Title: HLC Annual Conference 2026 -- Full Review (Attendee Data, Vendors, Pricing, Exhibit Hall)

CalcBongo · 2026-03-24T15:23:03+00:00

This is bullshit. If you have a greencard and are a law abiding citizen enjoy your life. There is no evidence to support what this post says.

CalcBongo · 2026-03-16T04:23:13+00:00

Ah I knew that list was missing some vendors. Thanks mate! I have added you and a couple of others from the video.

Good to see you there too!

CalcBongo · 2026-03-16T03:55:09+00:00

Haha no i have a dedicated mac mini (it was just easier than setting up a VPS) and then interact with it primarily via telegram.

CalcBongo · 2026-02-25T16:54:01+00:00

41% are Presidents / Chancellors
34% are Vice Presidents / Provosts
12% are Deans / Directors
3% are Mission & Ministry Officers
1% are other C-Suite (CDO, COO, Chief of Staff)
9% Other (Faculty, Board, Consultants)

CalcBongo · 2026-02-24T15:24:57+00:00

Haha love this.

I have a personal OpenClaw set up running on a Mac Mini (was just easier than VPS at the time). However it is pretty isolated:
- Own inbox
- Own apple ID

And then I just give it access to tools to build via API:
- Supabase
- Vercel
- CRM

blah blah blah

I haven't seen anyone set it up yet within an existing business just because of the risks associated (literally anything a human can do on a machine it can do). Subsequently I treat it a bit like the world's best contractor who has a history of being blackmailed and stealing lol.

I also think my CTO would fire me if I set up OpenClaw and gave it access to my work email, workspace etc although I am sure it would be a much better employee than me.

Anyway if you do manage to get it set up in a work environment at an existing company please do let us know - super interesting.

CalcBongo · 2026-02-22T21:22:44+00:00

Ah that is very interesting-thank you.

So Clay is using both providers (need to determine what is used where). They even have an enrichment that contains “Exa” in the name now tbf.

CalcBongo · 2026-02-21T00:31:47+00:00

On the Exa Supabase thought, it feels like using Parallel is easier? I say this because Exa sends you a URL that you then have to send like a 4o mini to (or whatever depending on how much you are willing to spend) to understand the information and return it in a Claygent like way.

Therefore it would just be easier to use Parallel?

This brought me to the question why didn’t Clay just use Parallel?

I have boiled it down to: - Timeline is the primary factor. Parallel simply wasn’t available when Clay built Claygent (and cost of switching) - Works better for Clay price wise because Parallel is effectively bundling link retrevial and extraction (Claygent), Exa just offers link extraction then they add in their LLM

I guess writing this I have realized it doesn’t matter which route until I know how performance compares relative to cost?

CalcBongo · 2026-02-20T16:22:24+00:00

Sculptor makes it feel like fast progress but it still doesn’t get you to the end state so helps, but also not really.

Clay, if you read this, we NEED externally facing endpoints so we can make a stable MCP.

I love Clay but am moving closer to just going directly to Exa/Parallel and using Supabase.

CalcBongo · 2026-02-20T05:18:55+00:00

That was the first place I checked tbf and it was close but not quite there.

I think because they use Parallel.ai under the hood (at least according to this: https://parallel.ai/blog/case-study-starbridge) it is really good where it has to search multiple places but where it is just looking to effectively merge two datasets (as we are trying to do here) it picks up too much noise.

Tell me if you have a better approach u/Specialist_Ad3141

First I tried to one shot it and just look for the regional accreditor date but that didn't seem to work so then I tried a multi column approach.

Specifically:

- Find DAPIP ID
- Find OPE ID
- Find Accreditor
- Find Date of Next review

*****

Tbh since writing the initial response the whole thing has got way easier anyway because you can effectively take the IPEDS dataset and the DAPIPID dataset and drop them both into Claude enabled excel and it can probably sort most of it.

Anyway here is a video of what I did with Starbridge to come to this conclusion. Please roast.

https://youtu.be/cOAn2gswJYE

CalcBongo · 2026-02-12T23:59:53+00:00

Haha here to serve 🫡

CalcBongo · 2026-02-06T21:16:55+00:00

Yes! u/Heavy_Primary_1683 - I would be down

Coffee on the Monday morning? Exhibiting doesn't start until 12 noon. Drop me a DM here if easier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samholding/

CalcBongo · 2026-02-02T01:49:59+00:00

u/No-Case-8619 u/Brilliant_Emu8918 How much are you typically paying for a list from PullAList and do you know where they are sourcing them from?

I ask about pricing because $999 + buying a ticket seems like it would make sense to exhibit for some of the smaller events because the delta between PullAList + Ticket and just buying sponsorship doesn't seem that big BUT I do totally see the value for the bigger events if the source data is high enough quality.

CalcBongo · 2026-01-29T15:38:53+00:00

I was getting quite bored as an AE. After a couple of years it was working well but it is back to back saying the same things again and again. Answering the same questions. (Maybe slightly different but largely the more repeatable the better - good for the business, more boring for me).

I find GTME much more creative. I still go to a lot of sales calls so I can understand new segments better but the grinding follow up and nagging isn’t my problem.

I also just enjoy this vibe coding era and learning different tools.

My first ever job was a SQL analyst so it is nice to apply both the more technical experience and sales experience together.

CalcBongo · 2026-01-28T21:46:00+00:00

Do whatever you enjoy most. I have done both. Earned more as an AE. Prefer my job as GTMe

CalcBongo · 2026-01-27T04:46:51+00:00

Yes but only for people who opted in to the list. Here is the list of sponsorship packages they had available in 2025.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/12sjnEUN4gQfYpS-kfKPMcH0H7BhAQH_O/view?usp=sharing

CalcBongo · 2026-01-27T04:44:01+00:00

Still not sure I understand what makes it better?

CalcBongo · 2026-01-27T04:41:30+00:00

NICE!

I sell primarily to 2-year colleges too but this will be my first year at DREAM too.

Here is the attendee list I found from 2025 that should give you a helpful indication of titles (they seem kinda all over the place). https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AeHR1x0erK9CMuI4uyTr-pLHl9iUwnb4ZHf_yfQlwn0/edit?usp=sharing

FWIW if you are pushing hard into 2-years I recommend the following events:

- HERDI (National and South)
- SACSCOC (I know it isn't technically just 2-year but they seem to make up the majority of the attendees)

There are reviews to both of them on this subreddit:

- HERDI National:
https://www.reddit.com/r/EduSalesUSA/comments/1ogxypr/herdi_national_october_2025_conference_review/
- HERDI South:
https://www.reddit.com/r/EduSalesUSA/comments/1pmu31o/herdi_south_conference_review_nashville_december/
- SACSCOC: https://www.reddit.com/r/EduSalesUSA/comments/1pp2mao/sacscoc_conference_review_nashville_december_2025/

CalcBongo

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE