Start with the work
Every relationship begins around a specific challenge, useful example, demonstration, or question—not a cold connection request.
I built CircleEd because higher ed needs more useful rooms.
I’m Vivek Arora, a higher-ed marketing leader who believes the people doing the work already hold many of the answers our field needs. We just need better ways to find one another and compare notes.
WHY I BUILT IT
Higher ed needs more places to compare what’s actually working.
Higher-ed marketing, admissions, and enrollment teams are navigating real pressure: changing student behavior, tighter resources, skepticism about value, fast-moving technology, and intense competition. Across institutions, people are testing ideas, learning what works, and discovering what they would do differently.
But much of that knowledge stays inside one team, one conference hallway, or one private conversation. Large webinars can inform. Social feeds can introduce. Neither consistently creates the small, focused room where practitioners can ask the question behind the question.
CircleEd is my attempt to create that room.
THE INTENTION
A network built through substance.
Keep the room small
Six people brings enough perspective to make the conversation valuable while leaving room for every voice.
Let experience travel
A lesson learned at one institution may save another team weeks of effort. CircleEd gives practical knowledge somewhere to go.
PERSONALLY STEWARDED
I’m helping shape the first circles myself.
During this founding stage, I personally review host applications and circle proposals. The goal is not to make the community exclusive. It's to protect a clear standard: relevant topics, thoughtful hosts, and useful exchange.
I’ll also help early hosts sharpen their topic, gather the right participants, and learn from what happens in each conversation. CircleEd will grow by making the experience valuable enough that people want to return—and invite a peer.
THE MISSION
Make it easier for higher-ed professionals to find the people, perspective, and practical knowledge that can move their work forward.
One focused conversation at a time.
HELP SET THE TONE
Bring the conversation you wish already existed.
If there is a useful question higher ed should be unpacking, I’d like to hear it.