Notes from Educause 2024

For the past 20 years, like many in EdTech, I’ve been going to the EDUCAUSE conference (with a couple of exceptions for family halloween and fall break, and, of course, COVID).? But in all of those cases, I’ve gone as a vendor.? This year, I went as an observer, with nothing to sell, and not needing to buy anything.? I was a neutral observer who was able to talk to anyone about anything and roam freely.? Literally, no agenda when I arrived, which made it really, really fun.??

So, what did I see and hear?? Let’s start with what I didn’t see : game changing innovations.? All of the major players seem to be content with just smaller, incremental improvements on their product roadmaps.? While, as a product guy, this is disappointing, it probably makes sense, given the fact that we are seeing fewer and fewer moves from one major platform to another, with the only exception being Workday, who seems to be seeing some success in migrating clients.???

Second, I still see a lot of trepidation on all sides, vendors, universities, investors, about what impact AI is going to have on education, their business, and their portfolios, respectively.? Everyone seems really cautious about making any big moves until we work our way through the end of the hype cycle and start to see some real impacts.??

Third, and this might be a note for EDUCAUSE :? I heard a lot of vendors questioning the value of having a booth at the show.? In fact, I talked to several large #EdTech providers who chose not to exhibit because the cost was too high, and the lead generation opportunities were to low.? This could be a problem of saturation in the market, but it also might be emblematic of a show / exhibit that needs to reinvent itself for a new or different audience.??

Finally, it struck me the impact that Private Equity is having on the EdTech market.? I will have a lot more to say about this in a separate post in the next couple of weeks, but it is really important that people understand the dynamics of the EdTech market and why Private Equity is so prevalent in the market.? At this show, of course, the big anticipation was when the Instructure deal with KKR was going to close.? Instructure employees and clients were basically just waiting to figure out what it was going to mean to them.? Uncertainty is not well received in any market, but especially higher education.? I’m not one who thinks private equity is bad, in fact, it is often a great ownership option, but I think that clients need to understand it better, which is why I’ll write more about it later.??

Educause is always fun for me, because it is a bit of a family reunion.? One aspect that I think few people understand is that there is a core group of several hundred (or more) truly passionate people who care about EdTech, and regardless of where they are currently working, they are going to help universities solve big problems.? It is always a delight to catch up with those folks, and Educause brings most of them together in one place!? ?