Growing Globally with the Education Cloud Community

By Lori Dembowitz, Associate CIO, UMass Lowell

The recent Salesforce.org Higher Ed Summit held in San Diego in April 2019 (session recordings here) was the largest one yet. About 2,500 trailblazers came together to learn and share CRM best practices in higher education. This was the 7th Higher Ed Summit and it was one of the most productive and fun yet!

Did you know this year’s Summit had the largest number of international attendees of any Higher Ed Summit? There were over 2,600 attendees representing over 700 universities from 16 countries at this year’s Summit. The Salesforce.org higher ed community has seen growth in recent years and this growth and excitement have extended across the globe!

About the Salesforce.org Higher Education Advisory Council

The Higher Ed Advisory Council (or HEAC) is encouraged by this growing trend. In recent years, the Council (predominantly comprised of members from the U.S. and Canada) has worked hard to build, support and extend the Salesforce community, sponsor events and provide Salesforce.org with guidance on its products and services. The 2018-2019 council members are here, in case you’re curious.

As always, the Higher Ed Advisory Council supports our community’s growth and applauds its expanding global reach and diversity. As such, HEAC is making sure our passports and visas are up to date – HEAC is going global!

Some of HEAC results over past years are:

• Creating open source higher ed CRM solutions such as Interactions and EASY
• Helping to create the Education Data Architecture (EDA, formerly HEDA) model
• Providing input on Salesforce Advisor Link (SAL)
• Helping to create Gift Entry Manager (GEM) for advancement
• Advising on the pricing model for Salesforce for higher ed
• Creating a “Mock University” demo for trying out the functionality of Salesforce

By participating in the Salesforce.org Higher Education Advisory Council, you can influence the road map for the future of higher education technology.

“The guidance the Council provided in my first year was priceless to Mason getting up and running quickly and continues to provide the education and leadership Mason needs in the growth and expansion of Salesforce services and usage.”
– Kathy Zimmerman, Salesforce Administrator, Enrollment Management, George Mason University

 

Why is the Higher Ed Advisory Council expanding internationally?

Because people are asking for it! We recognize the growth of the Education Cloud community and want to formally expand our community and partnerships internationally.

What do we hope to do?

By expanding globally, the goal is to formalize the Council in more countries and to provide forums for collaboration and technology acceleration. Think global community to bring about best practices, demos, “show and tells” and virtual meetings to share ideas and advance CRM in higher education.

When do we want to get started?

We’d like to bring together interested members from across the globe at this year’s Dreamforce in San Francisco. Save the dates: Dreamforce 2019 is Tuesday, November 19, 2019 – Friday, November 22, 2019 in San Francisco.

Europe, Middle East, and Africa-Based Higher Ed Leaders:
Apply for an HEAC Nomination

Interested in being part of this global higher ed advisory council? If you’re in EMEA, apply for a Higher Ed Advisory Council nomination here by June 30, 2019. If you’re in North America, stay tuned for the call for nominations that opens September 1, 2019.  

Apply Now