If you have been reading the articles in this space, you know that Terra Dotta is growing. New products; more staff; almost 600 clients. The faces in our annual company staff photo are becoming smaller as we squeeze more people into a photograph whose size has not similarly increased. While it has been a significant chunk of a lifetime for some of our clients, for others it seems not that long ago that two graduate student entrepreneurs were demonstrating their new software program at a NAFSA Annual Conference in San Antonio.

Almost 16 years have passed since that debut, and those two entrepreneurs are still at it, sporting the occasional beard, singing karaoke, and leading the international education space with a powerful system for application management that also ensures the safety of campus travelers. Terra Dotta continues to grow and expand, all the while remaining true to two key elements of our mission: best-in-class technology and mutual trust in our business relationships. You have heard a lot about our recent best-in-class technology efforts. Now it is time to turn the spotlight on our valued business relationships. That’s you!

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This past February, Terra Dotta gained a new member in the Business Development department -- Cathy Swope! Her responsibilities entail working with institutions to understand their business issues around international mobility and travel risk compliance, how Terra Dotta solutions can help them, presentations, contract negotiation - all with a focus on ensuring they are satisfied customers.

Before joining Terra Dotta, Cathy worked extensively with higher education solutions for about 20 years, for companies such as InsideTrack, Civitas Learning, Salesforce.org, Ellucian, Blackboard/WebCT, Microsoft, and Apple. Cathy is an alumna of the University of Minnesota.

Outside of work, Cathy enjoys mosaic work especially pique assiette, sewing, anything with yarn, collage, and paper crafts in general. Since July of 2017, Cathy has been working on remodeling her 1961 ranch house to reflect a mid-century vibe. If interested in progress pictures on her projects, be sure to check out Cathy's Instagram! (user tag: swopecathy)

Cathy says her favorite part of working at Terra Dotta is “The solution is great, the customers are great, and everyone I have met so far is a pleasure to work with. Go team!”

Thank you for all the very helpful feedback on Terra Dotta's new Program Wizard! We have taken your comments back to our development team to fine tune this new tool for easily creating your program brochures. Watch for the live deployment this summer.

You may recall that everyone providing feedback would be entered into a drawing, and a prize would be awarded for the best looking brochure created via the Program Wizard. We are pleased to announce that the winner of the drawing, and recipient of a $100 discounted registration to TDU Global is Thomas Snell from the Global Newcastle office at Newcastle University.

Our judges were impressed by all the wonderful brochures that were created. The decision was difficult, but they ultimately agreed on the brochure created by Erin Robson from the Global Education Office at Virginia Commonwealth University. Erin's office will receive a mini Business Process Review (tune-up) for her office’s TDS site.

Congratulations to Erin and Thomas! We hope that you all create your own fantastic designs with the new Program Wizard! Keep experimenting and let us know how it is helping you.

Don’t miss your chance to participate in the learning event of 2018. The Annual Terra Dotta Global User Conference (TDU Global) is a jam-packed, 2-day event designed to build your skills and inspire ideas for your Terra Dotta software (TDS) site.

Here is a sneak peek at what you can expect:

• Keynote Speaker - Dr. Manuela Veloso will speak at the Opening Plenary
• Tech Chat - Two 1-hour open sessions with Brendan Haggerty (CTO) and Tim Wojoski (Dir of Product Dev)
• Future of Terra Dotta - Two 1-hour open sessions with Brandon Lee (CEO), Garrett Christian (CSO), Cheryl Boeckman (SVP), and Susan Young (CFO)
• Table Top Exercises - Walk through risk situations with experts from iJET (TD’s partner for our AlertTraveler solution)
• TDS Guru Sign-Ups - One-on-one Q&A with a TD professional to answer your burning questions
• Study Abroad, ISSS, & Travel/Risk Management Session Tracks - Meet your specific needs with topics such as “Recently Released Features in the Real World,” “The Rainbow Connection: Utilizing RTI Connect to Manage your Student Data,” & “Introduction to Travel Registry”
• Karaoke - Warm up your vocal cords and dust off your go-to song for TDU Global's signature event

Be sure to check out previous articles from our December 2017 & February 2018 PORTAL issues if you need more reasons to register today!

The Prospect Inquiry feature in Terra Dotta software is designed to help you capture information from interested site visitors who are not ready to apply or create an account on your site. Prospect Inquiry creates a deployable form to gather contact information and optional interest areas for targeted follow-up.

The versatility of Terra Dotta software provides lots of great tools to help keep travelers safe. One strategy for preparing travelers is to make sure they have the emergency contacts that you want them to have stored in the contacts app on their phones. This session will explain what vCards are, why they can be a useful component of emergency planning, how you can make them, and how you can deploy them to your travelers through TDS.

Between printed and online materials, it can be daunting to keep up with the professional literature. Let us help you. Each month we will list several online articles that we hope you will find interesting.

Find an article that you believe others will want to read? Send the link to kerry.geffert@terradotta.com! Here are some to get you started:

‘Sharp drop’ expected in global student mobility growth
From University World News

Is Econ STEM?
From Inside Higher Ed

Pervasive Internationalization: A Call for Renewed Leadership
From the Association of Public & Land-grant Universities

Speaking more than one language can boost economic growth
From the World Economic Forum

Career Prospects and Outcomes of U.S.-Educated International Students: Improving Services, Bolstering Success
From WES Research

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