Annual First-Year Experience & Students in Transition (FYE 2027 Conference)

Overview of the Conference Purpose

The Annual Conference on The First-Year Experience is positioned as a dedicated forum for higher education professionals who focus on improving how students transition into college and persist through the first year and beyond. The conference invites educators and student-support stakeholders to share experiences, challenges, and accomplishments related to first-year learning, growth, and student success.

This is not presented as a general academic conference; instead, the event is designed as an intentional community where delegates connect around practical solutions, research insights, program design, and tools that institutions can apply to strengthen first-year experience programming.

1️⃣ Who attends (BUYERS / ATTENDEES)

Based on the conference description, the audience is primarily higher education professionals whose roles connect to student success, academic support, onboarding, and first-year student learning outcomes. The event is explicitly described as welcoming educators from every segment of higher education, which strongly implies a multi-institution attendee mix across public universities, private colleges, and other higher education organizations.

Best attendee segments (most likely to be “buyers” in a decision-making sense)

• First-year experience / student success leaders (individuals who oversee first-year initiatives, retention goals, and onboarding programs)
• College transition and advising professionals (roles focused on supporting students during the transition into college)
• Higher education administrators involved in student learning and development strategies
• Faculty and academic support staff who contribute to programming, first-year learning design, and student engagement efforts
• Students (graduate and undergraduate) are welcomed to deepen knowledge of their academic communities, which indicates the program likely includes student participation, networking, and learning components

In terms of “buyer” fit for research and lead generation, this event’s decision ecosystem typically clusters around institutional programming ownership: those who set direction for first-year seminars, transition initiatives, advising models, student engagement efforts, and related institutional improvement priorities.

2️⃣ Where the show is happening + attendee geographic origin

Where it is happening: Rosen Centre Hotel, 9840 International Drive, Orlando, FL 32819 (Orlando, Florida, United States).

Attendee geographic origin (reliable detail): The official text provided does not list specific attendance origin breakdowns by region, state, or country. Therefore, we only keep what is explicitly supported: the event is hosted in the United States, and the conference invites higher education professionals broadly across “every segment of higher education.”

What we can reasonably infer (without inventing hard numbers)

• The attendee pool is expected to include institutions and professionals across the United States, given the event is hosted by a U.S. university and described as a national resource center conference.
• There may be international participation because the conference is part of a national center’s broader ecosystem, and the conference welcomes diverse ideas and a wide academic community; however, the provided text does not confirm specific countries.

3️⃣ Audience reach (Local / National / Global)

The conference is hosted by the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition. While the provided content does not explicitly say “local,” “national,” or “global” reach in those exact terms, the naming and framing strongly indicate a national audience focus across higher education.

Global reach: the official text provided does not provide a direct statement about international geographic mix. We therefore treat “global” as uncertain based strictly on the provided text.

4️⃣ Sample buyer company names (BUYERS ONLY) + Websites

The official website content provided focuses on the conference’s purpose and logistics, and does not list exhibitor or sponsor company names. Because we must not invent buyers or companies, we cannot reliably provide a buyer company sample list from the provided source.

What we recommend for accurate buyer sourcing: We can pull a buyer list once we have your client product website and know which exhibitor categories align with your offering (for example: onboarding platforms, advising technology, learning analytics, student success platforms, training content, assessment tools, or consulting services).

Client input required from you: Please share your client website URL so we can identify the best-fit buyer profiles and the most relevant company types to prioritize.

5️⃣ Job profiles, industries & event type

Event type

• Higher education conference
• Student success / student onboarding ecosystem event
• First-year experience and “students in transition” professional forum
• Educators + administrators + student participation (graduate and undergraduate students are welcomed)

Job profiles to target (high relevance to the conference mission)

• Director / Lead, First-Year Experience
• Director / Lead, Student Success
• Director / Lead, Retention & Persistence
• Academic Advising leadership (e.g., Director of Advising, Advising Program Manager)
• Transition program administrators (first-year onboarding, student transition initiatives)
• Assessment / Institutional Effectiveness leaders focused on first-year outcomes (where relevant to the program)
• Faculty program leads associated with first-year seminars, learning support initiatives, or student engagement design
• Student success innovation / learning experience leadership (roles tied to program improvement and tools adoption)

Industry mapping (using your provided Apollo-style industry list)

Since this is a higher education professional conference, the most aligned industries from your list are typically:

• Higher Education
• Education Management
• Professional Training & Coaching (if the offering includes training programs, coaching frameworks, or onboarding training)
• Program Development (if the offering includes program build-out for student success workflows)
• E-Learning (if the offering supports digital learning/onboarding)
• Staffing & Recruiting (only if the buyer’s role involves student support workforce operations; generally this is secondary for this event)
• Market Research (only when buyers are tied to research and evaluation of first-year outcomes)

Exact industry fit can be refined once we review your client product website, because technology vendors and service firms may map differently depending on what they provide.

6️⃣ Estimated attendance (expected total footfall)

The provided official website content does not include estimated attendance or expected footfall. Therefore, we cannot state a reliable attendance number based on the supplied text.

If you share whether you want only “educator/admin decision-makers” or also “vendor/exhibitor traffic,” we can structure an attendance expectation framework using typical conference patterns after we confirm exhibitor size and agenda structure (but that would require additional sources beyond the provided text).

7️⃣ Key focus areas & buyer engagement

Key focus areas (directly aligned to the official event purpose)

• First-year student learning, development, and success
• Student transition into college (supporting students during the “students in transition” period)
• Program sharing and peer collaboration (educators exchanging experiences, concerns, and accomplishments)
• Tools, resources, and research application (sharing innovative ideas, programs, tools, and research critical to first-year outcomes)
• Community building across higher education segments (a comfortable, welcoming environment for delegates from every segment)

What “buyer engagement” typically looks like in this event setting

Engagement is likely driven by:

• Practical solutions (how institutions implement first-year programs, what works, what doesn’t, and how to measure impact)
• Implementation support (adoption guidance, integration into student services, and program rollout)
• Outcome measurement (evaluation approaches for learning and persistence indicators)
• Professional networking among administrators, educators, advising leaders, and student success professionals

For lead generation, the highest conversion comes from aligning the messaging to first-year outcomes: onboarding effectiveness, advising alignment, learning support design, retention/persistence improvements, and student development frameworks.

8️⃣ Client-product fit review + buyer prioritization (based on your requirements)

We can do a precise “best buyer” recommendation, but we must first review your client product details. The official conference page confirms the nature of the buyers (higher education first-year experience and student success stakeholders) and the venue/date. However, which specific organizations are “best” for your offer depends entirely on what your client sells (e.g., software, services, content, assessment, training, or consulting).

Please send us:

• Your client website URL
• What the product does (1–2 sentences)
• Who typically buys it (department/role, if you know)
• Geography preference (US only, or global)

How we will respond once we receive the website

• We will map your product’s buyer persona to the conference’s likely decision-makers (first-year experience leadership, student success leadership, transition and advising leaders, etc.).
• We will prioritize the most relevant organizational types (e.g., universities, community colleges, student success solution providers, education service vendors) using the Apollo industry list you provided.
• We will deliver a ranked buyer recommendation approach so you can focus outreach effectively.
• We will ensure we use your brand-appropriate positioning for the event context.

Important note: We do not assume “best buyers” without validating your product fit. We will confirm the strongest buyer categories only after reviewing your client website.

9️⃣ Final recommendation (event suitability)

This conference is highly aligned to student success, first-year experience programming, and students in transition—an ecosystem where institutional leaders, educators, and student support stakeholders gather specifically to exchange tools, programs, and research-based approaches.

If your client product supports:

• first-year onboarding and transition support
• advising and student success program improvement
• learning support or first-year seminar enhancements
• student engagement, persistence, and retention measurement
• training and implementation resources for student success teams

then this event is likely to be a strong fit for your research and lead-generation work, because the audience is mission-aligned rather than generic.

Next step: please share your client website so we can return a buyer-priority recommendation tailored to your exact offer and map the best-fit industry categories from your Apollo-style list.