Portland, Oregon October 19-22, 2008

Moving Mountains, Blazing Trails

This year's Fall Conference theme, "Moving Mountains, Blazing Trails" was inspired by our Oregon locale and the work that we do.

While we gather to discuss computing services, we'll be sharing how we moved mountains and blazed trails at our institutions to reach our goals. We encourage everyone to share the travails of blazing a new trail as they move mountains to discover new approaches to the ever-present and always new Computing Services challenges: supporting our customers while faced with limited resources, training of users and staff, hiring and retaining good technical and managerial staff, providing top-notch help desk support at all times, advancing the pedagogical use of technology, working at the bleeding edge, anticipating the bleeding edge, managing tipping points, and always looking ahead to determine what is going to happen next on the technology trail.

The services we provide day-to-day are not unlike services provided by other fields - banks, hotels, restaurants, churches, museums, theme parks, etc. We all try to provide our special services to the customer in a positive way, we plan for the future, we anticipate needs, we develop the needed infrastructure, and we try to advance our fields.

This year's program will give you the levers you need to help you move the immovable and to find trails to new ideas and solutions. You most assuredly will leave with new trail blazing skills, and the ability to generate earthquakes as you move some mountains when you return home! We also encourage you to actively participate! Check the links at the left for all the details. We look forward to seeing you at Portland, Oregon, for SIGUCCS 2008!

We encourage you to take advantage of the special conference hotel rates that have been accorded to SIGUCCS participants by coming a few days early or staying additional days. Using this approach, you can take full advantage of the professional learning environment SIGUCCS offers, and also blaze some trails as you travel the beautiful area surrounding Portland.