Mon, August 3
9:30 - 10:45 AM

Level: Basic

Description

AI will change what we do. Leadership will be defined by who we are.

Artificial intelligence is changing everything—how we work, how we decide, and how we lead. But in a world racing toward automation, our greatest advantage remains profoundly human.

This keynote is an invitation to lead from the qualities no algorithm can replicate: character, courage, judgment, and care. Through stories, research, and practical leadership lessons, attendees will explore how lifelong learning, personal agency, and a deep trust in what they know for sure can help them lead through uncertainty with confidence, purpose, and heart.

Audience Takeaways

• A framework for leading confidently through technological disruption.
• Practical strategies for balancing innovation with human-centered leadership.
• Tools for strengthening resilience, adaptability, and lifelong learning.
• Insights into the uniquely human leadership qualities that create trust and influence.
• Renewed confidence in their ability to shape the future rather than simply react to it.

Mon, August 3
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Level: Overview

Description

This session will explore AI as a leadership/decision-support tool in administrative and financial settings. Focus will be on judgment, risk, and accountability, as well as what AI can and cannot reliably do and how leaders should use it responsibly.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize the strengths and limitations of current AI systems in administrative and financial decision-making.
• Evaluate potential risks, biases, and accountability challenges associated with AI-assisted decisions.
• Apply practical principles for responsible AI use within higher education administrative environments.

Mon, August 3
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Level: Basic

Description

Have you sat through a presentation that felt like a total snooze fest - or worse, like pulling teeth? We've all experienced sessions where slides were overloaded, the flow felt disjointed, and staying engaged felt nearly impossible. But presentations don't have to be that way! In this session, you'll discover how to apply adult learning principles to design presentations that help audiences retain information and actively engage. You'll explore best practices for structuring your presentation, designing clean and compelling slides, and incorporating interactive strategies to help keep learners attentive and involved. Transform your presentations into clear, captivating, and memorable learning experiences starting today!

Learning Objectives:

• Learners will recognize adult learning techniques and how they relate to a presentation format.
• Learners will explore how to make their messages memorable.
• Learners will identify best practices to relay information in a manner that is clear and engaging.

Description

This session examines the critical distinction between leadership and management and their shared role in cultivating a culture of belonging. Participants explore how inclusive leadership is practiced daily, particularly during change and complexity. Through reflection and applied discussion, attendees identify strategies to lead with courage, engage with empathy, and sustain trust while delivering results.

Learning Objectives:

• Differentiate leadership and management in fostering belonging and effectiveness.
• Examine inclusive leadership behaviors during change and complexity.
• Apply strategies that balance inclusion, trust, and performance.

Description

Higher education leaders make decisions every day that carry risk– whether they realize it or not. From campus safety and compliance obligations to financial pressures and reputational concerns, the modern university operates in an environment filled with uncertainty. This session introduces participants to the fundamentals of risk management in higher education and provides a practical framework for identifying and evaluating risks across the institution. Rather than focusing solely on worst-case scenarios, we’ll explore how risk awareness can support better decision-making, stronger governance, and more resilient institutions. Participants will leave with tools and perspectives that can be applied immediately within their own functional areas.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify the primary risk categories (strategic, operational, financial, compliance, and reputational) that impact modern colleges and universities. 
• Differentiate between traditional, siloed hazard management and a holistic Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) approach. 
• Apply the five core stages of the ERM process (Strategy, Assessment, Response, Monitoring, and Communication) to identify and evaluate risks within their own functional areas. 

This elective has been canceled; registrants are requested to select a new elective for this time slot.

 Description

Psychological safety and accountability are often viewed as competing priorities, but the strongest teams understand they are mutually reinforcing. Psychological safety creates an environment where people feel comfortable speaking up, sharing ideas, challenging assumptions, and learning from mistakes without fear of embarrassment or retribution. Accountability ensures that individuals remain committed to high expectations, delivering results, and owning their responsibilities. When leaders cultivate both, teams can engage in candid conversations, provide honest feedback, and address issues directly while maintaining trust and respect. The result is a culture where people feel supported enough to take risks and challenged enough to grow, driving stronger performance, innovation, and collaboration.

Learning Objectives:

• Explain the relationship between psychological safety and accountability and why both are essential for creating high-performing, high-trust teams.
• Recognize leadership behaviors that foster psychological safety while maintaining clear expectations, ownership, and a culture of accountability.
• Apply practical strategies to balance support and challenge in team interactions, enabling open dialogue, candid feedback, and stronger individual and team performance.

Description

Examines macro trends, high-impact liabilities, and emerging sector threats– helping campus leaders filter out temporary noise to focus on deep, long-term institutional risks. 

Learning Objectives:

• Interpret major macro trends reshaping higher education, including the demographic cliff, social inflation in legal claims, and shifting public perception of higher ed value. 
• Evaluate campus threat data to separate short-term operational "noise" from actionable "signals" that threaten long-term strategic sustainability. 
• Analyze real-world case studies across critical risk areas—such as cyber/phishing incidents, student mental health, enrollment shifts, and workforce turnover—to identify root vulnerabilities. 

*A basic understanding of higher education operational, financial, or administrative structures, along with 2–3 years of experience in higher education leadership, business operations, finance, or risk management. Familiarity with foundational risk management concepts (such as those covered in What Could Go Wrong? Understanding Risk in Higher Education) is recommended but not required.

Description

Discover how Microsoft Copilot Web (Chat) can help you research faster, draft content, summarize information, and support everyday work tasks. This session provides a practical overview of what Copilot can do, when to use it, and tips for getting better results.

Learning Objectives:

• Introduction to Microsoft Copilot
• Key use cases for Copilot chat
• How to chat with AI (prompting): Tips for achieving the best results

 Description

This session explores how leaders strengthen executive presence, credibility, and influence within complex institutional environments. Participants gain will practical strategies to elevate their voice and personal brand, navigate power dynamics, and lead with confidence—regardless of role or level.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify core elements of executive presence that influence credibility and leadership impact .
• Evaluate opportunities to strengthen their visibility and personal brand.
• Apply strategies to communicate with confidence, navigate power dynamics, and elevate their voice.

 This elective has been canceled; registrants are requested to select a new elective for this time slot.

Description

Higher education institutions continue to face increasing financial pressure driven by enrollment volatility, rising labor and benefit costs, inflation, deferred maintenance, and evolving student needs. This session explores practical strategies for managing budgets effectively in resource-constrained environments while maintaining alignment with institutional mission and strategic priorities.

Participants will examine common drivers of structural deficits and cost pressures across academic and administrative units. The session will introduce tools such as scenario planning, cost analysis, and multi-year forecasting to support data-informed decision making. Through applied examples and guided activities, attendees will practice evaluating trade-offs, identifying efficiencies, and balancing short-term reductions with long-term sustainability.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will identify three common drivers of structural deficits and cost pressures across academic and administrative units.
• Participants will explore evaluating trade-offs, identifying inefficiencies, and balancing short-term reductions with long-term sustainability.
• Participants will hear about tools such as scenario planning, cost analysis, and multi-year forecasting.

Description

Why do we avoid the conversations we know we need to have—and what does that cost us? This one-hour session helps participants recognize when a difficult conversation is necessary and provides practical tools to address conflict directly, communicate with clarity, and build accountability while maintaining trust.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize situations in which a difficult conversation is necessary and evaluate the organizational and interpersonal costs of avoiding it.
• Apply practical communication techniques to prepare for and conduct difficult conversations with clarity, respect, and accountability.
• Demonstrate strategies for maintaining trust and strengthening workplace relationships while addressing conflict, performance concerns, or differing perspectives.

Description

This hands‑on session explores how to communicate effectively with generative AI by crafting clear, purposeful prompts. Participants will learn prompt structure, examine the art and science of prompting using the GCSE framework (Goal, Context, Source, Expectations), and practice refining prompts to improve accuracy and usefulness. The session emphasizes iteration, feedback, and extending prompts to support real‑world tasks using tools like Microsoft Copilot.

Learning Objectives:

• Gain increased awareness of best practices for prompting.
• Understand why using a prompt framework is essential for reducing AI hallucinations.
• Develop increase motivation for interacting with AI.

Description

This session explores how to collaborate and influence effectively across teams, especially without formal authority. Participants learn practical tools to build trust, communicate with clarity and empathy, and navigate cross-functional resistance. Grounded in inclusive practices, the session emphasizes shared accountability, relationship-building, and influence strategies that strengthen collaboration and drive results in complex organizational environments.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify strategies for collaborating and influencing across teams without formal authority.
• Practice communication approaches that build trust, clarity, and empathy in cross-functional partnerships.
• Apply inclusive influence strategies to navigate resistance and strengthen shared accountability.

Mon, August 3
1:30 -4:30 PM

Open to All Tracks

For those in Tracks 1 - 3, this will override your Monday afternoon sessions.

Description

This session introduces the fundamentals of generative AI, including what it is, its history, how it works, and how it is being used across higher education and the workplace. Participants will explore key concepts, including large language models, common AI tools, ethical considerations, and responsible use guidelines, with an emphasis on campus‑approved technologies.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the basics of Generative AI
• Develop a responsible Adoption Framework
• Value the importance of AI Literacy

Description

Designed for professionals who are new to higher education or new to institutional budgeting, this session provides a practical overview of how colleges and universities are funded, structured, and managed from a financial perspective.

Participants will explore core concepts including operating vs capital budgets, restricted vs unrestricted funds, revenue sources such as tuition, state appropriations, grants, and auxiliaries, and the fundamentals of budget models commonly used in higher education. The session will also clarify the distinctions between accounting, finance, and budgeting, and explain how financial decisions reflect institutional mission and values.

Through interactive discussion and applied examples, attendees will gain a foundational understanding of how resources flow through an institution, how budget decisions are made, and how various campus units contribute to financial sustainability. Participants will leave better prepared to engage in budget conversations and to understand their role within the broader financial framework of their institution.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the history and evolution of higher education.
• Identify our stakeholders, governance structures and key business processes.
• Identify the factors that influence fiscal processes

Description

The Collective Impact Framework, first published in 2011 and updated in 2021, has been used successfully in a multitude of situations to solve wicked problems.  In this session we will briefly cover the five tenants of a Collective Impact framework and provide examples of how the effort has been successfully deployed at two public research universities, to enhance the student experience while creating greater collaboration, stake holding, efficiency, and impact.  We will break up into groups and identify a wicked problem facing their institution and come up with a "game-plan" based off this framework.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the Collective Impact Framework
• Apply the framework to a real project
• Begin framing and implementation plan

Description

Ever noticed how some people just click with you, while others take a bit more decoding? In this interactive session, you’ll explore your communication style using the DiSC assessment and discover how others prefer to interact, making relationships more effective. You’ll learn to recognize the four communication styles, interpret your personal results, and practice reading the styles of others. Walk away with practical strategies to adapt your approach, strengthen relationships, and communicate more effectively—skills that will elevate both your teamwork and leadership.

Learning Objectives:

• Learners will identify the four DiSC styles (D, i, S, and C) and the key characteristics associated with each style
• Learners will explain how different DiSC styles influence communication preferences and behaviors.
• Learners will apply DiSC concepts to adapt communication and collaboration strategies when working with others.

Note: A DiSC assessment will be provided and must be completed prior to attending this session.

Description

Life is filled with negotiations. Join us to learn some skills to build your awareness and maximize your opportunities. Viewing negotiation as an opportunity for insightful communication and potential collaboration can lead to big success. Can you turn disputes into partnerships? Can you build better partnership deals? Learn to navigate tension and create opportunities to get the very best offers in your role and in executive job search. Negotiating is a critical leadership skill that can propel you to the next level.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify and articulate their value as university business officers and prepare a persuasive case for their desired compensation and benefits.
• Apply effective negotiation strategies that leverage their strengths, address potential challenges, and achieve win-win outcomes for themselves and their organizations.
• Practice and refine their negotiation skills through role-playing exercises, feedback, and coaching from the instructor and peers.

Description

This session offers a general grants management overview to provide administrators with a general grants management foundation. Understanding key concepts and identifying value-added activities that are key to successfully managing sponsored research in higher education. Join us as we build a network of colleagues who have similar roles and responsibilities and who face many of the same challenges and opportunities.

Learning Objectives:

• Navigate the “Grants and Contracts Life Cycle” (from beginning to closing) for Sponsored Research
• Review elements of sponsored programs
• Evaluate value added activities that strengthen collaboration and a culture of compliance

 Description

What if success didn’t lead to happiness—but happiness led to success? We’ll explore how the latest research in positive psychology and organizational behavior—led by thought leaders like Shawn Achor and Adam Grant—offers a transformative lens on leadership, fulfillment, and achievement. Designed specifically for you, this session offers actionable tools to ignite personal joy, elevate professional performance, and build more connected, purpose-driven networks. Through evidence-based practices and real-world insights, we’ll examine how happiness is not a byproduct of success, but a powerful driver of it. You’ll learn how to: • Rewire your mindset for authentic optimism and resilience • Amplify your strengths while expanding the impact of your network • Lead with joy, compassion, and clarity—even in high-stakes environments Together, we’ll create space to celebrate the success of others—without comparison, scarcity, or burnout. This is a call to move beyond surviving in our careers and toward thriving—as individuals and as a collective.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify the research-based principles from positive psychology and organizational behavior that influence leadership effectiveness, employee engagement, resilience, and organizational performance.
• Evaluate personal leadership habits and workplace practices using evidence-based frameworks to strengthen optimism, psychological resilience, and professional relationships in higher education environments.
• Apply practical strategies that foster well-being, collaboration, and purpose-driven leadership to improve individual effectiveness, team performance, and organizational culture within colleges and universities.

 Description

This session will synthesize Track 1 lessons learned and preview what to expect as participants continue on their BMI journey.

Learning Objectives:

• Review Track 1 program and share areas for improvement for next year.
• Review the expectations for Track 2 with Track 2 Lead Yolanda Anglin. Answer questions about Track 2.
• Share the various higher education institutions.

Description

This session equips leaders with practical tools to navigate difficult conversations, manage conflict, and reinforce accountability while maintaining trust. The focus is on real‑life higher‑education scenarios and leading with clarity under pressure and volatility. 

Learning Objectives:

• Describe key principles for managing conflict and maintaining trust during difficult conversations 
• Analyze approaches for addressing performance and accountability challenges 
• Demonstrate techniques for leading clear, direct, and constructive conversations 

Course requires foundational leadership knowledge and experience participating in or leading team discussions, projects, or performance conversations.

Description

The Track 2 curriculum provides a stimulating and challenging environment in which students work closely with colleagues and BMI faculty. The case study process introduced on Tuesday morning, August 4 is put into practice with Case Study Small Groups discussing the participants’ individually prepared case studies.

 Learning Objectives:

• Build confidence and gain awareness / new perspectives
• Learn new strategies for how to tackle difficult challenges
• Meet new people from other institutions - build your network!

Description

Financial sustainability requires coordinated planning across finance, human resources, and operational units. Misalignment among these areas can result in inefficient staffing models, unclear accountability, and budget decisions that fail to support institutional strategy. This session focuses on building integrated planning frameworks that connect budget development, workforce planning, and operational execution. Participants will explore how staffing costs, service models, enrollment trends, and operational demands intersect and influence long-term financial health. The session highlights governance structures, shared data dashboards, and cross-functional communication strategies that promote transparency and collaboration.

Through case-based discussion and interactive exercises, attendees will identify opportunities to break down silos, align resource allocation with institutional priorities, and create coordinated solutions that advance both fiscal responsibility and organizational effectiveness.

Learning Objectives:

• Discuss alignment of resource allocation with institutional priorities.
• Participants will explore how staffing costs, service models, enrollment trends, and operational demands intersect and influence long-term financial health.
• Participants will be able to create coordinated solutions that advance both fiscal responsibility and organizational effectiveness.

 Description

Asset-Based Approach: this works particularly well when there is something of a scarcity mentality, but is also a good habit in all situations. With the participants, we will work through a Kretmann/McKnight Asset Map aimed at a particular situation of their choosing, to demonstrate personal, collegial, unit, divisional, institutional, system-wide, and community assets that might provide meaningful resources when approaching a defined challenge. Line of Sight: this is a way of thinking through from institutional priorities to highly local or even individual activities, through a stair-cased series of strategic levels and actions. For the conference, I will walk the participants through an example of this line of sight/cascade in order to demonstrate value for stake-holding and strategic unity. Then participants will be asked to draft a cascade of their own for discussion. The wrap up activity will focus on how taking an asset-based approach creates inclusion and line of sight creates stake-holding, two fundamental facets of successful change leadership.

Learning Objectives:

• Gain increased understanding approaches to wicked problems
• Understand and be able to apply an asset-based approach
• Develop leadership skills that build purpose and community

Description

Track 3 is the capstone course at BMI.  Class participants will be exposed to theory and practical application of strategic planning principles.  Topics include Balanced Scorecard, Values/Vision/Mission, Strategic Goals/Initiatives/Measures, Change Management, etc. 

Learning Objectives:

• Conduct a strategic assessment using tools such as SOAR and apply the results to inform strategic priorities.
• Develop key elements of a strategic plan, including mission, vision, strategic objectives, initiatives, and measures, using a strategy map framework.
• Communicate strategic planning recommendations through a team presentation and identify opportunities to apply workshop concepts at their home institution.

Description

This session will explore using AI to improve administrative workflows and reduce friction through better process design rather than new tools. We would examine where AI can support efficiency while preserving professional discretion and institutional control over operations, etc.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify administrative processes where AI may improve efficiency and reduce workflow friction.
• Assess opportunities and limitations for incorporating AI into existing organizational processes.
• Develop a framework for evaluating AI-enabled process improvements while maintaining appropriate human oversight.

Description

In organizations, failure is often hidden although it shapes our most consequential decisions. In this interactive session, we will explore how setbacks can become powerful leadership assets and discuss strategies to transform missteps into insights to lead with greater courage and clarity.

Description

This interactive session helps participants build strategic partnerships across the university system while exchanging insights and exploring shared challenges and opportunities. Through guided discussion and peer collaboration, attendees will gain new perspectives, strengthen connections, and identify practical ways to advance priorities and achieve results.

Learning Objectives:

• Expand their network across the university system to support collaboration and shared goals.
• Leverage peer insights to address challenges and uncover new opportunities.
• Identify practical actions and partnerships that can help move priorities forward.