And that concludes the 2021 UNC CAUSE Conference! Thanks to everyone who helped make this conference a success! We had over 800 registrants at this year’s conference and saw many sessions with 100+ attendees! We were encouraged by the engagement and expertise shared across sessions and would like to thank the presenters, SIG chairs, and the planning committee for helping organize this year’s event. Thank you to this year’s sponsors for their continued support of UNC CAUSE.

Conference Survey

To help us provide you with an even better experience next year, please take a few minutes to share your thoughts on this year’s conference by filling out the evaluation survey. We have included a section on individual session feedback as well, which we’ll provide to speakers. Your feedback is invaluable!

Recordings Now Available

The keynote and attendee presentation recordings are now available on the Schedule! Log into your Sched account to review or watch any sessions you may have missed by clicking on the “Video Stream” button on sessions that have recordings available. The keynote recording is available until November 24, 2021, and all other recordings are available until December 31, 2021. You will also find slides and any other resources speakers have made available on their Sched session pages. Note that vendor session recordings will be available early November and most SIG discussions were not recorded.

Stay Connected Year-Round

Have you joined the UNC CAUSE Slack channel? The conference may happen only once a year but you can stay connected all year round in Slack! Connect with us and other UNC CAUSE members by creating a Slack account. Don’t forget there are several Special Interest Groups available as well. Join SIGs that interest you and participate in ongoing conversations around your areas of expertise or interest!

See you in 2022!

Thanks to everyone for their flexibility in pivoting to another virtual conference this year. We are excited at the prospect of returning to our usual in-person format next year! We plan to be back in Charlotte, NC at the Sheraton Charlotte Hotel from October 3-5 for the 2022 UNC CAUSE Conference!

Thanks to all of you for being part of this amazing UNC CAUSE community. We wish you good health and success in all you do and look forward to seeing you in 2022!

2021 UNC CAUSE Begins!

Welcome to the 2021 UNC CAUSE Virtual Conference! We’re thrilled to have 800+ IT professionals across the UNC System registered to attend this year! See this quick video featuring Conference Co-Chair Ron Bradley from NCSU welcoming everyone to 2021 UNC CAUSE:

Accessing Zoom Sessions

Important! Make sure you complete these five steps to get access before your first session. Conference registrants are manually invited to the Sched platform, where Zoom links will be available. Once you’re logged into Sched, add sessions you wish to attend to your schedule to personalize your itinerary. See what exciting sessions are lined up on the conference schedule!

Connect with Us!

Find us and other conference attendees on the UNC CAUSE Slack channel! See information on this year’s conference, propose/schedule unconference topics, find out more about in-person meetups, or simply connect with UNC CAUSE attendees!

Local In-Person Meetups

We appreciate everyone’s flexibility and understanding as we pivoted to another virtual conference this year. We know everyone misses making new connections, catching up with old friends, and networking at our usual in-person event. While we cannot all be in the same place at the same time, we are still getting together at various locations across the state! We located places with outdoor spaces that we hope are within do-able driving distances. UNC CAUSE representatives will be present at each location, but unfortunately we will not be sponsoring food or drinks due to several unpredictable factors. We hope to see you at one of the meetups below!

A UNC CAUSE representative will be at each spot from at least 5:30PM – 7:30PM, but you’re welcome to stay longer if you wish! Look for someone in UNC CAUSE attire or check in with the host. Also, be sure to check out the Slack channel for your location for more information!

• THIS WEEK: Friday, October 8th | 5:30PM – 7:30PM
  • Durham: Hi-Wire Brewery (800 Taylor Street, Durham) — *Venue change due to weather*
  • Hickory: Hickory Tavern (2982 North Center Street, Hickory)
• NEXT WEEK: Thursday, October 14th | 5:30PM – 7:30PM
  • Asheville: Sierra Nevada (100 Sierra Nevada Way, Mills River)
  • Greensboro: Boxcar Bar + Arcade (120 West Lewis Street, Greensboro – city parking adjacent)

Due to ongoing concerns around the COVID-19 pandemic, we urge anyone who is not feeling well or may have recently been exposed to COVID-19 to please stay home. For anyone attending, please bring your masks as some establishments may require masks be worn. Have fun and be safe!

Enjoy this first week of the conference. Welcome to 2021 UNC CAUSE!

This is it! The 2021 UNC CAUSE Conference begins next week and will run virtually from October 5-14. We can’t wait to see you all in Zoom for six days of several Special Interest Group meetups and presentations on a variety of topics given by our UNC System IT colleagues and conference sponsors. All IT professionals in the UNC System are now eligible to attend the conference! Make sure you register yourself as we need your email address to give you access to Sched to see all details on the schedule.

Have you confirmed your access to Sched?

If you’re not sure what Sched is, there’s a good chance you’ve missed one of the following required steps to get access to conference sessions. Please complete these five steps prior to the start of the conference to confirm you have full access. Step #1 must be completed by 5PM next Monday, October 4th, to guarantee access to all sessions including the keynote on Day 1!

1. Register for 2021 UNC CAUSE — through Iris system, as an individual
2. Wait to receive a Sched invitation — a manual process done each weekday by the conference team
3. Sign up/log into your Sched account for the 2021 UNC CAUSE event — must match the email you used to register for UNC CAUSE in Step #1
4. Select a session on the Sched Schedule and click the yellow “Open Zoom” button — must be logged into your Sched account
5. Register for the individual Zoom session to access the Zoom join link — this is sent via email and is an automated instantaneous process

Once you have access to Sched (Step #3), you can start adding sessions to your own schedule to receive daily morning reminders of your upcoming personal itinerary! If you registered for the conference but don’t have access to Sched, try to reset your Sched password or contact us.

We can’t wait to see you all next week!

We’re excited to share that all IT professionals across the UNC System are now eligible to attend 2021 UNC CAUSE! Don’t miss your chance to attend the virtual conference and register now! Many exciting sessions are lined up on the schedule across several different tracks. Register for the conference today so you can start adding sessions to your schedule.

Accessing Conference Sessions

To provide the best and most secure experience for all attendees, all 5 steps below must be completed to join sessions. To gain access to all conference sessions including the keynote, you must register by 5PM on October 4th, but we will continue to add registrants throughout the conference.

1. Register for 2021 UNC CAUSE — through Iris system, as an individual
2. Wait to receive a Sched invitation — a manual process done each weekday by the conference team
3. Sign up/log into your Sched account for the 2021 UNC CAUSE event — must match the email you used to register for UNC CAUSE in step 1
4. Select a session on the Sched Schedule and click the yellow “Open Zoom” button — must be logged into your Sched account
5. Register for the individual Zoom session to access the Zoom join link — this is sent via email and is an automated instantaneous process

Making Connections

We know many of you miss seeing everyone at the usual in-person conference and so do we!  Here are different ways to connect with UNC CAUSE attendees this year. We’ll be using Zoom meetings for all attendee and vendor presentations so we can better interact and simply see each other. Be sure to check the schedule to see when Special Interest Groups (SIGs) are meeting, and join SIGs that interest you. You can also find us and other conference attendees on Slack!

UNC CAUSE Slack: unccause.slack.com — Log into your account or create an account to join the different conference channels!

• #2021-conference: Find updates and connect with the planning committee and other conference attendees!
• #2021-unconference: Miss the impromptu hallway discussions at the in-person event or want to find others with similar interests? This channel is for you! Propose unconference topics and schedule times to meet with others to discuss your shared interests!
• #2021-speakers: A special channel just for presenters!
• #questions: Need direct help? Reach out to us!

We’re also still hoping to have local in-person meetups. More details on this to come soon.

Questions?

Need help with registration or access to Sched and Slack? Find answers to that and more on our FAQ!

We’re thrilled to share this year’s keynote address will be given by Jia Jiang!

2021 UNC CAUSE Keynote Speaker Jia Jiang: The Rejection Guy, TED Talk speaker, author, blogger, entrepreneur

Keynote Address: Influence Beyond Your Box

Based on race, gender, education or job function, society and organizations put us into different boxes and tag us with stereotypes. Even more damaging, however, are the boxes we unconsciously put ourselves in. In this talk, Jia teaches organizations and individuals how to lead and influence beyond their boxes.

Register for 2021 UNC CAUSE today so you don’t miss the keynote at 3:00 PM (ET) on Tuesday, October 5, the first day of the conference. Registration gives you access to all events during the 2-week conference!

About Jia Jiang

Jia Jiang is the founder and CEO of DareMe, a company that trains organizations to become fearless through rejection training. He is known as the Rejection Guy, and on his blog, 100 Days of Rejection Therapy, documents and analyzes his journey to discover and conquer the fear of rejection. He is a newly minted TED speaker. His book Rejection Proof is a #1 bestseller. Jia holds a Bachelor of Computer Science from Brigham Young University and a Master of Business Administration from Duke University.

“But by not even asking, we are rejecting ourselves by default—and probably missing out on opportunity as a result.”  – Jia Jiang

We’re excited to announce the full program is now available!

Similar to last year’s experience, 2021 UNC CAUSE will be a series of virtual events from October 5-14 in lieu of our usual 3-day, in-person event. This will be the daily Zoom schedule for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of each week:

• Attendee Presentations @ 9AM, 10AM, & 1PM
• Vendor Presentations @ 11AM, 2PM, & 2:30PM
• SIG Sessions @ 3PM

A variety of presentation topics, Special Interest Group sessions, and Vendor presentations are lined up on the program, and you’ll be able to join as many sessions that interest you once you have registered for the conference. Be sure to register today!

Accessing Sessions

Links to join Zoom sessions will be added to the schedule on the Sched platform closer to the conference, which will only be accessible if you have a Sched account for the conference for security purposes. All current conference registrants have been added to Sched and new conference registrants are being added to Sched on a daily basis. Thank you for your patience as this is a manual process. Be sure to use the email address you used during conference registration to create or sign into your Sched account.

We miss you all!

We know how much people missed seeing everyone at our usual in-person conference. Depending on current COVID-19 guidance, we hope to have local in-person meetups during the conference. We’ll monitor the situation and send more on this closer to the conference.

We have an amazing schedule lined up for this year’s UNC CAUSE Conference, which will be announced very soon! Learn what your IT colleagues are doing at their UNC campus by registering for 2021 UNC CAUSE. You only need to register once to gain access to all conference events!

We know schools are still experiencing constraints around the pandemic, budget, and travel, so we are once again offering a one-payment registration rate per school. This means that once payment has been made for a campus, any registrant from that campus may attend the entire conference!

2021 UNC CAUSE Rates:

• Campuses with > 10,000 students:  $500 (one-time fee)
• Campuses with < 10,000 students:  $250 (one-time fee)

Visit 2021 UNC CAUSE Registration to learn more about the campus rates and to register for the conference. We look forward to seeing you all in October!

We have already received lots of great submissions for the virtual UNC CAUSE Conference this October. The conference is a reflection of our IT community in the UNC System, and we want to make sure you have an opportunity to share your ideas and strategies for supporting your campus.

To give you enough time to submit your ideas, we are extending the Call for Proposals to next Friday, June 11!

 

 

Consider submitting a proposal within one of the following conference tracks to present during a 45-minute Zoom session at UNC CAUSE. It’s been a year of tremendous resourcefulness and innovation, and we want to hear about the creative ways you all have continued to support your schools during the global pandemic. What useful tips and tricks did your team discover while overcoming obstacles in the past year? What does your support model look like with learning returning to campus in the fall? We’re sure there are plenty of interesting things to share!

Conference tracks:

• Customer Support & Engagement
• Infrastructure & Operations
• Innovation
• Leadership & Professional Development
• Security & Compliance
• Teaching & Learning
• Special Interest Group sessions

Thank you to those of you who have already submitted. If you have not submitted but have an interesting presentation idea, we strongly encourage you to submit one today. We are here to learn from each other!

The Call for Proposals and Conference Registration are now OPEN!

We’re thrilled to once again bring together hundreds of our IT colleagues across the UNC System in our virtual conference from October 5-14. We’re continuing our permanent, multi-year theme of More Than a Conference by connecting IT professionals and building those relationships across the UNC System. This is where we need YOU!

Submit a Proposal

The success of UNC CAUSE is due to the amazing presentations given each year. Presenters were able to reach so many more attendees virtually last year, and we’re happy to continue that opportunity this year! Visit 2021 Call for Proposals to submit a proposal and learn more about this year’s conference.

The deadline for proposal submission is Friday, June 4, 2021.

The global pandemic has forced us all to think creatively and come up with innovative solutions to continue supporting our institutions. It’s been more than a year after the big pivot last spring, and we want to hear about the lessons learned and what improvements have been made to better support your campus! Did you collaborate with colleagues in other campus units or at other institutions? Consider a panel discussion! Ready to share updates on that project you’ve been working on? Has your team excelled in the work remote environment in ways that can be implemented across different units? Our 45-minute Zoom session format can look like just about anything for your presentation, so consider sharing your ideas!

Session Categories

We are accepting proposals within these conference tracks:

• Customer Support & Engagement
• Infrastructure & Operations
• Innovation
• Leadership & Professional Development
• Security & Compliance
• Teaching & Learning

Register for 2021 UNC CAUSE

The UNC CAUSE organization’s mission is to promote and facilitate cooperation and exchange information in all areas related to IT. Learn what your IT colleagues are doing at their UNC campus by registering for 2021 UNC CAUSE. You only need to register once to gain access to all conference events!

We understand all schools in the UNC System are still experiencing constraints around the pandemic, budget, and travel, so we are once again offering a one-payment registration rate per campus. This means that once payment has been made for a campus, any registrant from that campus may attend the entire conference!

2021 UNC CAUSE Rates:

• Campuses with > 10,000 students:  $500 (one-time fee)
• Campuses with < 10,000 students:  $250 (one-time fee)

Visit 2021 UNC CAUSE Registration to learn more about the campus rates and to register for the conference!

We look forward to this year’s submissions and are excited to see many of you in October!

We’re excited to announce the dates for the 2021 UNC CAUSE Conference — October 5th-14th!

Due to the unknown circumstances around the COVID-19 pandemic this fall, we have decided to go virtual again this year but hope to return to our usual in-person format in 2022. We received lots of positive feedback about last year’s conference and plan to continue a similar format this year. Sessions will still occur on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday each week, but we’re packing the full conference schedule into two weeks! Stay tuned for more details.

2021 UNC CAUSE Schedule:

• Week 1: October 5, 6, 7
• Week 2: October 12, 13, 14

Look for Registration and the Call for Proposals coming soon!