American Council on Education - Evaluation for Strategic Planning 

by Sharon Grevious

We learn a lot from our clients and online community members.  Through surveys and e-mail testimonials, they tell us about their personal experiences with evaluation – likes and dislikes, wants and needs, what works and what doesn’t work for efficiently assessing programs and improving overall strategic effectiveness.  Perhaps most exciting is hearing about how people are applying the information they gather with the help of Innovation Network’s in-person training and online tools and resources.   

A perfect example of this is the American Council on Education (ACE).  ACE hired a strategic events management firm, P.W. Feats, to help them better meet the needs of their Annual Meeting attendees and achieve an even greater level of success at their 2008 event.  InnoNet will support this project by doing what we do best—researching, evaluating, analyzing and reporting.  The data we gather will help P.W. Feats execute a creative plan that will capture the essence of the ACE event both aesthetically and substantively.

ACE’s constituents (university presidents, provosts, state commission representatives, and other members of the higher education field) have an increasing range of events clamoring for their attendance, run by fellow educational and political organizations.  By conducting a thorough evaluation of their 2007 Annual Meeting, ACE hopes to improve their strategic planning efforts for 2008 and develop ways to establish the ACE Annual Meeting as the premier networking event for the higher education community. 

The evaluation will seek to help ACE better understand: a) the overall conference experience, b) the perceived value and application potential of the topics discussed at the event, and c) the degree to which meeting attendee experience is connected to ACE’s strategic organizational goals.

To meet this project’s objectives, Innovation Network will attend the February 2007 Annual Meeting and conduct interviews with attendees, sponsors, and other educational leaders as well as ACE’s staff and Board members.  We will also conduct an environmental scan to better understand ACE’s competitors. The ACE project will be completed at the end of March 2007.  

ACE will be able to use the findings of the 2007 meeting evaluation to make informed strategic decisions about their 2008 plans and better meet the needs of the community they serve.  This kind of practical application of evaluation is what Innovation Network is all about.