Alliance 2013: Indianapolis!

This year the annual HEUG (Higher Education User Group) conference "Alliance 2013" is being held in Indianapolis.  I wasn't too excited about the venue, out in the middle states lost in the 'red zone' but alas, it was an educational trip with my co-workers and others like us from around the world so yay!  Most exciting this year was that me and Jaime Russell presented on "Block Enrollment:  Pre-enrolling your First time Freshmen into their coursework".  I was very anxious for my first time presenting at the conference.  It was nice being the first presentation out of the gate, Monday morning at 8:00am.  The presentation went great, even had a few familiar faces in attendance asking some great questions- thanks Jami and Kimberly from Boise State!

Once our presentation was over I was ready to enjoy the rest of the conference, for sure!  I got several great runs in with my friends.  The normal iO Consulting "Fun Run" 5k was Sunday morning and it was so cold that our eyes were tearing up and we were chattering our teeth, certainly not weather we were used to.  Once we'd ran the 5K race, Trisha, Amanda and I went around the loop one more time to get in almost 6 miles total.  Trisha and I braved the cold one other morning and looped out again that day too.  Can't believe we did it though, the wind chill must've had the temperature down in the single digits.  SO COLD!

Each year the iO Consulting company also has a customer appreciation event.  This year it was held at the NCAA Hall of Fame!  Apparently this is very cool!  I had some good snacks and drinks at the event.  It was also where I got to see most of the Boise State contingent and chat with them for a bit.

The closing night celebration was over the top.  I had more drink coupons than I could count and my Alliance water bottle was filled to the brim with vodka cranberry drinks!  That's how I roll at the parties.  There were three stories of events.  At the top were dancers and performers with drinks and food a midst Nascar race cars and promoters.  The middle level had the deserts and a very chill atmosphere.  The sea of desert tables (this is just one of them) was overwhelming.  Thanks to Amanda for helping me not eat myself to death!

The lower level had dueling pianos and games.  This is where I met up with Michelle and Jami from Boise State and had a few drinks while singing along with the piano's and watching the crazy dancers heckling each other and the pianists.

Yeah, that's me with my vodka water bottle... so clearly a great time by all, wonderful event and of course most importantly we learned a lot from each other that we can take back to our campuses!

Cheers to Alliance!