A look beyond the sessions at CAUCE 2026
SESSION: Leadership Reimagined: Driving Visibility and Connections Through Automation
PRESENTER: Evan Maynard, Senior Director, Sales, SimplyCast (presented with Mary-Eleanor Power, Dalhousie University)
What inspired SimplyCast to submit this presentation, and why was this topic important to share with the CAUCE community?
At SimplyCast, we work closely with higher education and continuing education departments and continually see institutions facing similar challenges: disconnected systems, limited visibility into learner engagement, growing communication demands, and budgetary pressure to do more with existing resources. This presentation provided an opportunity to showcase how automation can help solve challenges in practical and measurable ways.
Mary-Eleanor and I felt it was important to share this topic with the CAUCE community because budget pressures are a reality for many institutions today. Continuing education leaders are constantly looking for ways to improve efficiency, increase engagement, and achieve better results with limited resources. Through real-world examples, like Open Learning’s abandoned cart recovery system, we wanted to demonstrate how strategic automations can increase revenue, strengthen learner engagement, and create measurable returns on institutional investments.
What makes this topic particularly relevant to your work, and why did you want to share those insights with others?
This topic is central to the work we do at SimplyCast because our platform is designed to help organizations connect data, communications, and engagement activities in one place. Across the continuing education sector, we consistently see institutions struggling with fragmented systems, siloed data, and manual processes that limit their ability to build meaningful relationships with learners.
The Dalhousie Open Learning case study highlighted how automation transformed these challenges into opportunities. By implementing automated workflows, streamlining communications, and synergizing tools, the team was able to recover approximately $35,000 in abandoned-cart revenue in 6 months. We wanted to share these insights because many institutions are facing similar obstacles, and the lessons learned can help others identify practical, scalable approaches to improving both learner engagement and organizational effectiveness.
How would SimplyCast describe the experience presenting at the CAUCE Conference, and what stood out most about engaging with attendees?
Presenting at the CAUCE Conference was an incredibly valuable experience. What stood out most was the level of engagement from attendees and the openness with which participants shared their own experiences, challenges, and goals.
It became clear that many institutions are asking similar questions about how to better connect their systems, personalize communications, and use data more effectively. The session created an excellent opportunity for peer-to-peer learning, with attendees exchanging ideas and discussing practical applications within their own organizations. For SimplyCast, it was rewarding to contribute to those conversations and to see how eager the CAUCE community is to explore innovative approaches.