3/30/25 NOTE: MECA is back in 2025! Grinnell College will be hosting MECA 2025 on October 23rd and 24th. Watch this space (or share your email on our Contact page) so you can plan to network with colleagues from throughout the upper Midwest.
MECA
M I D W E S T E L L U C I A N C L I E N T A S S O C I A T I O N
C O N F E R E N C E
Thursday and Friday | October 23-24, 2025 | Grinnell College
Join us to share, collaborate, explore and plan with other higher education professionals around the use of Ellucian's software products.
MECA allows sponsors to network with higher education professional from across the midwest. Join us and be a part of a great learning experience!
S P O N S O R
A T T E N D E E
Event Registration Information
o v e r v i e w
MECA
2024
<2025 details coming soon!> Welcome to MECA, a regional professional development conference for users of Ellucian's software solutions. MECA is a conference designed to help bring together professionals in higher education from across the Midwest to present, learn, and discuss the technology issues facing our campuses - today and in the future.​ We strive to collect a broad collection of volunteer and vendor-led content so that any functional area on your campus can find value in our event but we also work to keep our event and session sizes small enough where you can truly connect and network with your peers who are facing the same daily challenges. Each year, we work to arrange 40-45 total sessions in 8 different tracks. And MECA has a new home and place on the calendar in 2024! MECA 2024 will be held at Central College in Pella, Iowa on August 1st and 2nd.
F E A T U R E D S P E A K E R S
Tej Dhawan - Managing Director and Co-founder, Plains Angels
Erin Rollenhagen - Founder, CEO - Entrepreneurial Technologies
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S E S S I O N S I N F O
<2025 details coming soon!> In 2024, MECA will offer 8 different conference tracks, providing a broad range of learning opportunities for all areas of colleges and universities using Ellucian’s software solutions.
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CIO Forum/IT Management - Colleague
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Enrollment and Financial Aid - Colleague
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Financials - Colleague
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Human Resources and Payroll - Colleague
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Registrar and Academic Records - Colleague
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Reporting and Data Governance - Colleague
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Technical Track - Colleague
For detailed descriptions of the sessions we offered last year, take a look at our session listing.
C I O F O R U M
Join IT leaders from around the Midwest as they explore and discuss their vision for the future of their technology solutions. Attend, network and interact to get the information you need to plan your campus’ next technology innovations.
MECA 2025 Schedule
Thursday, October 23rd and Friday, October 24th.
T H U R S D A Y
8:00AM
Vendor registration
through 11:00am
10:00AM
Attendee registration
through 12:00pm
through 1:30pm
12:00PM
Lunch, Welcome and Keynote
1:30PM
Conference Sessions
through 2:20pm
2:20PM
Break
through 3:10pm
3:10PM
Conference
through 5:00pm
5:00 PM
Social Hour
through 6:00pm
F R I D A Y
7:30AM
Breakfast
through 8:30am
8:30AM
through 9:20am
Conference Sessions
9:20AM
through 10:00am
Break
11:00am
through 12:00pm
Capstone Presentation
Closing Remarks, Door Prizes and Box Lunch
12:00PM
through 12:30pm
MECA​ 2024
S P O N S O R S
A big thank you to all of our sponsors. Without their support, involvement, and enthusiasm we could not accomplish our goal of helping you connect with the other institutions, professionals, products and practices you need to lead your institutions.
R E V I V I N G P A R T n e r
R E V I V I N G S P O N S O R S
C O N F E R E N C E A D V O C A T E S
MECA is the 2017 Ellucian Ellumination Community Award Winner
"Awarded to an individual who creates best practices by collaborating with peers across the higher education community to identify new solutions to common challenges." Presented to Kelley Bradder, CIO of Simpson College at eLive 2017 for reviving the Midwest regional conference (MR-DUG) as the MECA Conference.
Our
Speakers
Opening Keynote: Tej Dhawan
Tej Dhawan is an alumnus of Central College and serves as the chair of its board of trustees. He is an active angel investor and manages Plains Angels, a group of Central-Iowa investors who invest in companies across diverse industries. He has started and (successfully and unsuccessfully) exited companies with a firm grounding in technology.
Closing Capstone: Erin Rollenhagen
Erin Rollenhagen is the founder of Entrepreneurial Technologies, a fully remote app and software design and build firm that has served tens of millions of delightful digital experiences. She has architected software involved in multiple successful exits and is the author of the 2019 book "Soul Uprising: It's Never Just Business".
Location
ABOUT CENTRAL COLLEGE:
FULL ADDRESS:
Central College of Pella, Iowa, is a private, four-year college known for its academic rigor, engaged citizenship and character formation, experiential learning, STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), athletics and service. The Central experience is rooted in exploration and self-discovery and enhanced by life in an academic community of 1,100 students. Founded in 1853, the college participates in NCAA Division III athletics and is a member of the American Rivers Conference. Central is an active part of the Greater Des Moines region and just minutes from Lake Red Rock, Iowa’s largest lake.
Central’s home of Pella, Iowa, is a thriving community of more than 10,000. Pella impressively appears in Oprah’s 2021 60 Charming American Towns You Haven’t Heard of But Should Visit ASAP. The community is famous for its annual Tulip Time Festival, its Dutch pastries and its fully functional 1850s-style windmill. In fact, Pella has it all! Pella is located just minutes from Red Rock Lake, Iowa’s largest lake, and is the corporate headquarters of several international companies, including Vermeer Corporation, Pella Corporation, Precision, Inc., and Lely North America.
Niche.com named Pella one of the Best Places to Raise a Family in Iowa and one of the Best Places to Live in Iowa in 2021.
Central College
812 University St
Pella, IA 50219
Map to Event Site
A I R P O R T
Des Moines International Airport is located 60 miles west of Central College. The airport has nineteen connections to major airline hubs, giving customers a wide variety of flights and times to choose from. For more information regarding flights or about the airport, click here to visit the Des Moines International Airport website.
H O T E L s
The MECA Conference partners with hotels from the local area to ensure a comfortable stay for all conference attendees. This year, MECA has partnered with Doubletree Downtown Davenport, Hilton Garden Inn Bettendorf and the Isle of Capri Casino Hotel Bettendorf hotels.
Pella, IA
Country Inn & Suites
Address:
315 Roosevelt Road
Pella, IA 50219
(641) 620-1111
Contact
Have any questions or concerns regarding the conference, vendor information/registration, or anything else?
Contact us by filling out the form to the right with your name and email, as well as a short message and we will be happy to answer any and all questions!