Final keynote - Freeman Hrabowski

Why IT Matters: A President’s Perspective on Technology and Leadership
Freeman A. Hrabowski III - President, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Rather than trying to write this up, I highly, highly recommend that you view it for real (I can't do it justice). There are undoubtly many reasons why Hrabowski has risen to be President of a university, many of which are on display here, but I think ABSOLUTELY that the main reason is demonstrated in how he deals with things going wrong in the middle of the presentation (36mins in)

Watch this!! ...if:

• you'd like to see a "less than typical" head of a university speech - start about 6mins in (or slide28) to get past the general Educause stuff
• you'd like to see what sort of presentation by a senior manager can get several thousand people to their feet for a standing ovation
• you are prepared to get through some very US-specific points to hear other interesting stuff
• you would like a masterclass in "how to deal with a presentation when things don't go your way" (36mins40secs in) - for info PeopleSoft is HR, CRM and student admin tool
• you like sentimental stories or just haven't had a good cry lately (49min30secs in)
• you are interested in how to influence senior managers to see your perspective - he talks IT but I think it transfers (Q&A session about 53 minutes in)
• you're curious how IT helps assholes (1hr,1min,45secs-ish in)
• you want to see how to close a session rather than leaving it just as Q&A fade out (1hr,2min,30secs in)

http://hosted.mediasite.com/hosted5/Viewer/?peid=60706773509a468985f07cd6e23b2609

Don't watch this...if you prefer cynical understatement to enthusiastic overstatement