Special Episode: ATLIS Annual Conference 2024 with ATLIS Staff

Narrator 0:02
Welcome to Talking Technology with ATLIS, the show that plugs you in to the important topics and trends for technology leaders all through a unique independent school lens. We'll hear stories from technology directors and other special guests from the independent school community and provide you will focus learning and deep dive topics. And now please welcome your host, Christina Lewellen.

Christina Lewellen 0:25
Hello, everyone and welcome back to Talking Technology with ATLIS. I'm Christina Lewellen, the executive director of the Association of Technology Leaders in Independent Schools. And today, I've joined you without my regular co-hosts, because we're doing sort of a special podcast episode, where I've invited members of the ATLIS staff to come and talk to me a little bit about our upcoming annual conference.
I know every association probably thinks that their annual conference is just the best thing since sliced bread and all that. But I actually think that ATLIS conferences are very special. I've been in the community now for about five years, and every year that we have a gathering of the ATLIS community, it sort of surprises me how incredible the energy is and how supportive the environment is.
And so we thought we would just take a few moments, hop on the pod, and chat a little bit about our upcoming event in Reno in the beginning of April. So I'd like to introduce you to some of my incredible teammates. First, Dr. Ashley Cross - she's our senior director of education and content here at ATLIS.

Ashley Cross 1:29
Hey, everybody, good morning.

Christina Lewellen 1:31
I'd also like to introduce you to Kelsea Watson. She's our director of membership, marketing and events.

Kelsea Watson 1:37
Hey, everyone, I'm super happy to be here.

Christina Lewellen 1:39
And last, but certainly not least, you may recognize this voice from some of our podcasts work – Peter Frank, he is our senior director of certification and operations. Hey, Peter.

Peter Frank 1:51
Hello, everyone. And I feel like our conference actually is better than sliced bread.

Christina Lewellen 1:56
I mean, and coming from someone who is allergic to gluten, I think it's better than sliced gluten free bread. So I'm with you guys on this.

Peter Frank 2:03
Sure.

Kelsea Watson 2:03
I agree with you there.

Christina Lewellen 2:06
So we're gonna take a couple minutes and just sort of walk people through it, especially if you've never attended a conference before. Or if you're a little bit more introverted, sometimes these events can be a little bit overwhelming. So the first question I'll throw out to everyone, do you have a way to sort of capture the energy of the ATLIS conference? I sometimes have a hard time putting it into words. How would you describe the ATLIS Annual Conference.

Ashley Cross 2:29
It's like a family reunion of, maybe, family that you haven't seen in a while. But when you get together, there's just that immediate click, like, oh, years have passed.
But this is amazing. And so the beautiful thing is, even if you have never been before, we do a lot to really help you feel comfortable and to welcome you to our event. There is a meetup for first timers, or people that are traveling solo. So if you're a little intimidated by that, that's okay. Come find us; come find the ATLIS staff.
And we'll have a meet up before the very first networking reception. And then we also do facilitated events all throughout. So for example, early in the conference, we have a meetup for women in tech. And so you meet these people early on, and then you start bumping into them the halls, you'll see them in sessions.
And so we try to do a lot to help you feel comfortable and to help you ease in but the attendees themselves. They're absolutely amazing. Our community is just so vibrant, and so open and welcoming, that I think that you will immediately be at ease and find your people.

Kelsea Watson 3:38
I'll echo what Ashley said. I've been with ATLIS since 2021, and although some people may not know that I am a little bit of an introvert, walking into a room of people I don't know is terrifying to me.
My very first event was a retreat in Seattle. And I walked in and I just… even though I was staff, even though I'm not a school technologist, I just felt like these were my people. This is a community I'm happy to be a part of, and then going to the annual conference was just that amplified.
Everyone is welcoming; everyone is excited to be there. I love that our community shares so much. If someone is struggling at the conference, you can point to someone else who has maybe gone through that struggle, and they're so happy to just connect with each other and problem solve and troubleshoot. Walking around the conference as a staffer, I love overhearing the conversations that are happening and the problems that are being solved right on the spot. It just makes me happy. It's my favorite time of year.

Christina Lewellen 4:48
Peter, you joined the ATLIS staff right after Orlando, so you didn't join us for that event. So last year in Grand Rapids was your first event. What was your takeaway, or what did you think of it?

Peter Frank 4:57
Yeah. Some of us have worked at several associations; I have as well. So these conferences do have… I’ll echo what Ashley said… That element of a support group kind of environment. These are the only people that you can talk to you and they know exactly what you're talking about.
You know, we all have our jobs, and we go home to our families and friends, and we can talk about our challenges and… the things that go well; the things that didn't. And they kind of nod their heads, and they try to understand as best they can. But these are the people… This is the group of people that know exactly what you're talking about. And I certainly saw plenty of that.
As a first timer myself last year, I certainly felt welcomed. It is certainly a friendly crowd. And I saw a lot of the camaraderie, the learning. And the feedback from the attendees – they want to be there, they want to learn, they want to experience all the value that the conference has to offer. So yeah, it was very positive all around.

Christina Lewellen 5:51
So that leads us well into… why people generally go is, first, for the education.
So back to Ashley – tell us a little bit about how the content is organized at the ATLIS conference. Because, you know, I think that we do a pretty decent job of making sure everybody understands not only what sessions are happening in block one, or two or three; we actually, on our website, will break everything out into different tracks and categories so that depending on what problem someone is coming to the conference to solve, they can pretty quickly identify where they're going to get their answers.
So tell us a little bit about how our content is organized and how we make sure that we offer this kind of powerful programming each year.

Ashley Cross 6:33
Yeah, absolutely.
So one of the things that I love is that it doesn't matter if you're from the IT side of the house, and you need a little bit more of some technical deep dives, or if you're from the academic ed tech, or if you're looking at change management, leadership visioning… We really have something for everybody.
So our tracks include a data and institutional research track, and that's in partnership with CIRIS. That's the Center for Institutional Research at Independent Schools. And they have a little subset track within ours, and all the ATLIS attendees are welcome to attend those sessions as well.
We have an ed tech track, cybersecurity, we have a leadership track, as well as included workshops. And I really love these because I think it's of great value. So we have some of these deep dive workshops that are included with the cost of registration. And so they range on things like AI in schools, looking at how to keep your privacy on lock to a very technical deep dive of how to build and deploy an internal Google workspace add on. So again, you're getting those within the regular conference sessions.
And we also have some fantastic thought leadership brought to you by our vendor partners. And so the ATLIS staff works very closely, to include our vendor partners, and to really sit down with them and to plan with them so that they're meeting the needs and the specific pain points of our community. And what I also love is that they are partnering with people that are out in the independent school community. A lot of times you're gonna see co presenters from the schools, ranging from the head of school to the tech leader themselves.
And so this year we have our tracks that are from Ankara. A lot of those have cybersecurity and data privacy slants to them. Toddle is a newer vendor partner to our space. And y'all, I'm really excited for you all to get to know them. They are doing some very fascinating things with AI. And their LMS is very interesting. But again, they're partnering with Thought Leadership, and their sessions are presented by independent school technologists.

Christina Lewellen 8:36
Yeah, that's what I love about our vendor community… is that we really make sure that we embrace them. We don't keep them at arm's length, we pull them in and say, “Look, you're working with tons of independent schools. And so you're seeing some cool stuff. Let's shape some content that everybody can benefit from”. Our vendor tracks, I think, are a little bit different than what the typical ones are. So we have Ankura; we have Toddle. And we also have another track from Blackbaud as well.

Ashley Cross 9:03
Yes, so our friends at Blackbaud. I mean, they've got some really great things.
One of their first things right out of the gate is fostering a culture of empowerment to enhance recruitment, retention, and belonging. So they're really speaking to that DEI lens and including these really great and powerful thought leadership tracks that are offered among our sessions. So super excited about those rooms.
And the other thing is we have some preconference workshops that are from our vendor community as well. We have Adobe for education is unleash your creative potential with Adobe Express. They've got a great workshop and Google has one Google for Education security workshop that's sponsored by CW.
And then we also have two other pre cons – Practical Guide to Vendor Vetting and Vendor Management and Build a Data Warehouse for Your School.
And so those last two, you have a hybrid opportunity. So if you're able to go to the conference, we would love to have you there and invite you in person. If for some reason you're not able to make it this year, or maybe some people on your team can't come with you, they can actually attend those sessions virtually. And there'll be some follow up zoom sessions as well, to accompany those.

Christina Lewellen 10:12
We're always looking for ways to make sure that we reach beyond the folks who can come to conference. And so in addition to those hybrid pre conference workshops, where yes, we'll offer them live in person. But if you can't attend, or actually I love your idea. If there's other people on your team, you can also attend virtually.
We're also going to record some of our keynote sessions this year and release those as special podcasts in this feed later on, because I think that the content that we cover in our keynotes is also really carefully honed as well. We're going to have Jeff Shields from NBOA this year, joining us to talk about the state of the industry. Because so much of the foundation of independent schools and the business model of independent schools is shifting and changing. And our technology teams really need to understand that… not only to be reactive, but maybe be proactive in terms of how they support their schools and the emerging business models that we're sort of seeing come along with this evolution.
And then on day two, we're bringing together a group of people to talk about AI – specifically how it is shaping the workforce. Because while I think there are plenty of sessions on AI and how it's impacting education, how we're handling it for our learners and our teachers, keeping our community safe, we have plenty of that content. But what I really wanted to do was kind of draw up to a higher level and take a moment to talk about how AI is shaping the workforce. We are preparing our kids to go to college and then go out into the work world, and AI is already shaping and making drastic impacts on that space. And I think that it's important for all of us to take a moment and really think about where our learners are pointed. And so the keynotes, I think are going to be really great. And we put a lot of energy and thought into those as well.
I want to go back to the vendors for a second because as I mentioned, our vendor community – we really do look at them as partners. Kelsea, let's go to you for a moment, because I know you work closely with our vendors and plenty of people are coming to get a look at the ATLIS community. We're getting new vendors all the time who want to come to our event. But we often hear that we're a little bit weird in that we kind of pull them in and make them a part of the event. They're not just throwing dollars at a sponsorship; they really are a part of the community.
Tell us a little bit about our vendor partners and how we kind of integrate them into the event itself.

Kelsea Watson 12:40
Yeah, absolutely. Like you said, we have some phenomenal vendor partners. And one thing that’s part of my job I like to do is actually meet with them before the event. And before they even decide to come, especially if they're, you know, a partner who hasn't worked with us before, to really explain that our conference isn't a big trade show. It isn't a big exhibit floor. We really strategically design our events so that they're central to it. We don't compete for exhibit hall hours, we have dedicated breaks for our members, our attendees to just go and chat with our vendor partners, see what solutions they may be missing out on, or where enhancements can be made.
And I would also be remiss if I didn't mention the amount of food that will also be in our vendor halls. You go for the snacks and you stay for the solutions, right?

Christina Lewellen 13:36
Oh yeah, we do not go light on food at the ATLIS conference. I mean, last year… I think that between the human charcuterie board – like it literally was the length of multiple humans end-to-end – like it was so long, this massive charcuterie display, but we also had our little sushi run too.
So that was fun. The ATLIS community definitely knows how to have a good time.

Kelsea Watson 13:58
Yeah, I still dream about that charcuterie display. I wanted to share… Many of our listeners might know Alex Inman, from Educational Collaborators. And he actually shared with me a little testimonial about coming to the ATLIS conference and why they come year-after-year. So I will read from his words. He said,
“If you sell an ed tech solution and want to target independent schools, there's simply no better option than ATLIS. Not only does ATLIS attract thought leaders and decision makers, the association is dedicated to helping tech directors play a more strategic role in their schools. Your solution could be the focus of the tech directors’ strategic efforts, and no association is going to support your potential client more than ATLIS.”
I pulled that out because I do really think that it summarizes how we work with our vendor partners and how we incorporate them. You'll see them sitting in on some sessions because they want to learn, they want to know your pain points. They're having meals with us – they’re in it. They want to find out what our members need and where they can constantly be improving their solutions. They're a very collaborative community among each other, too.
And so there's a lot of energy in that Vendor Hall at our event. And it's a joy to work with our vendor partners.

Christina Lewellen 15:20
Yeah, I love how integrated they are into the mix. It makes me happy to see the community. There's not like a “separate sides of the fence” kind of thing going on. It's just very all wrapped up together.

Kelsea Watson 15:31
Absolutely.

Christina Lewellen 15:33
Peter, let's talk about the TLIS. ATLIS has had some big news in the last year. Last year, from the stage in Grand Rapids, we announced that we had received some incredible, generous funding from the Edward E. Ford Foundation and that we were going to stand up a certification program, a professional certification program.
And I can't believe, first of all, how quickly it came together. Did you think a year ago that we would be launching our first test window at the next year's event? I'm still shocked it happened so fast.

Peter Frank 16:07
Yeah, we certainly… we had planned a longer game. But I guess we, you know, we were fortunate.
And we can't say enough about the volunteers that participated – that really, I think helped propel the entire program. Yeah, we felt… We're all aware that the technology continues to expand throughout independent schools, as it expands throughout each of our lives. It evolves constantly and quickly. And we knew through various means, including specific research, that technology leaders in these schools and the people who hire them – we're all just kind of desperate for some sort of guideposts, some sort of reference.
So ATLIS and it's amazing volunteers have taken on the challenge of analyzing and assessing all aspects of the technology leader role at independent schools, and organizing it into four specific domains. These are the four areas that technology leaders and independent schools should be concerning themselves with… often have to deal with various objectives beneath each, and we have actually developed an exam.
So if a technology leader has enough experience, and if the technology leader continues to develop themselves professionally – keeping up with the best practices, et cetera – then they should have no problem reviewing these questions on this exam and answering them correctly.
And now people who have this new certification, we finally have that guidepost, or reference, so that the technology leaders themselves can feel confident that yes, I was presented all these scenarios, and I answered all these questions correctly, so yes, I'm on the right path. And the people that hire these technology leaders can say, hey, the people who have that certification – they know what's going on; they know what to do.
So we're very excited to be offering this for the first time. The first exam window happens to be opening just before the conference begins, so even at this conference… There are a few different things happening at the conference that have to do with the certification, including… It's an online exam, however, we're going to offer a quiet space, towards the end of the conference, if people want to just get in the same room and take the online exam together. We're gonna offer an opportunity for that. Otherwise, they could just take the exam online, from wherever they are.

Christina Lewellen 18:25
That’s cool. So people could take the exam, and then get on a plane, or they could get back home and get off the plane and take the exam, or, just for fun, we've decided to host like this shared experience, and people could take the exam together in the same room. That's kind of cool. You can kind of decide what works best for you. And I've heard that some people plan to actually take it right there in Reno and kind of get into the festivity of it.

Peter Frank 18:49
Yeah, so as the applications have been coming in, numerous people have said, “I'm hoping to take it while I'm at the conference.”
In addition to taking the exam at the conference, many of the volunteers who are part of this new ATLIS Certification Council that we've established will be present. There'll be numerous info sessions happening each afternoon of the days of the conference where you can talk to the volunteers, you can talk to myself about the program about the exam.
And finally, the conference itself… Just attending the conference itself… I referred to “professional development.” Anyone who attends the conference, whether there's interest in this certification or not, will receive continuing education units, which is important as people apply for the certification – the TLIS – as we've been referring to it. I don't know if we've mentioned that yet. But part of that is you need to have so much professional development accrued as well as you need to continue accruing continuing education units and professional development to maintain this certification. The conference itself represents a significant chunk of those required units. So the TLIS is itself becoming very present in our annual conference.

Christina Lewellen 20:00
So that basically means that even if somebody is not ready to sit for the certification now, or it isn't really part of their career aspirations at the moment, just attending the conference, they're racking up those CEUs. And they could apply them down the road if they choose to pursue this at a future date.

Peter Frank 20:20
Exactly. They're good for three years. So even if you're slightly suspicious you'd be interested in this certification, attending the conference gets you a big chunk of the required professional development.

Christina Lewellen 20:30
You know, that really triggers a thought in me that we saw recently on social media that one of our superstars, Bradley Lands, was talking about his ATLIS journey. And in a strange way, it sort of mirrors this idea that you just never know what's going to come out of the ATLIS conference.
Ashley or Kelsea – do you guys want to tell us a little bit about what he was sharing on social media?

Kelsea Watson 20:53
Yeah, absolutely. So Bradley shared with us that he came to the conference, I think, for the first time in Orlando. And there, he kind of plugged in with the community. And he learned about the ATLIS Leadership Institute, and that kind of planted a seed with him. And so he decided after that conference to apply for the next cohort, and so he spent that year going through the program, which Ashley can definitely expand upon after this. And since then, he is now the Chief Technology Officer at his school. So he's gotten a promotion, he really is now a strategic leader in his school. He's also published a book, check that out, shout out to Bradley's book. And so you know, he really credits that to, “if I hadn't come to the conference, I wouldn't have known about this, I would not have this now incredible community to support me through my career.” It's opened doors for him that he didn't even know existed before coming to the conference.
And I just encourage any listeners who are on the fence about coming, think about that – like, you just have no idea what that one action, that one decision, to register for an event will open up for you.
And I definitely would love for Ashley, to talk a little bit more about the ATLIS Leadership Institute – the graduation of the current cohort will happen at the conference. So, Ashley?

Ashley Cross 22:25
Yes absolutely. It's been a really exciting thing – to see the ATLIS Leadership Institute, the ALI program, evolve over time. And now every year, we have this huge reunion of all of the people that have graduated over the years.
So this alumni community, we actually get together at the conference and have this amazing event. And we also have our current cohort, they have a graduation ceremony. So they actually get to walk across the stage in front of hundreds of their colleagues.
But if you haven't checked it out yet, you should really look into the Leadership Institute. I tell you, it's so powerful. One of my favorite stories is actually… Joe Carver went through the institute himself. And after he did that, he started sending his colleagues – his co workers, other people at his school... Joe has now sent six different people through the program. So if that doesn't speak to the power of it, I don't know what does, really amazing program. So definitely check that out as well. We'll link to that in the show notes.

Christina Lewellen 23:23
Joe is a raving fan of ALI. I love it.
You know, one of the things that I'll kind of wrap us up with is talking just about that piece of recognition. Yeah, we recognize our ATLIS Pillar Award winners, we celebrate the accomplishments of the current AI cohort... There's a lot of recognition for our volunteer leaders.
But I think even more so than the official efforts at recognition, the conference itself is sort of a recognition, right, because I think a lot of people operate on their own island at their schools. And so coming to a conference full of a bunch of other people just like them is something that just facilitates a true sense of belonging and recognition for the work they do. You will never find a place you are more celebrated for what you contribute to your schools than at the ATLIS community.
So I think it goes back to that really powerful network that we all create and hang out together. And I think that sometimes at the conference, we at the ATLIS staff level, we like to introduce new things and make new announcements that I know we have a couple of surprises up our sleeves. Nothing quite like launching a new certification program – that was a once-in-a-career kind of effort, – but I do think that we have a lot of new products and announcements that we like to roll out as well.
So there's always lots of little treats and easter eggs in attending our conference. And I think that's really cool.
So before we wrap up and head out… Obviously, we're all heading to Reno. We'll be there. We'll be there for our community to support this event unfolding. What are you guys looking forward to? What do you get excited about when you think about us heading toward the airport in about, what – seven weeks from now?

Ashley Cross 25:02
Yeah, it's coming up fast.
One of my favorite things is… I think back on conferences… was a conversation that I had with Shandor Simon, a longtime ATLIS member, back in Dallas. And we were sitting around, and he said, “You know, my favorite thing about this event is that it starts out where people bring their problems. But it's not just a gripe session, because it instantly turns into the community, helping to solve and offer solutions.” And I love that energy so much.
But personally, one of my favorite things to do during the conference is to introduce people to each other. So I love to facilitate amazing connections. So I would love for you listeners – come find me at the conference and let me help you get introduced to other people that you may not know in your region or other people that are doing similar work, or maybe that they have tackled a similar challenge at their school. And they can help become that network for you. So we love to facilitate those connections, and the community is just fabulous. By far my favorite thing about the event,

Kelsea Watson 26:06
I have to be honest, and one of my favorite things about the event is that as someone with a food allergy, who's also the event planner, I'm excited for all the food we're going to have. We make sure that everyone gets something good to eat and walks away with full bellies and happy hearts.
But no, in all seriousness, I just love being around both our members and our vendor partners. I love the energy; it really fills my cup. For me, I kind of look at that, as I know, it's not January 1, but to me, it feels like the start of a new year. I walk away from the conference, and I just feel re-energized. Our staff gets together after the conference and kind of makes a little bit of a staff strategic plan after that. And I just I look forward to it so much.
I can't wait.

Christina Lewellen 26:59
It is kind of a start to a new year, isn't it? There's always new topics and new people, new faces. So it is kind of a fresh start to the year. That's really cool.

Peter Frank 27:06
I certainly look forward to seeing again the people that I met last year, because this will typically be the only time I see them. So that's always fun.
I look forward to definitely focus on speaking about the certification and helping people understand it better and what it can mean to them.
And from a personal perspective, you know, with any conference, I enjoy the travel, I enjoy discovering a new city. I've never been to Reno, and I know it's popular for certain things. But anytime I go to a new city, I like exploring things like the food, finding a great restaurant, finding a great… brewing company, perhaps? That has their own beverages? [laughs]

Christina Lewellen 27:41
This does not surprise me about you, Peter. [laughs]

Peter Frank 27:44
That’s always an aspect of attending a conference that I like.

Christina Lewellen 27:47
We're going to be together April 7 through the 10th. We kick off on a Sunday with some preconference workshops and a fabulous reception. We go through midday on Wednesday.
I know that sometimes it can take a couple hops to get over to a city like Reno, but there's a reason that we picked it – it's more affordable on the ground. We're hoping that people can bring more of their team. For whatever inconveniences in travel, we will certainly make it up to you once you put your feet on the ground and step into the beautiful property of the Grand Sierra Resort.
We look forward to greeting you there on behalf of the staff and the entire board of directors at ATLIS. We know it's going to be a great year.
And it looks like it's going to be a record-breaking year. This association has been together hosting events for almost 10 years – this will be our ninth or tenth event. And I mean we're within spitting distance of breaking some records, aren't we, Kelsea?

Kelsea Watson 28:40
We sure are. I'm so excited about the energy going into this event. This year just feels different. It does. It's the year to come.

Christina Lewellen 28:49
It is the year to come.
Well, we hope that we have given you some answers in terms of what to expect at the annual conference. As you can tell, we're a wee bit excited and we are certainly looking forward to rolling out the red carpet for you. We hope you can join us in Reno.
If for some reason you can't, make plans to be with us next year in Atlanta. Or look into those virtual offerings, because you can get a little taste of the annual conference even if you're not in a position to attend.
Kelsea, Peter, Ashley – thank you guys so much for taking a few minutes out of your busy planning day to join me on the pod and talk about why we're so excited about Reno.

Kelsea Watson 29:25
Thanks for inviting us on, Christina. Peter, Ashley, Christina – it's always good to see your faces.

Ashley Cross 29:30
See you all in Reno.

Christina Lewellen 29:32
Absolutely. All right, guys. We'll see you there.

Narrator 29:37
This has been Talking Technology with ATLIS produced by the Association of Technology Leaders in Independent Schools. For more information about ATLIS and ATLIS membership, please visit theATLIS.org.
If you enjoyed this discussion, please subscribe, leave a review and share this podcast with your colleagues in the independent school community. Thank you for listening.