were from institutions in New York. By moving the conference to different areas of the country, we believe we can encourage wider participation around the country.
Detailed requirements for the ideal location (preferably not in the North East), accommodations, schedule, etc. are included in the call for host site.
If you’re interested, you need to email your proposal by August 31, 2007 (yeah, kind of a short notice especially in summer just a few weeks before back-to-school) to Steve Lewis – his email address in on page 5 of the document – I don’t want to post it here for the spam robots to pick it up.
If your institution can’t host the event, why not make a suggestion for a good venue by posting a comment?