HighEdWeb 2024
Dates: September 22-25, 2024
Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico
Hotel: The Clyde Hotel
Airline: Southwest Airlines
The HighEdWeb Annual Conference is the conference created by and for higher education digital professionals. It offers four days of high-quality professional development from fellow professionals, keynote speakers and interactive networking events — all at affordable rates. From developers, marketers and programmers to managers, designers, writers and all team members in-between, HighEdWeb provides valuable professional development for all who want to explore the unique digital issues facing colleges and universities.
The HighEdWeb 2024 Annual Conference was an action-packed experience, filled with innovative discussions and insights from digital professionals across higher education. This year’s focus was a blend of artificial intelligence, leadership, and accessibility—key elements shaping the future of higher ed web design and digital experiences.
Sessions
Revolutionizing Conversations: AI Chat Integration on YaleSites
Speakers: Megan Bygness Bradley & Randy Oest — Four Kitchens
Their team had a tight deadline and decided that getting a functional product live was more important than perfection—a lesson many teams could learn from.
Yale and 4K leveraged Azure Open AI Studio to kickstart the process, building a data-trained RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) system. They focused on structuring content logically, ensuring that the AI could provide meaningful results. Optimizing headlines and sections improved both human and AI readability, while also cutting down on token usage.
The project faced privacy concerns so they decided not to save any user information to maintain confidentiality. It also proved that content accessibility greatly enhances AI integration. Yale’s AI-powered system, ask.Yale.edu, is now live and already improving on-site search results.
Four Kitchens and Yale AI powered Chat blog post
Level Up: Taking the Next Step in Your Leadership Journey
Speaker: Josh Charles — Rutgers University
Josh Charles delivered a powerful session on leadership, emphasizing that leadership is about building relationships, networking intentionally, and understanding the people you serve. The idea of leading from where you are—whether you're in management or not—resonated throughout the room.
His key points were about partnership-building across campus, understanding your leadership’s priorities, focusing on the big picture, and advocating for your team.
He also encouraged investing in your personal development, reminding us: “There is no track, I can drive anywhere.”
BREAKING: University News Site Redesign Puts Accessibility Above the Fold!
Speakers: Janell Sims & Aaron Baker — Harvard University
The Harvard team walked us through their latest redesign efforts, which prioritize accessibility above all. They highlighted Fable, a digital accessibility testing tool that enables real-time testing with people who have disabilities. This approach ensures compliance with legal requirements and serves as a model for other institutions.
Beyond the Hype: Changing AI from a Buzzword into a Blueprint for Team Success
Speaker: Tina Miller — Arizona State University
Arizona State is positioning itself as a leader in AI, and Tina Miller detailed how they’re turning AI from hype into reality. They’ve even set up ai.asu.edu as a hub for their AI initiatives, constantly experimenting and communicating their usage. The key takeaway: AI needs clear communication, well-defined use cases, and continual experimentation.
Beyond Basic Chatbots: Enhancing Website Search with LLMs
Another dive into the power of AI, this session explored Large Language Models (LLMs), discussing how LLMs can improve tasks like translation, summarization, and pattern recognition on higher ed websites.
A standout tool mentioned was Perplexity.ai, an AI powered search tool.
Evening Adventures and Networking
The conference wasn’t just about sessions—it was also a great opportunity to connect with other humans in person over food and drinks.
Sunday’s welcome reception was held at Civic Plaza.
The next night I had the chance to dine with representatives from SearchStax, Lullabot, and Acquia at the charming Artichoke Café.
The main after party night included a Pantheon happy hour, the "official" conference party at Sawmill Market and karaoke at Bourbon and Boots.
Final Thoughts
The HighEdWeb 2024 conference was an inspiring blend of forward-thinking technology, practical leadership advice, and a deep focus on accessibility and AI. From the structured AI chatbots at Yale to Harvard’s accessibility-first redesigns, there was plenty of information and innovation to bring back home.
I was able to meet and connect with people from colleges and universities from all over the world and even with AI and all the tech in the world, nothing beats the power of human connection and being able to exchange and experience emotion and thoughts with other people.
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