ALISE 2014 promised a theme related to entrepreneurship in education, another hackneyed application of the term in university life. To this end, we were addressed by a keynote speaker who seemed to be selling Coursera as a solution to a problem some of us don’t have (imagine, they have now ‘discovered’ that students repeat-view the more difficult parts of a lesson!) and the E-word found itself in session titles throughout. The fact that people shoved papers into panel formats (or rather, ignored the panel format and proceeded to present disconnected talks in the form of papers) added to the sense that some conferences are really not quite what they should be. Only rarely did a critical voice raise itself to question the theme or its substantive absence in discussions. Sadly, most people I spoke with felt the same. The very dull Doubletree (perhaps the ugliest architecture in an otherwise attractive downtown) did not help.
The Deans and Directors Council was actually quite energized however, with a lively exchange aimed at pushing back on some of the accreditation nonsense regulations increasingly imposed on us. Here was a venue that actually felt like something constructive was happening and the group agreed to move forward on an action plan. Now that is educational entrepreneurship.