Sandstorm's Speaking at Digital Collegium 2026
SUMMARY
Digital Collegium (formerly HighEdWeb) is a community dedicated to advancing digital innovation in higher education. Digital Collegium 2026 Annual Conference is the premier gathering for higher education professionals passionate about digital innovation. Sandstorm is excited to be speaking and exhibiting this year. Stop by and say hello and get some fun Sandstorm swag!
There are two opportunities to hear your favorite Sandstormers speak:
(1) From SEO to AEO: 10 Practical Ways Higher Ed Websites Can Show Up in AI and Search
(2) From Blocks to Brilliance: Creating Editorial Freedom in Drupal for UChicago Law's Alumni Magazine
Let's connect at the Annual Conference: October 18 - 21, 2026
From SEO to AEO: 10 Practical Ways Higher Ed Websites Can Show Up in AI and Search
Date: Monday, October 19, 2026
Time: 11:15 AM - 12:00 PM EDT
Location: Ballroom 3
Organic traffic patterns are shifting as AI-generated summaries and answer engines increasingly shape how prospective students, parents, faculty and donors discover information. Many institutions are seeing measurable declines in traditional search clicks while expectations for immediate, direct answers continue to rise.
For higher education teams that rely heavily on organic visibility for enrollment, program awareness and institutional reputation, this shift requires expanding traditional SEO practices to account for how AI systems interpret and summarize content. This session introduces AEO, or answer engine optimization, as a practical, higher ed-focused framework for adapting your website to serve both human audiences and AI systems.
Participants will learn how to clarify institutional positioning, strengthen information architecture, and structure program and research content so it is easier for AI tools to interpret and accurately summarize. The session also explores emerging trends, including Model Context Protocols, and what they may mean for institutional digital strategy over the next one to two years. You will leave with clear, realistic next steps that can be implemented without a full site redesign.
Certified DEIB Specialist
From Blocks to Brilliance: Creating Editorial Freedom in Drupal for UChicago Law's Alumni Magazine
Date: Tuesday, October 20, 2026
Time: 11:15 AM - 12:00 PM EDT
Location: Rivers
Discover how we built a next-generation online magazine experience for the University of Chicago Law School that puts creative power directly in the hands of site editors without sacrificing maintainability. This session will showcase how an online magazine site was built to deliver a highly customizable and engaging online publishing experience.
We’ll walk through the technical approach to creating a flexible row-and-block system that empowers editors to design unique layouts mixing text, images, video and interactive content. You’ll see how article detail pages support multiple masthead styles, advanced paragraph configurations, and custom typography and color options, all while staying within a maintainable Drupal framework.
The session will also share lessons learned from both the developer and designer perspectives, offering insights into how technical implementation and editorial design can work together to create dynamic content platforms.
Certified DEIB Specialist
