You're invited · A Roundtable Conversation
Beyond the Tactics
Why belonging, not better tactics, decides who enrolls and who stays.
The conversation
Most of us are handed enrollment and retention as a tactics problem. Run better campaigns. Work the channels harder. Sharpen the messaging. But the institutions that win students and keep them are not winning on tactics alone.
So how does belonging fit in? If it does, when does it begin, and how do we track it? Can you engineer it without killing the very thing that makes it real?
We get into when belonging actually begins, where the line sits between engineered and organic, and who gets left out when we design for a narrow picture of the student.
How the 90 minutes flow
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Open
We set the room—who's here, how it works, and the cross-institution research behind today's question. We open on the real question we're here to sit with: not which side to pick, but what the future of belonging could look like.
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Does this ring true?
You react with examples from your own campus. Most of it will resonate; some of it won't—and the places you push back are often where it gets most interesting.
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The vision
We imagine the ideal future, unchained from today's constraints. If we designed for belonging on purpose, what would it actually look like?
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The path and the obstacles
We get practical—what's working, what's failed and why, and what stands in the way. The grounded heart of the conversation, drawing on what each of you has actually tried.
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What's next
We close by sharing how the insights from each roundtable come together into the artifacts we'll send your way—and where the conversation might lead from here.
The details
- When
- July 20, 2026 · 10:00 AM CT 90 minutes
- Where
- Zoom Link shared upon RSVP
- Who
- A small, intimate group of higher-education leaders Facilitated by a host from Kai and Harbinger Lane
- You'll leave with
- A vision-of-the-future artifact, plus a written insights and playbook synthesis
Your seat
Will you join us at the table?
Seats are limited and held by name. A quick reply helps us keep the table balanced.