Event

Built to Last: Looking Back to Lead Forward | A Pre-EDUCAUSE Leadership Dinner

Event Details
Where:
Denver, CO
When:
September 29, 2026

Higher education has navigated transformational change before. From the rise of the internet and cloud computing to cybersecurity, digital learning, and enterprise modernization, institutional leaders have repeatedly adapted to new realities while preserving their core mission. 

Executive in Residence Jason Belland previews the interactive dinner format and shares how attendees will draw on past experiences to explore the leadership decisions shaping higher education technology.

Today, CIOs and senior technology leaders face another period of consequential choices. Institutions are balancing rapid advances in AI, growing expectations for student and employee experience, fragmented data, cybersecurity risk, financial pressure, and limited workforce capacity. The challenge is deciding where to move boldly, where to proceed carefully, and which enduring principles should guide both. 

Join Attain Partners for an invitation-only executive dinner bringing together higher education CIOs and senior technology leaders. Over a three-course dinner, participants will work through an unfolding institutional case, with new facts and leadership challenges revealed throughout the evening. 

The case is designed to spark candid conversation, not produce a single correct answer. Working in small, facilitated groups, leaders will compare approaches, test assumptions, share lessons from their own institutions, and explore what it takes to make today’s technology decisions trusted, measurable, and built to last. 

  • A small, invitation-only gathering of approximately 20 CIOs and senior technology leaders 
  • An unfolding executive case revealed through attractive table cards over dinner, with no presentations or workshop materials 
  • Candid discussion of AI, data, cybersecurity, institutional capacity, investment, and change 
  • Meaningful opportunities to learn from peers across different types of institutions 
  • Practical leadership insights and new relationships to carry into the EDUCAUSE week