Boladji Agueh
CEO,
Squadra Solutions
It Seemed Impossible Until We Started: Leading Campus Tech Transformations
Friday, October 02, 2026 | 9:15AM–10:00AM MT
Session Type:
Breakout Session
Delivery Format:
Panel Session
Every campus CIO has at least one project sitting on the roadmap year after year—a project too big, too complex, and too disruptive to tackle head-on. A full network overhaul. A multi-year ERP migration. A security transformation touching every building and every user. The scope is daunting, the stakeholders are everywhere, and the risk of disruption is real. So, the project waits for a right time that never comes. When a major research university launched one of higher education's largest Wi-Fi 7 deployments, the technology decision was the easy part. The harder work was organizational: building the coalition, framing the case for nontechnical leadership, sequencing a six-year rollout without breaking a campus in session, and sustaining momentum when the work got hard. After the project made national headlines, the CIO fielded calls from peer institutions across the country. The most common question wasn't about wireless standards. It was: "How did you even get started on something this big?" This panel answers that question—and broadens it. Moderated by the delivery partner, the conversation brings together IT leaders at different stages of large campus technology initiatives. Panelists move through a structured arc: why institutions finally act, how they build the case, how they phase an overwhelming scope into a manageable roadmap, and what execution actually looks like. Attendees leave with practical frameworks for their own impossible project—whatever it may be
