Soon after the first major snowstorm of the season, 3,800 delegates to EDUCAUSE 2009 were greeted in Denver by warm temperatures and blue skies over the distant front range from November 3-6, 2009. With a national climate of shrinking IT budgets and increasing needs at institutions of higher education, many sessions and conversations centered around taking advantage of economies represented by new technologies such as cloud computing and distributed communication tools. Higher education IT professionals gathered at the Colorado Convention Center and simultaneously online to uncover "the best thinking in higher education."