Agenda & Schedule
The Next Chapter
Day 1 · Wednesday, November 4
VIP Leadership Experience
An intensive day for up to 30 leaders driving institutional change — and living through it at the same time.
8:30AM
Arrival & Coffee
9:00AM
Warm Welcome & Icebreaker
A short, on-your-feet activity to open the day, get the room energized, and start putting faces to names before we begin.
9:30AM
Change Is Collective. Transition Is Personal.
A facilitated conversation that opens with a disarming question: “What is changing around you right now that you did not choose?” Change arrives all at once — but transition, the internal work of adjusting to it, is something each of us moves through alone. For leaders, that’s the double bind: you’re asked to drive change while living through it yourself.
10:20AM
Coffee Break
10:40AM
Whatever Happened to That Big Rollout?
Every institution has them: the initiative launched with real energy that quietly faded, the system everyone was trained on but no one fully uses. This session digs into why change so often gets installed but never truly takes hold — and the gap between rolling something out and actually changing how people work.
11:30AM
Change Starts at the Top — or It Doesn’t
Change doesn’t succeed because it’s announced. It succeeds when the people at the top visibly commit to it and keep showing up for it. This session looks at what real, active leadership backing looks like, what it costs when it’s missing, and why it so often decides whether change lives or dies.
12:20PM
Lunch
1:00PM
Why “We Told Them and Trained Them” Isn’t Enough
When change stalls, the usual response is more communication and more training — as if people just didn’t get the memo. But resistance is rarely about not understanding. This session looks at what pushback is really telling you, and why lasting change depends on reinforcement that gets people to work differently and keep working differently.
2:00PM
What Would You Build If You Had To?
Change has a way of surfacing capabilities we didn’t know we’d need. This session opens space for honest reflection — on where you are, what’s shifting around you, and what you actually want from your next chapter. The entrepreneurial mindset isn’t reserved for a certain type of person or a specific role. It’s already in you.
3:30PM
Coffee & Networking Break
3:50PM
Put It on the Table
Chances are you walked in with a problem you haven’t cracked. In this closing session, you’ll put it on the table and let your peers in on it. Working in small groups, you’ll lay out what you’re wrestling with while the people around you offer angles, poke at your assumptions, and share what actually worked. Because a problem that feels impossible on your own has a way of loosening the second you say it out loud.
5:00PM
Dinner & Evening Reception
Day 2 · Thursday, November 5
Full Conference
Open to all attendees. Two tracks run in parallel — choose the institutional path, the entrepreneurial path, or mix and match.
8:30AM
Arrival & Coffee
9:00AM
Welcome & Opening
10:00AM
Breakout — Choose Your Track
Institutional
Communicating Through Disruption
Change announcements in higher education too often arrive late, vague, or from the wrong messenger. This session examines what effective change communication actually requires and how leaders can say hard things in ways that move people forward.
Entrepreneurial
When It’s Time for What’s Next
Everything you’ve built in higher education — leading people, navigating impossible systems, doing more with less — doesn’t expire when you leave. This session takes apart the belief that your skills only count inside the academy.
11:00AM
Breakout — Choose Your Track
Institutional
Beyond Networking: Building Relationships That Break Down Silos
This session reframes networking as something more intentional — building the kinds of relationships that make your work easier, your institution more connected, and your impact larger.
Entrepreneurial
From Idea to Initiative — What Are You Building?
This is where things get concrete. You’ll begin to surface and name the idea that’s been forming — and leave with something real enough to name out loud and carry into the work that follows.
12:00PM
Lunch
Themed table conversations by interest area — entrepreneurship, career transition, institutional innovation, consulting.
1:00PM
Breakout — Choose Your Track
Institutional
Keeping Good People When You Can’t Promise Them Anything
For anyone who supervises people and has had to lead a team through uncertainty. What actually keeps people connected to their work when formal rewards aren’t available — and what you can do right now.
Entrepreneurial
The Questions You’re Afraid to Ask
How do you fund it? When is it safe to leave? What if it doesn’t work? An open panel with people who’ve built things of their own — answering your real questions honestly, not the tidy version.
2:00PM
Beyond the Job Description: Owning Your Brand When Everything Else Is Changing
Your professional brand is the one thing that belongs completely to you. This working session explores what it means to build an identity that travels — beyond your current title, beyond your organization, and into the spaces where you actually want to go.
3:30PM
End of Formal Program
3:45PM
1:1 Consultations
Scheduled consultation slots with coaches available throughout the afternoon.
5:00PM
Happy Hour at Double Club
Close out the conference the New Orleans way.
Co-hosted by the Higher Education Networking Collective and You Are HigherED!
