Interfolio will be attending a number of national and international conferences this fall. We value the opportunity to connect with current and prospective partners at these events. Are you or your colleagues attending these events and conferences? If so, we invite you to connect with us to set up a 1:1 meeting where we can discuss your institution’s challenges and how Interfolio’s faculty-centric technology can help.

Are you a current client? We’d love to say hello and hear more about how your campus uses Interfolio. Connect with your account manager to arrange an in-person meeting with Interfolio representatives at the conference.

Join us at these US conferences:

• Community College Business Officers Annual Conference
• Council of Independent College Chief Academic Officers Conference
• California Association of Institutional Research (CAIR)
• Missouri Community College Association Annual Conference
• Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU)
• AACSB Diversity & Inclusion Summit
• AACSB Associate Deans conference
• Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS)
• Middle States Commission of Higher Education (MSCHE)

Visit with us at these international conferences:

• AACSB Asian Pacific Annual Conference 
• Wonkfest 2019
• THE Live and THE Awards

On the final day of the 2019 Interfolio Summit, we turned to some of the event’s most technical and groundbreaking content. 

Successes in the southwest: Texas and Utah

The University of Texas at Austin team broke down how they have strategically integrated actions and data from the Interfolio Faculty Search module—and carefully enforced how fields are configured in the system—to inform their academic recruitment efforts with a new level of marketing analytics data.

Meanwhile, administrators for the Interfolio Review, Promotion & Tenure module got a concrete lesson in how exactly 2019 PAC member institution University of Utah has brought their faculty review logistics to the successful place they are today. 

“The life of a [software] bug”

In a conversation at once amiable and frank, a sampling of the Interfolio software engineering team and an inquisitive audience had a productive exchange—discussing the step-by-step process by which Interfolio responds to customers’ technical requests for improvements and changes to the products. 

We were even joined by a larger-than-life bug:

The Interfolio product roadmap: 6 months out

The 2019 Interfolio Summit audience got a special glimpse into the specific areas of focus and challenges that Interfolio has on the horizon for the remainder of 2019 and beyond. 

This session and the engineering team’s session (mentioned above), in particular, drew out the extent to which Interfolio’s offerings are both reactive and proactive, and could not be successful without an ongoing dialogue with those who use them in their day-to-day work. 

We hope you join us next year at our second annual Summit for even more conversation, networking, and cultural exploration. 

For more information on the 2019 Interfolio Summit, check out the other two posts: Recap + Day 1: The (Inaugural) 2019 Interfolio Summit and Day 2: Keynote, client presentations, and a birthday party.

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If your institution currently uses Interfolio, please keep an eye out for news about the 2020 Interfolio Summit. Have questions? Contact us at events@interfolio.com.

Before the first full day of the Summit even got started, a handful of intrepid attendees and Interfolio staff went on a 5K walk/run around the monuments.

Keynote: “I started my career at a community college.”

The second day opened with a compelling keynote address from Lynn Pasquerella, President of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, thoughtfully moderated by Paul Fain, News Editor at Inside Higher Ed. 

In her address, Dr. Pasquerella discussed some of higher education’s most pressing contemporary topics, including the direct implications of academic employment models for student attainment, the critical role of community colleges in the future of U.S. higher education, and the operational decisions by universities—including but not limited to new technology—that provide opportunities to share resources beyond the borders of campus. 

 (Want more? Take a look at our recent Q&A with Dr. Pasquerella on the Interfolio blog.)

Client presentations: diversity, community, and local configurations

The day’s remaining sessions (some in concurrent pairs) featured engaging presentations from representatives of a dozen different institutions. Here are just a few tidbits.

At the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, the full picture of improving diversity and inclusion in faculty recruitment includes the Interfolio Faculty Search module—alongside other components such as focused conversations, mandatory action plans for new faculty searches, and a devoted STRIDE team. In the UMBC example, the Interfolio platform enables the gathering of applicant data that can lead to interventions in searches, a leveling of the field during the committee review process, and an automatic reporting on where applicants are finding position listings online. 

The University of Arizona shared how they have developed a carefully structured internal user support community for collecting, validating, and reporting on data through the Interfolio Faculty Activity Reporting module. 

Evening events: DC excursions and Interfolio’s 20th birthday

After the day of thoughtful conversation and discovery, attendees had the opportunity to enjoy an architectural walking tour, explore the National Portrait Gallery, or visit a free concert at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage. 

Afterward, attendees convened at the Interfolio offices for a 20th birthday-themed happy hour.

For more information on the 2019 Interfolio Summit, check out the other two posts: Recap + Day 1: The (Inaugural) 2019 Interfolio Summit and Day 3: Success stories, a look under the hood, and a 6-month roadmap.

What outcomes should faculty technology provide to colleges and universities? How can they use it most wisely? And where is it going next?

Those were the questions in play at the first-ever Interfolio Summit, held in mid-July 2019 at the Westin City Center in downtown Washington, DC. 

Over 175 individuals representing 80 colleges and universities descended upon Washington, DC for this three-day event offering learning and networking opportunities for anyone who uses Interfolio to manage academic hiring, faculty activity reporting, and professional review workflows in higher education.

Throughout the event, it was clear that the Faculty Information System has an essential role to play in empowering global higher education not only to work more cost-effectively, but also—especially—to eliminate the current pervasive blindspot around academic lifecycle moments like faculty hiring, teaching, scholarship, professional advancement, and service to the institution.

Prologue to the Summit: the Product Advisory Committee

Preceding the Summit proper, we met with the 2019 cohort of the Interfolio Product Advisory Committee (PAC). The PAC is a small, rotating group of faculty affairs, technology, and administrative leaders from 12 academic institutions who consult with Interfolio throughout the year to provide input and reactions to the investments that we’re making in the products.

Day 1: Setting the stage

The beginning of the Summit took place on Wednesday afternoon, giving attendees ample chance to get in, get registered, and take stock of the opportunities.

The Summit kicked off with reflective opening remarks—first from Interfolio founder, president, and chief product officer Steve Goldenberg on the 20-year anniversary of the company’s founding, and next from Interfolio CEO Andrew Rosen on the critical and timely necessity of the Faculty Information System technology category. 

Lessons on change management—from those that have done it

Following the opening remarks, and connecting the dots with the 2019 PAC meeting, the very first session of the Summit addressed change management as it relates to higher education faculty technology.

We heard from experienced Interfolio champions at 2019 PAC member institutions UCSD, Vanderbilt, and Tulane, as well as Interfolio Senior Consultant David Schenirer.

For some of the concrete guidance including best practices from the field and notes from these speakers (among others), take a look at our free downloadable white paper, Managing Change When Implementing Faculty Technology.

While the educational programming of that first short day wrapped up, we invited Summit attendees to an entertaining happy hour complete with rooftop views at the Eaton DC.

For more information on the 2019 Interfolio Summit, check out the other two posts: Day 2: Keynote, client presentations, and a birthday party and Day 3: Success stories, a look under the hood, and a 6-month roadmap.