In no particular order, here are some folks that I’ve met with a note on how they’ve made an impact on me.
Bradley Cohen – Trained as a philospher, he’s been in the IT world for a number of years. He did doctoral work at UNC, and is now at UMinnesota. He is very articulate, and down to earth. I enjoyed his program teaser, during which time he talked with the audience and his words complemented the PPT content, rather than reading it (which others have done at this event…argh). We enjoyed talking about preparing to present, and he talked about “Powerpoint Karaoke” which I found hilarious. We were at the same table for dinner last night, and I got to hear his thoughts about students, and supporting faculty, and the world of IT. (Not to mention the pros and cons of studying philosophy, which was of interest since my father-in-law was chair of that department here at NC State for 25 years). He had some good comments during the event so far. He observed that students seek a path of least reistance (though that’s not quite his words) in order to maintain a certain level of comfort.
Diana Oblinger – A plant geneticist (who knew!) who later moved into the world of IT in higher ed, she’s a real mover and shaker that I’ve long admired. Given that NC State is sorta her home institution (vicariously through Chancellor Oblinger, if nothing else, though she has 4 sons who are NCSU grads as well), I’ve been hoping for a chance to really connect with her. Her first words upon shaking my hand were something like “We sure traveled a long way to finally meet.” I have since had great opportunities to chat with her – at dinner, during our presenters’ meeting, and so on. I was impressed when I mentioned Wolfpack football, and she quickly jumped in with “Central Florida at 6:00 on September 1st!” If I wasn’t a fan already, this would have sealed the deal. 
Her opening remarks were great, and I just enjoy hearing everything she has to say.
Cyprien Lomas – Cyprian and I sat at the same table during this event. He’s a fellow Mac user (primarily Macs at this event!), and always has a camera in hand. He posts his photos online and they are great. He’s at UBritish Columbia. He scored points with me when he invited me to be his Facebook friend during my presentation. A very intriguing guy.
Patricia Curtis – Pat turns out to be a former NC State faculty member in Food Science. She was/is buds with Jim Oblinger, and was at State for 12 years (I think). We had a great chat at the reception about people we knew in common. She liked being at State, but said that Auburn made her an offer she just couldn’t refuse. A very engaging, smart and down-to-earth woman.
Jarret Cummings – Jarret works with EDUCAUSE and lives in Durham. He previously worked with Diana Oblinger during her time with UNC General Admin, and I think went with her to EDUCAUSE, though they both work from NC with lots of travel. He was very invovled with the behind-the-scenes event planning and implementation, and took care of all of the presenters. I got to know him much better at dinner, where he talked about his son, his love of bourbon, his brief stint as a philosophy graduate student at UNC, his wife…and the list goes on. A very nice, helpful and very fun fellow.
Lida Larsen – Lida works with EDUCAUSE, and is responsible for putting together regional events. She mentioned to me on more than one occassion that I had opened her eyes to Student Affairs being an important partner. She said that on some spreadsheet they had put together (for what purpose I can’t quite remember) that Student Affairs wasn’t even mentioned…that we were lumped in with “other.” She plans to separate SA out soon as she gets a chance!
Linda Jorn – Linda was my bus buddy, and is at UMinnesota. We seemed to always be going to/from hotel/event on the same bus, and sitting next to each other. She said that my presentation has inspired her to seek out her VP of Student Affairs and make that connection. She also asked me more about my efforts to establish social networking software for our LGBT community. Turns out some of her folks are doing something similar, though with a different audience in mind for now. She asked to share my info so that her folks could possibly invite my opinion as they move forward with the project and share their info with me.
Table 8 – ‘nuf said!
Donald Carter – Brief conversation with this Director of e-Learning at Northern Arizona University. He mentioned that they are using their LMS to educate the campus communty about their reaccreditation process (hope I’m remembering that correctly). Said that 68,000 (I think) are “enrolled” in the course. They also made a podcast of students and others talking to give to the reviewers before they visit campus. This was a quick hallway discussion, so I’m not remembering the details well. I do intend to follow up with him.
Rick Satterlee – Rick works as an AVP for Student Affairs at Loyola, but prior to that, he was the Campus Rec guy at UNC-CH for a long while. He was there to present about an online academic integrity program that is now required for all students starting with this year’s freshman class.