Moving Forward Together
Learn from the top marketing thought leaders on what the future holds for higher education, and how marketing can play a role in decision making. While 2020 held an unimaginable amount of change, which innovations do we want to keep, and how do we improve upon the on-the-fly solutions that were created? Join us for this free event as we dig in to answer these questions and more. This virtual event is a chance to spend time with those who share your challenges, questions and goals.
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Day 1 | All Times in CT
Opening Keynote: Dreaming in the Midst of a Nightmare: Marketing Tomorrow from the Frontlines of a Pandemic
We are all living through the most difficult period in modern history. Everywhere we turn we are faced with discord, disruption, and disappointment. Inherent in the role of marketing professionals and leaders is the ability to communicate, and belief, that next will be better than now. But what happens when we do not know when our next will begin or how it will be better than now? How do we market a better tomorrow when our now is so difficult? Join Paul Quinn College President Michael J. Sorrell as he answers these questions and more during his talk “Dreaming in the Midst of a Nightmare: Marketing Tomorrow from the Frontlines of a Pandemic.”
Michael J. Sorrell
President, Paul Quinn College
Branding in Student Recruitment
A university’s brand is defined by its culture and values. This brand experience is what draws students to a school and keeps them as loyal alumni after they graduate. But, the climate around student recruitment has changed as a larger and more diverse group of students look for the university that’s right for them. Is your school delivering a strong, consistent message with its brand marketing?
You will learn:
- How today’s students differ from the past
- Ways to evaluate your university’s brand
- Tips for delivering a consistent recruitment experience
- How to keep different departments on-brand
Christina Sanders
Senior Inbound Marketing Manager, Lucidpress
Acing Student Recruitment With Video Marketing
Education marketers face common struggles in their efforts to recruit prospective students: short attention spans and an abundance of competition. To lure Gen Z, video is a necessity at every step of the student journey. This rich and versatile content allows you to address top searched information about your school and create an emotional connection to engage and encourage next steps.
On social channels, Snapchat is leading the way with its ability to quickly provide bite-sized content for college age audiences. With over 210 million snaps sent daily, Snapchat gives schools high visibility to make a powerful and quick impact in the college search process. Join our webinar to learn how to leverage video across platforms throughout the college search process.
We will discuss:
- Why video helps develop a more personal connection with your audience.
- Ways to leverage its power throughout the college search process on platforms such as YouTube.
- How to cut through the clutter along the student journey using concise and compelling messaging.
Lindsy O'Connor
Senior Sales Director, Adtaxi
Marketing Operations in 2021 - Why the Future is DAM
Early last year, as marketing teams made the shift to working from home, many operations that were built with the office in mind started to crumble. Project hand-offs were more complicated, communication channels were reduced, and on-site servers were rendered useless. What’s become clear in 2021 is that the future of marketing operations is remote. One of the most glaring gaps in marketing operations is consistent, easy and secure access to files — the logos, images, videos and graphics your team needs to do their job. Leading marketing teams are closing this gap with a digital asset management system. This session will share how digital asset management systems (DAM) are helping lay the foundation for future-proofed marketing operations.
It will share:
- Why DAM is the foundation of strong marketing workflows,
- The benefits of upgrading from a server or file sharing solution
- Real-life customer success stories
Carlie Hill
Sr. Manager of Content Strategy, MediaValet
Day 2 | All Times in CT
Advertising to High School Students without Wasting Your Media Spend in 2021
Wondering how you can build an impactful high school student advertising strategy? Discover the latest insights into this rapidly changing demographic and how you can leverage this information to amplify your internal advertising strategy. Matt will take a deep dive into Glacier’s primary research, real campaign case studies and showcase how you can deliver the right message, to the right student, at the right time and place.
Matt Diteljan
Founder and CEO, Glacier
Create New Digital Experiences Faster Than Ever Before
With the massive restructuring the pandemic has forced upon higher ed, the alumni, faculty, staff and student’s journey has become almost completely digital. The problem universities are now faced with is a different challenge – content creators need solutions that are flexible and easy to use, while IT and security teams need a solution that is robust and secure. Content authors like to focus on effective and inventive ways of communicating and building relationships between alumni, faculty, staff and students.
However, not all content authors are technically inclined. For this reason, they need tools that are easy to use and allow them to work quickly.
Join Acquia in this session to learn how to create rich content with Drupal through low-code tools and experience first-hand how an animated page with engaging and visually appealing layouts can be created in Drupal with virtually no code.
Marvin Oey
Senior Solutions Engineer, Acquia
The 3 Must Haves To Increase Student Enrollment In 2021
Prospective students are turning to online research more and more as programs and class options keep changing and evolving. The competition is getting stronger as more universities offer online and in-person options. These changes in research and the increasing competition will require you to align your marketing with a new and more complicated student journey. Are you prepared?
It’s not about bouncing back; it’s about bouncing forward with the changes for higher education.
Learn the 3 must-haves to increase student enrollment in 2021:
Digital-first strategy: measure and act upon your school’s current gaps/wins.
Student-focused content: align your content with your prospective students’ new needs.
Authority & visibility online: well show you how to build your visibility and authority with a strong backlink portfolio
Together, we’ll discuss these practical strategies when developing your digital-first marketing plans, share tools, resources and tactics so you can take action immediately.
As a leading communications company, Investis Digital has helped numerous colleges and universities strengthen their schools digital marketing over the years through our unique Connected Content approach. We look forward to sharing our knowledge with you.
Samantha Kermode
Senior Director of Strategic Development, Investis Digital
Mike Huber
Sr. Director of Strategy & Education, Investis Digital
Best Practices in Total Event Management for Higher Education
In 2020, the world of higher education changed forever. While much has been written about the rapid transition to virtual learning, other departments – like recruitment, continuing education, and advancement and alumni relations – were also forced to make sudden adjustments. As in-person recruitment, alumni engagement, and professional development events were canceled or moved online, staff scrambled to pull off these changes with little guidance on best practices.
In light of these priorities and challenges, forward-thinking leaders developed and executed comprehensive event technology strategies to unite their efforts. In this webinar, you will hear how a comprehensive event technology strategy played an integral role in the transition to virtual events and how it is influencing future plans to continue to engage a broader audience through hybrid events.
Jane Rodriguez
Director of Global Events Strategy, Office of Advancement, The University of Chicago, Booth School of Business
Alyssa Manse
Client Success Manager, Cvent
Day 3 | All Times in CT
Opening Keynote: This Is Serious - It’s Time to Support and Value Social Media Managers
Higher ed social media managers have played a crucial role during the COVID-19 pandemic. But, that work has done significant damage to their mental health and day-to-day lives. It’s critical that we start taking care of these experts on our campuses. This presentation will unveil survey results from West Virginia University’s 2021 higher ed social media manager mental health survey. As part of this presentation, we’ll provide detailed results on how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected social media managers. Results show that mental health is poorer now compared to date from early on in the pandemic, and despite institutions having to rely on these individuals in a much bigger way in 2020, they feel more undervalued and underappreciated than ever before. We will end the presentation going over some ways supervisors can address these concerns and how they can be better communicators and mental health advocates for their employees.
Tony Dobies
Senior Director of Marketing, West Virginia University
Rickie Huffman
Senior Marketing Specialist, West Virginia University
How to 10X Your Video Library Without Breaking the Bank
Nearly 100 universities and programs, from small liberal arts colleges to major state universities to top-rated business schools, have adopted CampusReel to drive student engagement over the last 12 months. Why? Because we’ve cracked the code on delivering scalable, consistent user-generated videos that show the diverse range of student experiences from the dorm room to the classroom. Traditional video is expensive and time-consuming, but it doesn’t have to be that way. This session will dive into how CampusReel turbocharged video content for university partners, returning real leads and measurable ROI, and will show how three particular universities partnered with CampusReel to see incredible results from their new video strategy.
Awarded “2021 Enrollment Management Solution of the Year” by EdTech Breakthrough.
Matt Pellish
Vice President of University Partnerships, CampusReel
Lunchtime Keynote: Student Parents: An Important Equity Population for Postsecondary Institutions
Today, more than one in five college students (22%) are parents. They are a population that are majority women of color, experience basic needs insecurity and other barriers at a higher rate than non-parents, yet tend be extremely motivated and have higher GPAs than their peers. This is a population that is growing at four-year institutions yet the experiences of student parents are unfamiliar or unheard and they speak to stigma associated with telling faculty and administrators about being a caregiver. This session will feature leaders within the Aspen Institute’s Postsecondary Success for Parents (PSP) Initiative, which was created in 2018 to raise awareness of and share recommendations to better support student parents in postsecondary institutions and workforce programs.
David Croom
Assistant Director for Postsecondary Achievement & Innovation, Ascend at the Aspen Institute
Amber Angel
Ascend Parent Advisor and Los Angeles Valley College (LAVC) Adjunct Instructor and Family Resource Center Coordinator
Tony Dobies
Senior Director of Marketing, West Virginia UniversityAs the Senior Director of Marketing at West Virginia University, Tony Dobies has positioned the University as a leader in creative marketing and social media. He is a vocal advocate for new and innovative approaches to marketing in higher education and has spoken at numerous national conferences on the importance of social media in marketing and communications.
At WVU, he leads a team of talented social media managers, market researchers, advertisers, marketing strategists, brand and trademark licensing experts. Together with his team, he designs and manages marketing projects and initiatives to help reach the University’s highest goals, especially in regard to recruitment.
In 2015, he was named a “30 under 30 Rising PR Star” by PR News. He graduated from WVU in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and again in 2017 with a master’s degree in integrated marketing communications.
Rickie Huffman
Senior Marketing Specialist, West Virginia UniversityRickie Rose Huffman is a Senior Marketing Specialist at West Virginia University. She oversees social media and marketing for the Office of Admissions and the Mountaineer Parents Club, along with being the lead social media advertisement strategist. One of Rickie’s many passions is higher education and introducing students and families to the college going process and culture. In her free time, she enjoys writing, reading, and binge watching TikToks.
David Croom
Assistant Director for Postsecondary Achievement & Innovation, Ascend at the Aspen InstituteDavid Croom is assistant director for postsecondary achievement and innovation of Ascend at the Aspen Institute, where he leads the Aspen Postsecondary Success for Parents (PSP) Initiative. Centered on a two-generation (2Gen) approach, which focuses on creating opportunities to address the needs of children and the adults in their lives simultaneously, the PSP Initiative urges postsecondary leaders to identify and meet the needs of student parents and their families, by connecting with policymakers to strengthen political will among states and regions, and bringing innovative family-support models to the forefront.
Prior to joining Ascend, David was HBCU Lead and Higher Education Designer at Education Design Lab where he led an institutional engagement with UNCF’s Career Pathways Initiative. For over four years, David was a strategy officer in Lumina Foundation’s Washington, D.C. office where he focused on the Foundation’s work to advance federal policy and pursue issues pertaining to postsecondary finance, both toward the goal of increased attainment of high-quality credentials. Before Lumina, he was a policy analyst focused on federal postsecondary education in ACT’s office of strategic initiatives and, during graduate school, spent a year working at nonprofit PolicyLink with their California Boys and Men of Color Initiative work as well as consulting the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) and nonprofit California Competes. His first foray into federal policy was as congressional aide to Congresswoman Maxine Waters, tasked with the member’s education portfolio with a specific emphasis on regulation of for-profit higher education.
Lindsy O'Connor
Senior Sales Director, AdtaxiLindsy O’Connor has worked in digital advertising consulting for over 10 years. She joined the Adtaxi team in 2010 and has expanded her digital expertise by advising brands across the country on ways to engage consumers and drive sales. Lindsy has been an integral part of the Adtaxi’s growth and thought leadership.
When not working, Lindsy can be found traveling with her husband and two daughters.
Carlie Hill
Sr. Manager of Content Strategy, MediaValetCarlie Hill is the Senior Manager of Content Strategy at MediaValet, a leading digital asset management system in Vancouver, BC. With an expertise in DAM and marketing, she strives to provide organizations with the tools they need to maximize the ROI of their digital content.
Samantha Kermode
Senior Director of Strategic Development, Investis DigitalSamantha Kermode is senior director of strategic development at Investis Digital, where she crafts solutions designed to help brands stay in front of their ideal customers and exceed their business goals.
Kermode speaks at numerous conferences and workshops around the country, where she teaches marketers and executives how to align their digital marketing efforts with their customers’ journeys. In her role as Senior Director of Strategic Development at Investis Digital, she crafts solutions that help brands stay in front of their ideal customers and exceed their business goals.
In addition to Higher Education organizations, she has helped brands in, healthcare, aeronautics, senior living, consumer goods, manufacturing, and ecommerce look at the big picture and understand the gaps that prevent them from earning new customers and increasing their bottom lines
Matt Pellish
Vice President of University Partnerships, CampusReel
Christina Sanders
Senior Inbound Marketing Manager, LucidpressChristina joined Lucidpress with years of marketing experience under her belt. She serves as inbound marketing manager developing both B2B and B2C marketing channels. Most recently she worked as a campaign manager at 97th Floor, a digital marketing agency where she managed integrated marketing campaigns. Christina graduated from BYU’s public relations program.
Outside the office, you’ll find Christina teaching piano lessons or cooking a new recipe she found on Pinterest.
Jane Rodriguez
Director of Global Events Strategy, Office of Advancement, The University of Chicago, Booth School of BusinessJane Rodriguez serves as the Director of Global Events Strategy within the Office of Advancement at The University of Chicago, Booth School of Business. Jane has spent nearly 15 years working in higher education Advancement events strategy and execution.
Alyssa Manse
Client Success Manager, CventAly Manse is a higher education Client Success Manager at Cvent and has 7 years of experience working with event technology in higher education. Prior to joining Cvent, Aly served as an implementation and training coordinator for The University of Texas at Austin conference center.
Amber Angel
Ascend Parent Advisor and Los Angeles Valley College (LAVC) Adjunct Instructor and Family Resource Center CoordinatorAmber Angel went from a high school dropout to a community college instructor and is passionate about supporting student parent success and advocating for higher ed support initiatives for all underserved populations. As a Program Coordinator at Los Angeles Valley College Family Resource Center (FRC), she oversees on-campus partnerships and streamlines academic, workforce, career technical education, and childcare resources for students with children. As an Adjunct Instructor at LAVC, she teaches 21st Century Employability Skills classes.
Amber is a proud mom of two young girls and began her academic and career path as an enrolled student parent at the FRC. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Family Studies from California State University, Northridge and serves as a Student Parent Ambassador for Ascend at the Aspen Institute. She has presented nationally on 2Gen student success and was featured on PBS NewsHour Weekend.
Matt Diteljan
Founder and CEO, GlacierMatt Diteljan, the founder and CEO of Glacier has over 8 years of experience in the higher education advertising space, executing over 1000 higher ed advertising campaigns. Since founding Glacier, the company ranked 42nd on the McLeans Growth 500 list and was a finalist for the Calgary Commerce company culture award. Matt has previously been a keynote speaker at various higher education conferences on select topics such as influencer marketing and high school advertising.
Marvin Oey
Senior Solutions Engineer, AcquiaMarvin has been a long time Drupalist since 2011, and has been with Acquia as a Solutions Engineer since 2017. In his role he meets with customers and prospects to talk about how a Digital Experience Platform (DXP) helps organizations deliver exceptional digital experiences to their users. Discussions go way beyond just Content Management Systems (CMS), but into complex systems that collect, store, distribute and analyze data in the background as users visit their digital properties.
Michael J. Sorrell
President, Paul Quinn CollegeRanked on Fortune’s 2018 list of the world’s greatest leaders, Michael Sorrell transformed struggling Paul Quinn College in Dallas into one of the most innovative colleges in America. An attorney and former White House staffer, Sorrell brought a bold new vision to Paul Quinn, focusing on academic rigor, experiential learning and entrepreneurship. He also pioneered what he named the “urban work college model,” based on Paul Quinn’s dramatic success. Inspiring, straight-talking, and with a compelling and hopeful story to tell, Sorrell received a standing ovation at SXSW Education for his dynamic delivery and groundbreaking approaches to reinventing the future of American higher education.
When Sorrell took the helm of Paul Quinn in 2007, enrollment had been declining for more than five years and the college was on the verge of being shut down. Today, it is considered a shining model of urban education and most years, has a waiting list. He bolstered admissions standards, stepped up recruitment, demolished abandoned campus buildings and turned the football field into an organic farm that feeds the neighborhood and the Dallas Cowboys.
Sorrell has received numerous awards and recognition for his civic and educational leadership. He is the only three-time recipient of the HBCU Male President of the Year award and was named one of America’s 10 Most Innovative College Presidents. He also received Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. and PUSH/Excel’s Education Leadership Award, the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education and the A. Kenneth Pye Award for Excellence in Education from Duke University’s School of Law.
Mike Huber
Sr. Director of Strategy & Education, Investis DigitalMike Huber is a seasoned marketing professional with over 25 years’ experience in marketing and advertising and co-author of the book The Customer Journey: How an Owned Audience Can Transform Your Business.
He frequently speaks at conferences about digital marketing; doing ½ day workshops and focused talks on digital strategy, content creation, video marketing, link building, SEO, website migration and other digital marketing topics.
