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Breakfast
Opening Mainstage: Leading the Future of K–12 Education
Join us for an inspiring opening keynote experience featuring Priya Lakhani OBE and Peter Baron. Explore how AI is shaping the future of education, discover practical strategies for responsible innovation, and learn how schools can create exceptional student and family experiences through thoughtful leadership, technology, and human connection. Leave energized with fresh ideas to help your school thrive in a rapidly changing world.
...Break in Expo Hall
Expert Connect with Customer Support
Get quick, focused help from a Support expert—without the wait.
Expert Connect sessions are short, 15 minute conversations designed to help you move forward fast. Whether you have a question about an existing case or need guidance on how to do something, our experts will help you clarify your next steps.
- Ask targeted questions and get real-time guidance
- Review a case or specific scenario
- Walk away with clear next steps
NOTE: These sessions will be scheduled on site. Registering via the conference app will not add an appointment. Click this link to access scheduling.
...API and Extensibility 101
Please note: This session has a capacity of 50 and spots will be reserved on a first come, first serve basis.
APIs. Extensibility. Integrations. These terms come up a lot—but what do they actually mean, and why do they matter now more than ever with the rise of AI? This 101‑level session breaks down the core concepts behind APIs and extensibility in plain language, then explores how those foundations enable modern AI‑powered experiences.
We’ll focus on the why and how behind extensible platforms—without diving into vendor‑ or product‑specific implementations. The session will be highly interactive, with Q&A centered on understanding these concepts at a conceptual level and how they fit into today’s evolving technology landscape.
No prior API experience required, and discussion will intentionally stay general rather than SKY API‑specific.
...
All About Attendance
Let’s take a deep dive into Blackbaud's Attendance Hub! Discover how our LMS and SIS seamlessly integrate to revolutionize your attendance management. From the effortless process of taking attendance to comprehensive reporting and sharing we've got all your attendance needs covered. Explore the full range of functionalities and possibilities that our Attendance Hub offers. Don't miss this opportunity to enhance your attendance management skills and see how Blackbaud can streamline your processes and save you time.
...From Scattered to Streamlined: Effectively Manage Your Content
Parents want clarity and fewer emails. Teachers need simple, sustainable tools. This session shows how smart content management can make school updates clear, consistent, and predictable for families and staff.
...From Tuition Management to Billing Management: Your Readiness & Adoption Roadmap
Transitioning from Tuition Management to Billing Management is more than a system change—it’s a shift in workflows, terminology, and how families experience billing. In this session, a Professional Services lead and the Product Manager team will walk you through what to expect, how to prepare your school for success, and how to drive the outcomes you care about (clearer processes, fewer surprises, and smoother adoption). We’ll cover the most important product differences schools notice first (statements, notifications, payment plans, auto-pay, and student-centric billing), practical readiness steps, and proven change-management tactics to support staff and families through go-live and beyond.
...Break Free from Manual Data Exports: Unlocking the Power of the Query API
What Happens When Your Auction Actually Talks to Raiser's Edge: 200 Auction Items, 50% More Raised, and Books Closed the Next Morning
What happens when a K-12 advancement team finally finds an AUCTION and GALA platform that actually talks to Raiser's Edge? GRACE Christian School spent over a decade on an auction platform that required manual card runs, triple data entry, and three-plus weeks of post-event data entry and cleanup — and some of that data never made it to RE at all. In their first year with a new approach, they ran a full gala evening — dinner, ticketing, raffle (not silent auction), live auction, and paddle raise — doubled their auction item values through engaged bidders, doubled their paddle raiser spend, raised 50% more than the year before, and closed the books the morning after with a few quick clicks on the Trellis platform, which directly integrates with Raiser's Edge.
This session is Michele Bandy's unfiltered story — what broke, what changed, and what's now possible when every part of your event night — from the moment a guest buys a ticket to the final paddle raise bid — flows seamlessly into Raiser's Edge without anyone typing it twice. No feature lists. Just a real school telling a real story that will sound very familiar to anyone who has ever spent weeks cleaning up after their annual gala.
Attendees will leave with:
- A clear picture of what a fully integrated event-to-RE workflow actually looks like in practice — from ticket sales through post-event reconciliation
- The questions every RE NXT user should ask when evaluating any event platform
- Three frameworks you can apply immediately:
- Raise more without doing more: how the right platform unlocks revenue you're already leaving on the table
- Reconcile in days, not weeks: what a same-night close actually requires and how to get there
- Get your whole team bought in: how to set up your gala so donors love it, volunteers can run it, your database admin isn't buried, and your finance team closes clean
- Manage every aspect of your gala and auction in one easy-to-use platform, including sponsorships, ticketing, online and live auctions, raffles, and paddle raises.
Built for fundraisers, it helps you create a mission-driven event where your cause takes center stage—not the technology.
...Unlocking the Power of Education AI Chat
Description: Discover how Blackbaud’s new AI Chat in Education brings efficiency, empowerment, and data directly into your school’s workflows. In this session, we’ll explore how AI Chat empowers staff by providing instant, contextual answers drawn from your data, while upholding the strict privacy, security, and governance standards K–12 institutions require. Explore real life use cases, understand how AI Chat interacts with your data, and learn best practices for adoption.
...Dynamic Communication via Blackbaud Education Management
This course will empower you to create visually engaging and effective communications using the Blackbaud Education Management system. Participants will learn how to leverage the power of HTML coding (without knowing how to code) and create impactful announcements and push pages. We'll explore how to leverage the power announcements and push pages to enhance the presentation of information and improve audience engagement. The course will also introduce user-friendly tools like BeePro and Canva to help simplify the design process and enable you to easily create professional-looking communications without extensive coding knowledge. By the end of this course, you will be able to design and publish dynamic communications that capture attention and deliver your message effectively.
...Been There, Done That!
Attendance, Wellbeing, and Retention
Attendance workflows break down quietly. Data sits in the SIS. Outreach gets batched, delayed, or skipped. By the time a student's absences are on someone's radar, the pattern is already established. This session is about closing that gap earlier.
We'll talk through what is driving absence trends, what research says about the timing of intervention, and why intervening early matters.
We'll also share a case study with an independent school in Florida. Their highly personalized weekly attendance outreach was producing really promising results, reducing chronic absenteeism by 90%, but taking 10+ hours of staff time each week. Together, we built a solution leveraging the strong integration between Blackbaud and August Schools. Automated two-way SMS outreach with families, structured absence capture, and escalation routing to the right staff member. We'll walk through the problem, what we built, and what changed.
The session closes with a product walkthrough and Q&A.
...Lunch
Power Automate: Overview and Templates
Please note: This session has a capacity of 50 and spots will be reserved on a first come, first serve basis.
This Blackbaud University session covers the key concepts of using Microsoft Power Automate. Learn how to set up and integrate the platform with Raiser’s Edge NXT and other software. Discover the Blackbaud Marketplace and the other applications available to extend the functionality and capabilities of numerous software. Get familiar with using templates and how to import and create a flow. Explore the template showcase to see other user-created templates available for your own automated flows.
Advanced Preparation:
- Students wishing to build a flow during this session must have the necessary Power Automate license. Use this link for more information on license options.
Learning Objectives:
- Navigate the Marketplace
- Build a new Power Automate flow
- Identify help resources
...
From Insight to Impact: Prospecting with Target Analytics & Power BI
Prospecting with Target Analytics and Power BI uses data insights and visual analytics to identify and prioritize high-potential donors
...Extended Transcript: Holistically Capturing a Student’s Experience
This session provides an example of how a school, with A+ support, developed a more complete transcript using built in BB functionality. Succinctly showcasing experiences helps stakeholders document student engagement beyond classes.
...Future of Assignments
Join a Blackbaud Product Manager, Mike Morrissette, to discuss the future of assignments and how teachers, students and parents interact with the module. This session will focus on several of the design decisions made to the assignment experience and talk through future plans coming to the module.
...Security and Privacy Practices for Core Data
As technology evolves, the landscape of security and privacy changes with it. Let's review key settings in Education Management to manage both feature configuration and user access in support of the Principle of Least Privilege.
...Is Your Budgeting, Financial Aid, and Enrollment Timing Working for You?
Join us to assess if your school’s budgeting, financial aid, and enrollment contract processes align with goals and timelines. Discover best practices to optimize workflows, improve timing, and create a smooth experience for families and staff.
...Drive Impact with Student Success Insights: Configure, Impact, and Innovate
Learn how to transform your data into action with Student Success Insights. We’ll cover everything from initial setup to proven best practices that help schools identify and support the students who need it most. Discover how your data can work for you and how Blackbaud is incorporating insights to help schools make more informed and confident configuration decisions. Join us to explore the future of data and student focused outcomes!
...Beyond the Basics: Innovative Ways to Use Blackbaud Student Checklists
Explore creative, year‑round uses for Blackbaud’s student checklists. Learn how schools are streamlining workflows, improving communication, and maximizing checklists to gather important information.
...Rethinking Tuition Refund Protection: How Schools are Eliminating the Administrative Burden
Tuition refund protection helps schools secure revenue and support families, but the way it is managed often creates unnecessary work for business offices. From enrollment coordination to billing reconciliation, many schools still operate as the middle layer between families and insurance providers.
In this session, Corey Eck from Blackbaud joins Eric Chaffee, CPO of Vertical Insure, to share how schools are eliminating that administrative burden by integrating tuition refund protection directly into the enrollment and billing process.
Attendees will learn how to:
Remove manual coordination and reconciliation from tuition refund protection
Increase participation by offering coverage at the right point in enrollment
Improve reporting and maintain more predictable tuition revenue
Align tuition refund protection with existing Blackbaud workflows
This session will give you a clear, practical path to simplifying tuition refund protection without adding work for your team.
...Added to Cart: Thinking Like a Global Brand to Boost Your Enrollment
Independent schools often shy away from thinking like commercial businesses. But your prospective parents are the same consumers buying from premium brands every single day. They expect a sophisticated digital experience. This presentation is a wake-up call for traditional enrollment teams. We will explore how to use advanced AI data to shift from broad marketing to hyper-relevant, one-to-one communication. Learn the exact frameworks needed to send the right messages at the right time. Step up your commercial game and make your school the obvious choice.
...Using Enrollment Management throughout the Enrollment Journey
This session will provide an inside look at how Southside Christian School’s Admissions Department leverages EMS to streamline the entire admission 7 enrollment lifecycle. 'Understand how all the capabilities in Enrollment Management allow the Admissions and Enrollment department to be able to streamline their processes.Attendees will gain practical insights into how technology and process alignment have supported significant growth, increasing enrollment from just over 1,000 students to more than 1,400.
...No Data Left Behind: Supercharging Blackbaud with Real-Time Website Insights
When your web presence and your enrollment system live in isolation, your pipeline leaks. Parents drop off, vital information disappears, and your enrollment team has to piece the puzzle together manually. It is time to seal those leaks for good. We will show you how to connect your front-end website directly to your Blackbaud platform to create one unbroken pipeline. Get a clear, up-to-date view of every single family touchpoint in real time. See exactly what your prospects care about before you ever pick up the phone.
...Database Cleanup 101 for K-12 Schools: Where to Start and How to Maintain
The purpose of this session is to help database people in K-12 schools tackle the daunting task of cleaning up their schools database. Mapping out a plan of where and how to start, and how to maintain data integrity moving forward.
...It's Not Apparent Who's a Parent
She’s a Parent he’s a Parent everyone’s a Parent! Except when they’re not. Join two veteran users to review how Education Management handles the adults connected to students in the SIS. We’ll review how the Parent role works how relationships fit into the picture and what happens when you integrate your student and parent data with other systems. In particular we’ll share what we’ve learned from countless hours divining which adults have access to enrollment contracts school forms ‘parent’ communications academic information and who syncs to other integrated systems.
...Crushing Complex Schedules with AI
When building your schedule is such a burden, you would do anything to ease the process. See Calvert Hall’s new approach with ScheduleX, harnessing the power of AI.
...Integrating Tuition Management with Financial Edge NXT
Understanding the basics and best practices of integration Tuition Management with Financial Edge.
...Practical Governance: Privacy, Security, and Liability
Navigate AI governance and litigation. Learn why "the AI did it" is no legal defense and master the "Two Universes" rule. We will cover school liability and operational habits needed to protect school and constituent data.'Understanding Legal Liability: Attendees will learn why "the AI did it" is not a valid legal defense and how organizations are held responsible for AI-generated misstatements, discrimination, and privacy violations. Mastering the "Two Universes" Rule: Attendees will establish the foundational habit of keeping personal and professional digital environments strictly separate to ensure student and constituent data never enters a personal AI account. Demystifying digital threats: Attendees will become more familiar with what the risks are to themselves and their schools when dealing with AI-powered scenarios like transcription, deepfakes and personalized phishing.
...Setting the Pace: Streamlining Early Admissions and Enrollment
See how one school streamlined early admissions and enrollment by setting tuition early, building aligned contracts, and connecting Tuition Management so charges sync smoothly and teams collaborate efficiently.
...Power Automate: Exploring Formats, Hyperlinks, and Variables
Please note: This session has a capacity of 50 and spots will be reserved on a first come, first serve basis.
Are you ready to take your Power Automate knowledge to the next level? Come learn how to make your automations powerful with valuable tools that will allow you to further customize flows that connect with Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT®, Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT®, and other Blackbaud SKY API enabled solutions. In this Blackbaud University session, you will build a basic flow from blank, based on the Raiser's Edge NXT Power Automate connector. Learn how to apply Number and Date Formatting to improve the appearance of your output. Use hyperlinks in your output to directly access Constituent and Gift records. Learn how arrays (variables) can be used to retrieve multiple values such as a list of Split Gifts.
Advanced Preparation:
- Students wishing to build a flow during this session must have the necessary Power Automate license. Use this link for more information on license options.
Learning Objectives:
- Build a new flow
- Use formatting and hyperlinks
- Understand and apply variables
Suggested Prerequisites:
- This session will build on the basics introduced in Power Automate: Overview and Templates
...
SKY API and Google Sheets Things to Consider
The combination of Blackbaud’s SKY API and Google Sheets opens powerful opportunities for automating data exchange. We’ll explore real-world examples that will illustrate how these tools and share best practices to consider.
...Hidden Solutions: Using 'Background' Groups
You know how Groups work in your Education Management system. Now see them again for the first time as we demonstrate how to use ‘background’ groups for things like granting granular access to student records taking attendance for special events and creating emergency alerts for a limited audience. We will review how each group type works and explain how you can extend your system’s functionality by thoughtfully using groups in new creative ways.
...From Insight to Impact: Turning Prospect Data into Processed Gifts for K–12 Schools
Advancement teams are under pressure to do more with better data—without slowing down gift processing or creating extra work. In this session, we’ll explore how K–12 schools can use prospect insights to focus on the right donors while keeping gift processing accurate, timely, and audit‑ready.
You’ll learn how prospect data and fundraising workflows work together—from identifying high‑potential supporters to ensuring gifts are processed, applied, and acknowledged correctly. We’ll walk through common K–12 scenarios, highlight practical workflow considerations, and share tips for aligning advancement and finance teams around a single, trusted process.
Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of how to connect prospect insights to day‑to‑day gift operations, reduce friction across teams, and build a more efficient, insight‑driven fundraising operation for their school.
...Publish Once, Share Everywhere: Making News Categories Work for Your School
Your school has no shortage of stories, but getting those stories into newsletters, onto the website and in front of your community can quickly become a copy-and-paste marathon. This session will show how Blackbaud's News Categories can help schools create content once and use it in multiple places.
We'll explore a practical workflow where departments such as academics, athletics, arts, and advancement create News storis that can be pulled into email newsletters, displayed on the school website, and shared through the community portal. Along the way, we'll discuss category planning, contributor expectations, editorial review, and ways to make News a shared communications tool instead of a one-office bottleneck.
...Bridging the Gap: User Voices and Blackbaud Innovations through the Idea Bank
Roundtable discussion centered around the Ideas Bank, where users can openly exchange feedback, explore existing ideas, and brainstorm new suggestions to enhance Blackbaud products.
...Unlock Efficiency: Discover Blackbaud Billing Management Today
Join us to explore Blackbaud Billing Management—a new solution for schools to streamline tuition and fee processes, automate invoicing, improve accuracy, and give families easy payment access—all while reducing admin workload and boosting efficiency.
...Admissions Checklists Basics - Set the Pace for Faster, Friendlier Admissions
Discover how automated admissions checklists streamline enrollment, reduce missed steps, and improve experiences for families and staff—all in just 45 minutes with actionable insights.
...Master Mastery Learning with Brooklyn Friends School
Learn how Brooklyn Friends School began their journey to using Mastery within the Learning Management software to assess student growth and provide quality feedback to students at the Middle School level.
...Unlocking Your School's Full Potential Through User Community
DB management is a community effort. Learn how one DBA started a local user group. Get a blueprint for organizing meetups, making data engaging. Improve data integrity, communication & confidence by seeing your database as the heart of your network.
...Power Automate Tips & Tricks for Blackbaud Education Management
Please note: This session has a capacity of 50 and spots will be reserved on a first come, first serve basis.
Unlock automation for your school’s workflows! This session dives into practical tips and tricks for using Power Automate alongside Blackbaud Education Management, focusing on real-world scenarios that streamline data and processes.
You’ll learn how to leverage:
- Power Automate for building and customizing flows
- Send an HTTP Request actions to interact directly with Education Management SKY APIs
- Education Management SKY APIs for accessing and manipulating school data programmatically
- Education Management SKY Add-ins to extend automation capabilities within the Blackbaud ecosystem
You’ll see how to connect, automate, and enhance your Education Management experience—whether you’re automating student data updates, triggering notifications, or integrating with other platforms.
Prerequisite:
Attendance at API and Extensibility 101, Power Automate: Overview and Templates, and Power Automate: Exploring Formats, Hyperlinks, and Variables or an intermediate understanding of the Power Platform is recommended. This ensures you’re comfortable with foundational concepts and ready to explore advanced automation techniques.
Learning Objectives:
- Build flows that interact with Education Management data using SKY APIs
- Use Send an HTTP Request to unlock custom automation scenarios
- Apply SKY Add-ins to extend Power Automate’s reach within Blackbaud
- Discover best practices and troubleshooting tips for K12 automation
Welcome Reception in Expo Hall
Dinner on Your Own
Wellness Activity: Morning Wellness Run & Walk, Sponsored by Orah
Start your day with an energizing group run or walk through Boston. Departing from the Boston Marriott Copley Place, this optional morning activity is designed for all paces and abilities—whether you're looking for a light walk, a steady jog, or a more active start. It’s a chance to recharge, connect with fellow attendees, and build momentum for the day ahead.
...Breakfast
Mainstage: The K–12 Vision
Start Day 2 with an inside look at what’s next for Blackbaud K–12. Hear from Blackbaud leaders as they share the product vision, roadmap, and innovations shaping the future of the Total School Solution. From AI-driven capabilities to connected workflows across your school, discover how we're helping K–12 institutions work smarter, strengthen engagement, and deliver better outcomes for students, families, and staff.
Break & Expo
Power BI (Part 1): Data Modeling and Validation for Student Reporting
Please note: This session has a capacity of 50 and spots will be reserved on a first come, first serve basis.
In this hands-on workshop, you will focus on the foundation of reliable reporting in Power BI by defining relationships, creating measures, and validating results using data from Blackbaud Education Management. Working with student and athletics data stored as CSV files, you will learn how to shape your data model to support accurate analysis and meaningful insights.
You will explore how to build relationships between tables, create measures to summarize student performance, and validate your results to ensure your report reflects real-world data scenarios. Along the way, you will practice techniques for evaluating data quality and understanding how model design impacts report accuracy.
This session is Part 1 of a two-part series. It is designed to prepare you for building an interactive report experience in Power BI (Part 2): Designing Interactive Reports for Student Insights.
Advanced Preparation:
- Students wishing to build during this session should have Power BI Desktop installed.
- Access to sample CSV files (Cumulative GPA and Athletics Roster) will be provided.
Learning Objectives:
- Define relationships between tables to support accurate reporting
- Create measures to summarize student and athletics data
- Validate results using data exploration and filtering techniques
- Identify and address common data quality issues in Power BI models
Expert Connect with Customer Support
Get quick, focused help from a Support expert—without the wait.
Expert Connect sessions are short, 15 minute conversations designed to help you move forward fast. Whether you have a question about an existing case or need guidance on how to do something, our experts will help you clarify your next steps.
- Ask targeted questions and get real-time guidance
- Review a case or specific scenario
- Walk away with clear next steps
NOTE: These sessions will be scheduled on site. Registering via the conference app will not add an appointment. Click this link to access scheduling.
...Tuition Management Shop Talk
Building a Consistent and Effective Admissions Communications Plan
Families expect clear, consistent, and authentic messages through the admissions process. This session shares practical strategies for creating a unified, admissions-driven communications experience using Blackbaud tools.
...Modernizing Accounts Payable: Automate, Simplify, and Close Faster
Discover how one school modernized accounts payable using Payment Assist, Bill.com, and AI to automate workflows, cut check clutter, improve reporting accuracy, and speed up month-end closings.
...Shop Talk: Blackbaud Core
Join Product Managers Jessi Walters and Stephen Boyle, plus Architect Josh Lyford, to dive into all things Core! We'll cover coming enhancements in areas like Pushpage, Basic & Advanced lists, Inbox messages, and more.
...Shop Talk: Blackbaud Student Information System
Join this interactive Shop Talk to hear directly from Jacqueline Koca, Product Manager for Blackbaud Student Information System. Jacqueline will share what’s ahead for SIS, including upcoming enhancements and product direction, and invite your questions and feedback. This is a great opportunity to connect, learn what’s coming, and help shape the future of SIS.
...Shop Talk: Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT
The Future Is Now: Introducing Your New Virtual Teammate
A foray into the latest wave of Blackbaud's AI innovation: agentic AI. We'll provide insight into the positive returns seen by AI-forward organizations, the most common roadblocks standing in the way of adoption, and Blackbaud's vision for enabling you with convenient, powerful and responsible AI across your school. We'll share the early returns customers are seeing from our first Agent for Good, the Development Agent, as well as a preview of our plans for additional agents for education
...The Unlimited Team: Using AI to Outgrow Your Administrative Limitations
Everyone is talking about AI, but very few independent schools are using it strategically. Let's change that. Imagine a system where your digital assistant fields introductory phone calls, manages initial email inquiries, and builds landing pages seamlessly. This session is an aspirational look into the future of school technology using Ubiq’s new co-creator, MAISY. We will show you how to leverage intelligent platforms to radically expand what your team can achieve. Discover how to automate content creation, instantly optimize search visibility, and personalize parent journeys without ever lifting a finger.
...Streamlining Early Admissions and Enrollment with Billing Management
See how schools can streamline early admissions and enrollment by setting tuition early, building aligned contracts, and connecting Billing Management so charges sync smoothly and teams collaborate efficiently.
...Lunch & Expo
Power BI (Part 2): Designing Interactive Reports for Student Insights
Please note: This session has a capacity of 50 and spots will be reserved on a first come, first serve basis.
In this hands-on workshop, you will build on a validated Power BI data model to design an interactive report experience that highlights student achievement across athletics programs. Using the relationships and measures developed in Part 1, you will create report pages, visuals, and filters that allow users to explore cumulative GPA by team and student.
You will learn practical tips for building in Power BI Desktop, including how to structure report pages, design visuals for clarity, and create interactive experiences using slicers and cross-filtering. By the end of the session, you will have a complete report layout and a repeatable approach to delivering insights to your school community.
This session is the second in a two-part series and builds directly on concepts introduced in Power BI (Part 1): Data Modeling and Validation for Student Reporting.
Advanced Preparation:
- Students should complete or be familiar with the concepts in Part 1.
- Power BI Desktop is required for hands-on participation.
Learning Objectives:
- Design report pages that support clear and effective storytelling
- Build visuals to analyze student performance by team and individual student
- Apply slicers and filters to create an interactive user experience
- Use Power BI Desktop features to improve usability and report design
ABC's of Report Card Writing
The purpose of the session is to give users a better understanding and working knowledge to create report cards that will stand out for their school.
...Billing Management Shop Talk
Learn the features/functionality of Billing Management -- our next gen student billing solution at Blackbaud
...Know Where You Stand—Grow Where You Can: Benchmarking for K–12 Success
Introduce the K12 market to Blackbaud's donorCentrics Benchmarking services, a powerful tool designed to help schools understand, evaluate, and elevate their fundraising performance against themselves and their peers.
...Shop Talk: Common Records Engine
Curious about what’s coming for Common Records Engine? Join Stephen Boyle, Product Manager, for this Shop Talk session focused on upcoming enhancements, long‑term direction, and how CRE continues to support data consistency across your ecosystem. Bring your questions and hear directly from the team shaping the product.
...The Future Is Now: Introducing Your New Virtual Teammate (Encore)
A foray into the latest wave of Blackbaud's AI innovation: agentic AI. We'll provide insight into the positive returns seen by AI-forward organizations, the most common roadblocks standing in the way of adoption, and Blackbaud's vision for enabling you with convenient, powerful and responsible AI across your school. We'll share the early returns customers are seeing from our first Agent for Good, the Development Agent, as well as a preview of our plans for additional agents for education
...Your Website: The Centre of your Brand World
The funnel is dead, and it is time to build a digital playground instead. Most school websites are built for a parent journey that completely ignores reality. They rely on an outdated, rigid sales structure. But modern parents do not follow straight lines. Their behavior is beautifully chaotic and entirely unpredictable. They want to research, explore, and play on their own terms.
Your website should not be a passive tool. It must be the gravitational center of your entire marketing and enrollment universe. It is a total brand world. This session shows you how to build a dynamic space where prospective families, current parents, and your own staff all exist together.
Learn how to ditch the one-size-fits-all pathways. Discover how to let users step into your school story at the exact right moment, accessing the right content on their own watch. It is time to stop forcing parents down a pipeline and start welcoming them into your world.
...Data Flow from Education Management to Raiser's Edge NXT and Financial Edge NXT
Shop Talk: Blackbaud Learning Management System
Get an inside look at what’s next for Blackbaud Learning Management System in this Shop Talk hosted by Michael Morrisette, Product Manager. Michael will walk through upcoming updates, priorities on the roadmap, and answer your questions live. Come ready to engage and learn how LMS continues to support teaching and learning at your school.
...Best Practices: Financial Aid Management Integration with Enrollment Management System and Tuition Management
Walk through end-to-end best practices for configuring and executing Financial Aid Management integrations with both EMS and BBTM so your school can move from awards to invoices with accuracy, speed, and audit-ready alignment.
...Break & Expo
One Workflow, Many Wins: Turning Assignments into Daily Lesson Plans
Many schools want daily lesson plans that are consistent, printable, and visible to the right people - without introducing another tool or confusing workflow. We'll explore how to use an assignment centric workflow to meet this critical need.
...Shop Talk: Blackbaud Enrollment Management System
Join Stephen Boyle, Product Manager for Blackbaud Enrollment Management, for a Shop Talk focused on what’s coming next. Stephen will discuss upcoming enhancements, future priorities, and invite your feedback and questions. This session is designed to give you direct access to the product team and a clear view of what’s ahead.
...Only a Year Away!: Preparing for the End of the Raiser's Edge Database View
The Raiser’s Edge database view is scheduled to go away by the end of the summer of 2027 – just over one year away! This session is an interactive discussion to check in and prepare with an experienced user and outside consultant.
...The Grading Journey
Join a Blackbaud Product Manager, Mike Morrissette, to talk through the Grading Journey and several of the updates coming to the Grading module over the next several years. In this session, participants will understand the future vision of grading in Education Management and how the product will evolve to get there.
...Are You the Blackbaud Guru at Your School?
Are you the administrator for Education Management, Raiser’s Edge NXT, Financial Edge NXT, Billing Management, Blackbaud Merchant Services, all of the above and more? Then this session is for you! We’ll each share our story as Organization Administrators and give you a roadmap for navigating the Blackbaud.com Admin area with best practices for managing your Roles and Users. This session is applicable to anyone with Organization Admin responsibilities.
...Connected, Informed, Empowered: Elevating the Parent Experience with Blackbaud
Blackbaud’s Parent Portal gives families fast, easy access to everything they need. This all‑in‑one hub brings billing, academics, admissions, calendars, resources, and more together to streamline the parent experience and boost engagement.
...The Enrollment Handshake: Where Admissions Meets Business
The enrollment process doesn't end with an acceptance lit begins a critical handoff between Admissions and the Business Office. This session highlights collaboration to ensure a smooth path from inquiry to enrollment, contracts, and withdrawals.
...Blackbaud Billing Management Implementation Roundtable
Billing Management implementations come with unique considerations. This roundtable provides a space to share experiences, ask questions, and learn best practices for a smooth BBBM rollout.
...Blackbaud's Reporting Strategy for Education
Join Product Management to learn how Blackbaud is implementing innovative technology to transform the way you access and report on your data in Education Management - all from a single source.
...Power Automate: Create a Flow to Automate Power BI Report Refresh
Please note: This session has a capacity of 50 and spots will be reserved on a first come, first serve basis.
In this workshop, you will learn how to automate the refresh for your published Power BI reports that rely on Basic, Advanced, and/or Sky list types from Blackbaud Education Management. Hands-on participation may be limited by your organization's acceptance of the Power Platform application in Blackbaud Marketplace.
You will learn how list design decisions—such as selecting fields, defining filters, and using Student ID as a key—impact downstream reporting in Power BI. The session will also introduce how Power Automate can be used to execute these lists with Blackbaud's certified SKY Add-in connector and the new Education Core endpoint List Execution Job (create) (Preview), creating a repeatable process for keeping report data up to date.
The tips in this session can be applied to any report or down-stream process that relies on data from Blackbaud Education Management lists. This session complements the two-part Power BI series by establishing the data pipeline supporting the report built in Power BI (Part 1): Data Modeling and Validation for Student Reporting and Power BI (Part 2): Designing Interactive Reports for Student Insights.
Advanced Preparation:
- This session will demonstrate concepts from Wednesday's Power Automate sessions.
- Students wishing to build a flow during this session must have the necessary Power Automate license. Use this link for more information on license options.
- The demonstration will walk through this template: Sharing my Power Automate flow: Get multiple Education Management List results as CSV files to SharePoint (list execution job) — Blackbaud Community
Learning Objectives:
- Create SKY Lists and Advanced Lists to extract student and athletics data
- Design list outputs that support downstream reporting in Power BI
- Understand how Power Automate can execute lists and export data to CSV
- Establish a repeatable process for generating and refreshing report-ready data
Break & Expo
My Journey to SKY API
The significance of vendor-to-vendor ecosystems and integrations cannot be overstated. Learn more from NSU University School’s Associate Head of School Operations Jacob Glickman and Blackbaud Product Manager Stephen Boyle as they outline best practices for establishing secure data connections across your school's offices while highlighting the documentation standards that vendors should adhere to in order to facilitate smooth setup and integration processes for your teams.
...Tipping the Scale: Finding Balance between Full Pay Families and Financial Aid
Schools will learn how Blackbaud Data Intelligence can provide meaningful insights into inquiring families that can help the admissions team ensure there is a balanced pipeline of potential full pay families vs. Financial Aid families
...Did you know? LMS/SIS Tools You May Not Be Using!
Running a school is demanding and keeping up with the latest updates in Blackbaud's Learning Management and Student Information systems can be a challenge. Join us for a fast paced session where we'll explore the newest features including Learning Centers Question Generators Attendance Hub Graduation Requirements and more. In this fast-paced session we'll review the latest releases and functionality updates designed to help schools increase efficiency access key metrics and boost satisfaction among parents teachers and students
...Advanced Admissions Checklists: Scale complexity and automate the hard parts
This advanced session shows experienced teams how to create complex workflows with visit/interview self scheduling, granular notifications, and custom decision pages.
...Beyond QuickBooks®: Future-Proofing Your School’s Financial Operations
Join us to learn how Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT® and Blackbaud Billing Management can help K–12 private schools streamline financial operations, improve reporting, and save valuable time.
...Financial Aid Management Shop Talk
Advanced Bulletin Boards and Topics
This session will cover advanced techniques for using Bulletin Boards and Topics to create informative organized and engaging online spaces for students and parents. We'll explore how to leverage the embed tool to incorporate various media and resources making these platforms come alive and support student learning.
...From Chaos to Celebration: Streamline Event Management with Raiser's Edge NXT
Managing school events can be complicated, but it doesn’t have to be with Raiser's Edge NXT. Join the Sacred Heart Development team to learn how they simplified logistics, boosted engagement, and strengthened community connections with school events.
...Intro to Advanced Lists: Letting Advanced Lists Work for You
Join us for an overview of advanced lists in Education Management, followed by some hands-on building of useful templates for communication, reporting, and data extraction. We'll focus on pulling and filtering student and parent information from the system, while creating lists you can use to build more complex future queries. This session is designed to be accessible to those without a data science background or vocabulary.
...Blackbaud, SchoolBI and NAIS DASL - Data Alignment and Exchange
Join staff from Blackbaud and NAIS to learn about our pilot to ease data entry with automated reports from SchoolBI that provide the numbers you need for DASL. Learn about the opportunity to pilot this project with us, and give input to the future beyond these first steps.
...Power Platform Office Hours: Ask the Experts
Please note: This session has a capacity of 50 and spots will be reserved on a first come, first serve basis.
Bring your Power Platform questions and project ideas to our open office hours! Whether you’re working with Power Automate, Power BI, or integrating with Blackbaud solutions, our experts are here to help.
Get personalized guidance, troubleshoot challenges, and brainstorm solutions to make your projects a success.
No agenda—just your questions and our expertise. Drop in for advice, demos, or hands-on help with your Power Platform journey
...Breakfast
Expert Connect with Customer Support
Get quick, focused help from a Support expert—without the wait.
Expert Connect sessions are short, 15 minute conversations designed to help you move forward fast. Whether you have a question about an existing case or need guidance on how to do something, our experts will help you clarify your next steps.
- Ask targeted questions and get real-time guidance
- Review a case or specific scenario
- Walk away with clear next steps
NOTE: These sessions will be scheduled on site. Registering via the conference app will not add an appointment. Click this link to access scheduling.
...Unconference Kick Off & Breakouts
Wrap up K–12 UC with one of the conference’s most popular experiences: the Unconference. Unlike traditional sessions, the Unconference is entirely attendee-driven. Participants propose topics, vote on the conversations they want most, and collaborate with peers in real time to create the day’s agenda. Whether you're tackling a common challenge, exploring emerging trends, or sharing practical ideas, you'll engage in meaningful discussions with fellow school leaders and practitioners.
Following the kickoff session, participants will break into dedicated rooms based on the selected topics, joining peers who share similar interests and challenges. These small-group discussions create space for deeper conversations, practical problem-solving, idea sharing, and meaningful networking with fellow school leaders and practitioners.
No slides. No scripted presentations. Just the conversations that matter most to you and your peers.
...Grab-n-Go Lunch
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