Our Chief Growth Officer, Greg Topel, just returned from this year’s Educause conference in San Antonio Texas where the best and brightest companies and leaders from across the world gathered to share ideas, innovations, challenges, and solutions in the higher education sector. The sold out conference was enlightening and allowed for Mimo to connect with CIOs and various EdTech decision makers around the country. While there, Greg was able to get a pulse on the latest EdTech challenges, opportunities, and trends. Keep reading to learn more about some of his key takeaways:

• AI presents challenges and opportunities in higher ed: The time of AI has clearly arrived for higher education, but so are the many questions and concerns in regards to how to use it properly and responsibly.  AI provides huge learning opportunities and innovative, new ways to enrich everyone’s lives on campus. It can elevate student’s learning experiences while providing a wealth of new tools, access, and information at their fingertips resulting in major increases in efficiencies. But the flip side is that AI also presents some challenges that students, faculty, and staff need to navigate.There are issues of overuse or plagiarism, inaccuracies, or students avoiding learning using AI tools rather than accentuating those experiences. Regardless of what the school of thought is around AI in educational settings, everyone is on the precipice of attempting to navigate and adapt to this new normal that will only continue to proliferate and become more powerful as the years go on. And the heavy use of AI means a consistent and continued effort and need to adapt.
• Cybersecurity is a consistent concern: The average college student is not necessarily overly concerned about cybersecurity, but college administrators  consider it a clear and primary issue for all systems related to IT. Leaders shared some of the latest innovations in cybersecurity, challenges they are navigating, and how campus environments can ensure security is in place for the health of their entire college environment.
• FlashCast resonated with the Educause attendees due to technology’s unique capabilities: Greg was able to introduce FlashCast to higher ed IT leaders, system integrators, and EdTech decision makers around the country. Many of those folks were pleasantly surprised to learn about the product’s unique capabilities to take over every screen on campus (including in every classroom) while disseminating time-sensitive, and customized information. Because FlashCast is the first of its kind and the first to provide the ability to take over every display on campus at scale while also being cost effective, not only is Mimo introducing the product to market, but the entire capability is new to this audience. Once the FlashCast’s capabilities and use cases are truly understood, several attendees expressed clear interest and excited to learn more. Greg walked away from the conference with a better understanding of the high level of interest towards FlashCast, invigorated to continue having conversations with key decision makers in the months ahead.  

Last week our CEO, David Anderson, and other Tugboat institute® members made the trip to Omaha, Nebraska where they delved deeper into learning about Supportworks, an Evergreen® company that works to redefine the contractor industry. The summit was run by brothers Dave and Dan Thrasher, the co-owners and leaders of the second-generation family business who put together a remarkable program and experience for our group to learn, connect with value-aligned peers, and enjoy a taste of Omaha

The week began as Dan and Dave welcomed us all to their beautiful and impressive campus, where Supportworks, The Thrasher Group, Thrasher Partners, and their newest business, Hello Garage, are headquartered. The first day started with a fireside chat with Dan, Dave, and Tugboat Institute CEO Dave Whorton, during which they shared the story of their parents bootstrapping the business slowly, over three decades, before handing the reins to them. Dan and Dave dug in and shared some of the strategies they learned and used to grow the company’s revenue 100x over the last 20 years. An amazing, inspiring, and honestly humbling accomplishment.  

Dan and Dave also collaborated on a presentation about their recent experience launching a new vertical, Hello Garage, a company that specializes in transforming dirty garages with durable flooring and a customizable storage system. They were candid in sharing not only how they selected this vertical for expansion and their successes with this venture, but also the mistakes made along the way and the lessons learned. One key takeaway gleaned from this was that even when there is the utmost strategic planning and the numbers make perfect sense, sometimes it's still crucial to listen to and rely on a gut feeling. While it is hard to quantify, the entrepreneurial 'gut' is built on years of hard work, experience, and sometimes pain. It should not be ignored, even if it can't be put into words. 

The last formal presentation was from Dan, who shared what it means to him to create and sustain a remarkable customer experience. He cautioned that CEOs should not delegate responsibility for making sure that it remains remarkable and that it’s a never-ending process of continuous improvement for the team. Anything less than fierce attention to this aspect of the business, creates significant risk to longevity. This is one area that can always be better.

Our CEO, David, returned with a clear reminder that it’s crucial to regularly and intentionally share the story and journey of Mimo with the goal of continuing to integrate the company’s Purpose across the entire organization-- in the strategy, planning, business process, communications and more.