Why Higher Ed Professionals Should Attend bbcon This Year
It’s almost here! Join us in Columbus, Ohio, September 29–October 1, for bbcon: the premier event for higher ed advancement teams, scholarship admins, and business officers to explore emerging technology, exchange ideas, elevate practices, and connect with colleagues from across the higher ed community.
From agentic AI to hands-on product deep dives, we’re bringing together global thought leaders and your fellow higher ed practitioners to share what’s actually working on their campuses. The 2026 bbcon agenda is packed with sessions built around your institution’s real challenges — and even better, they’re led by people who live those challenges every day. Here are a few reasons you and your team should be there.
On the Mainstage
Leslie Odom, Jr., New York Times bestselling author, songwriter, and award-winning actor widely recognized for his breakout role as Aaron Burr in Broadway’s Hamilton, joins bbcon for a fireside chat on resilience, creativity, and leadership — followed by a live performance.
Also joining the mainstage, Priya Lakhani OBE, founder and CEO of CENTURY Tech, brings a global perspective on AI, ethics, and education. Having advised governments on AI policy, Priya translates the fast-moving world of educational AI into practical, human-centered guidance institutions can actually use — a theme we explored recently in AI and the Future of Human-Centered Education.
Education Luminary Session
Don’t miss our luminary panel, Education’s Defining Moment: Turning Insight into Impact, moderated by Renee Ducre, Chief Information Officer for the United Negro College Fund. This candid conversation with education, technology, and cybersecurity leaders will explore how AI, connected data, trust, and human-centered leadership can help institutions move from more information to more confident action.
Peer-Led Insights, Not Just a Product Pitch
Here’s the thing about bbcon: it isn’t just Blackbaud talking at you. The full agenda is stacked with sessions led by higher ed peers — colleagues from large institutions like Boston University and Indiana State University, big community college systems like Wake Tech and Dallas College, and small liberal arts campuses like Transylvania University and Colby College — sharing the real strategies, missteps, and wins from their own experiences. A few sessions worth building your schedule around:
AI in Action
Panel: Getting Started with Agentic AI Fundraising brings together Hallie Guiseppe of Alvernia University and Geoff Hallett of Colby College for an honest conversation on where to start, what guardrails matter, and how to bring a skeptical team along for the ride.
Turn AI Interest into AI Readiness: Building a Data Foundation You Can Trust features Arys Nogueron of NYU Langone Health alongside peers from The Nature Conservancy, Brightvine Solutions, and Dataro on the unglamorous groundwork — data quality, governance, buy-in — that determines whether AI actually pays off.
How to Scale Your Organization’s Marketing Strategy with AI-Powered Tools pairs Transylvania University’s Emily Martin with Blackbaud’s marketing team to show how a lean team can compete with organizations several times their size.
Fundraising & Alumni Engagement
From Events to Intelligence: How Jax State Uses Data & Segmentation to Scale Alumni Engagement follows Jacksonville State University’s Bethany Dryden and Mary Furlow as they explain how they discovered which alumni actually wanted to hear from them — and what they did differently for everyone else.
Making Your Campaigns, Funds, and Appeals Work for You: Designing for Smarter Reporting, led by Wilson Sarosa of UC Berkeley, offers a framework for setting reports up right from the start, so leadership gets clear answers and teams save substantial time.
Precision Over Volume: How Hebrew Union College Uses a Data-Driven Approach to Unlock Major and Planned Gifts—Even Globally follows Hebrew Union College’s Patrick Nicholas Leary on why narrowing the prospect list — not widening it — has been the better strategy for a donor base spread across multiple countries.
Scholarship & Award Management
Practices Making Perfect: Sharing What Works to Reach Scholarship Applicants brings together scholarship leaders from Wake Tech Foundation, Texas State University, Indiana State University, and Sam Houston State University to compare recruitment tactics across four very different applicant pools.
The Reviewer Experience: Building an Organized and Engaging Scholarship Review Process, led by Southeastern Louisiana University’s Marcela Goings, shares how to keep volunteer reviewers coming back term after term without burning them out.
Award Renewals: Tips, Tricks, & Strategies for Automated Multi-Term Scholarship Lifecycles has Dallas College’s Lori Tatsch walking through the workflow that keeps returning scholarship recipients from falling through the cracks term after term.
Breaking Down Campus Silos
From Donors to Diplomas: What Happens When Campus Technology Finally Works Together explores what happens when advancement and student systems finally share the same data — turning a fragmented student and donor journey into one connected story from first gift to graduation.
Beyond the Legacy SIS: AI, Automation, and the Future of Student Operations looks at where automation and AI can finally free student ops teams from the manual workarounds legacy systems forced them into.
Leadership & Engagement
Change Without the Chaos: How to Become a Change Management Leader, from Rowan University’s Linda Miller and Ryan McNulla, shares real talk on keeping your team bought in during a system migration or process overhaul — without burning the political capital you’ll need later.
From AI Innovation to Advancement Impact: How Executive Leaders Turn Capability into Performance brings Boston University’s Tim Cerato and Elie Sirotta into the conversation on the leadership strategies behind getting an entire advancement team to actually adopt new tools, not just pilot them.
More Than Sessions
Beyond the peer-led breakouts, bbcon gives you room to delve deeper into Blackbaud product capabilities built specifically for higher ed — from award management and fundraising CRMs to SIS and financial operations — through hands-on workshops with Blackbaud University instructors and one-on-one time with product teams and partners.
Register Today
Connect with hundreds of higher ed professionals at bbcon. It’s a hub for networking, providing you with countless opportunities to exchange ideas, share experiences, and build lasting relationships with peers who understand the challenges and opportunities unique to higher education.
bbcon is an investment in your institution’s future. Don’t miss this chance to grow, collaborate, and explore innovative solutions. Register today and secure your spot at bbcon 2026 in Columbus. Together, let’s shape the future of higher education!
