MidAIR 2025 will be on November 5-7 on the campus of Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, KS

Here are the rates for MidAIR 2025:

*Groups of more than three receive a $25 discount per person

Standard Registration:

1 Attendee- $370

1 Attendee (Current Student Rate) $75

2 Attendees- $740

3 Attendees- $1110

4 Attendees $1380*

5 Attendees  $1725*

6 Attendees $2070*

Contact us at midairorganization@gmail.com for groups of more than 6.

Register with Credit Card 

Register with Check 

If you are already registered and need to update your PDO and trivia night preferences, click here. 

Registration (7:30-8:30)

📍 Regnier Center Atrium

Welcome (8:30-9)

📍 Regnier Center 101 - Main Hall

Morning Sessions (9-Noon)

Power BI Part One: Functionality with Matt Harris

📍 Room RC175

Newcomers to IR Session with Egon Heidendal & John Clayton

📍 Room RC270

Lunch (12-1PM)

📍Main Hall

Afternoon Sessions (1-4)

Power BI Part Two: Building Dashboards with Smriti Thapa, Matt Harris and Tabitha Paul

📍 Room RC175

IPEDS 101: Reporting & Making the Most of the Data with Debbie Phelps

📍 Room RC270

Thursday, November 6th

Registration (7:30-8:30)

📍Main Hall

Breakfast (8-9) 

📍 Main Hall

Welcome & Kickoff (8:30-9) 

📍 Main Hall

Concurrent Session 1 (9–9:45)

From On-Site to Cloud - Migrating MLOps to Fabric (Part 1)

📍 Room RC144

Presented by: Nicholas Leonhard, Missouri University of Science and Technology

As organizations shift from traditional on-premise infrastructure to cloud-native environments, MLOps practices must evolve to ensure scalability, reliability, and agility. In this session, we’ll walk through the real-world journey of migrating an established on-site MLOps pipeline to Microsoft Fabric — an all-in-one analytics platform built on a lakehouse foundation and powered by Spark. This session begins with a brief introduction to Microsoft Fabric. Note: This is Part 1 of a two-part presentation.

What’s the Future Got to Do with It?

📍 Room RC157

Presented by: Deborah Phelps, Cowley College

Administrators increasingly need data-driven insights for strategic planning. This session shares how Cowley College’s administrative team uses Dr. Richard A. K. Lum’s book ‘4 Steps to the Future: A Quick and Clean Guide to Creating Foresight,’ with relevant data sets to examine its past, present, and potential futures.

Data Warehouses in Transition: A Higher Ed Roundtable

📍 Room RC175

Presented by: Dr. Egon Heidendal, Missouri State University

This roundtable invites participants to share experiences with data warehouses across higher education. Missouri State University currently uses Ellucian ODS and EDW but is preparing for a transition as these tools are sunset. The discussion will highlight different platforms, challenges, and solutions to help institutions learn from one another.

Data Driven Decision Making – Academic Standing Edition

📍 Room RC270

Presented by: Dr. Katie Knuckles, Saint Louis University

To evaluate a proposed change in the academic standing policy, senior academic leaders requested data to determine its impact on student enrollment. This session outlines both policies and discusses how data informed campus-wide decision-making, with an open discussion for alternative approaches.

Concurrent Session 2 (10-10:45)

From On-Site to Cloud - Migrating MLOps to Fabric (Part 2)

📍 Room RC144

Presented by: Nicholas Leonhard, Missouri University of Science and Technology

This is a continuation of part 1 from concurrent session 1

As organizations shift from traditional on-premise infrastructure to cloud-native environments, MLOps practices must evolve to ensure scalability, reliability, and agility. In this session, we’ll walk through the real-world journey of migrating an established on-site MLOps pipeline to Microsoft Fabric — an all-in-one analytics platform built on a lakehouse foundation and powered by Spark. This session begins with a brief introduction to Microsoft Fabric.

Confessions of a Five-Year Power BI Developer

📍 Room RC157

Presented by: Matt Harris, Ozark Technical Community College

A candid reflection on lessons learned in Power BI development, including organization, DAX design, and collaboration best practices for clean and scalable reporting.

Create a Sankey Diagram for Free!

📍 Room RC175

Presented by: Christine Hamilton, University of Saint Mary

Learn how the University of Saint Mary uses Sankey diagrams to visualize student major changes over time. Includes practical steps for preparing data in Excel and using Flourish, a free data visualization tool.

Benchmarking Student Success with IPEDS Data

📍 Room RC270

Presented by: Denise Perpich, University of Kansas

This session demonstrates how to transform IPEDS data and create Tableau visualizations focused on student success metrics and institutional benchmarking.

Morning Keynote - Dr. Talithia Williams (11-Noon)

📍Main Hall

Lunch (12-1PM)

📍Main Hall

Q&A with Dr. Talithia Williams (1-2)

📍Main Hall

Concurrent Session 3 (2-2:45)

Pathways to Retention: A Student Success Intervention System

📍 Room RC144

Presented by: Catalina Tibaduiza, University of Central Missouri

This session presents a predictive model for student retention using behavioral and academic data to drive advising and intervention strategies.

FVTGE Reporting Process and Inspiration at the Institutional Level

📍 Room RC157

Presented by: Dr. Katie Knuckles, Saint Louis University

Join us to explore SLU’s approach to Financial Value Transparency and Gainful Employment reporting. We’ll share lessons learned and ideas for leveraging similar data in dashboards and institutional reports.

Enlighten Me – Visualizing Academic Program Review

📍 Room RC175

Presented by: Matt Schuette, University of Kansas Medical Center

This presentation demonstrates data visualization techniques used in Academic Program Review to drive continuous improvement and strategic insight.

IR and Assessment – Partners in Data-Informed Improvement

📍 Room RC270

Presented by: Dr. David Raney & Denise Raney, Nuventive

Discover how Nuventive’s Improvement Platform supports a culture of data-informed improvement by connecting IR reports to outcomes and strategic planning.

Snack Break (2:45-3PM)

📍Main Hall

Afternoon Keynote - Hayley Hanson, J.D. (3-4)

📍Main Hall

Concurrent Session 4 (4:15-5:00)

Automating Student Attrition Risk with Weekly ML Pipelines in Fabric

📍 Room RC157

Presented by: Nicholas Leonhard, Missouri University of Science and Technology

Accurately identifying students at risk of attrition is critical for timely interventions. This session explores how Microsoft Fabric was used to build an end-to-end machine learning pipeline that predicts student attrition risk weekly.

Using PowerApps to Automate Assessment of Student Learning Processes

📍 Room RC175

Presented by: Frederick Burrack & Brad Regier, Kansas State University

Kansas State University uses Microsoft PowerApps to streamline assessment reporting, replacing costly platforms with a custom-built automated process.

Right Data, Right Time: How Invoke Powers an Institutional Data Lake

📍 Room RC270

Presented by: Invoke Learning

Learn how Invoke integrates admissions, registrar, financial aid, and success data into a unified data lake, empowering faster, better decision-making.

Evening Reception and Trivia at The 180 Room (6-9)

📍 11944 S Strang Line Rd, Olathe, KS 66062

Friday, November 7th

Breakfast (8-9) 

📍 Main Hall

Welcome Back & Business Meeting (8:30-9) 

📍 Main Hall

Concurrent Session 5 (9-9:45)

Exploring the Impact of Course Drops on Academic Performance

📍 Room RC157

Presented by: Yuhao Liu, Kansas State University

This study analyzes the relationship between course drops and academic outcomes, examining total drops, timing within terms, GPA impact, and retention. It considers demographics and preparedness as covariates and includes data visualization demonstrations.

Undergraduate Loan Indebtedness

📍 Room RC175

Presented by: Ronald Thompson, University of Missouri System

This session reviews undergraduate loan indebtedness across a multi-campus system, examining cohorts by demographics and degree completion within eight years.

Real Data, Real Decisions: Aligning Programs with Workforce Needs and Demonstrating Institutional Value

📍 Room RC270

Presented by: Matthew Simpson (OTC); Michelle Taylor & Dr. Jacquelyn Edison, Benchmarking Institute (JCCC)

Explore how community colleges use real-time workforce data and benchmarks to align programs, optimize resources, and demonstrate institutional value.

Concurrent Session 6 (10-10:45)

Enrollment Management in Power BI

📍 Room RC157

Presented by: Andrew Sommer, Missouri University of Science and Technology

Missouri S&T has modernized and streamlined its enrollment management reporting through Power BI. This session covers the design, implementation, and continuous improvement of a Power BI app providing real-time insights and predictive analytics.

Creating Sustainability through Smart Enrollment Management

📍 Room RC175

Presented by: Deborah Phelps, Cowley College & Steve Wightkin, PhD., Datatelligent

Cowley College’s cross-departmental approach to enrollment management leverages Tableau dashboards for tracking applicant conversion and marketing ROI.

From Data to Action: How JCCC is Improving Student Success

📍 Room RC270

Presented by: Michael Taft, Pete Belk, Brent Haverkamp & Alex Wells, Zogotech & Johnson County Community College

Learn how JCCC teams use shared, up-to-date metrics to improve retention and decision-making, emphasizing data democratization and actionable insights.

Conference Close and Drawings (11-11:45)

📍 Main Hall

Grab and Go Snacks (11:45-12)

📍 Main Hall

Thank you to Our Sponsors!

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