When launching your social media presence, you likely started by outlining a comprehensive strategy. But like any good strategy, you can’t just set it and forget it! Continued engagement and reach require that you regularly review and reevaluate your approach to meet the changing demands of your stakeholders, constituents and platform algorithms. Join this session to learn how the @VillanovaAlumni Social Media Working Group capitalized on the launch of their Instagram account to revisit overall goals for social media, enhance cross-departmental collaboration, create brand-aligned content themes, update workflows, define measurements for success and achieve results. Regardless of your experience level with social media or the size of your team, there are takeaways for everyone!

Every creator has faced it: the dread of the blank page. Sometimes it turns into a full-blown creative block; or if you do manage to get something down, it doesn't engage or inspire you. When these problems strike, the culprit is often your “editor” self, who’s trying so hard to make everything perfect that your “creator” self can’t get a word in edgewise. This workshop will lead participants through in-class writing exercises that will teach you how to sidestep your editor so your creator can step forth and do its job. We'll do timed writings that focus on pure creation — no editing allowed — to help you escape the limitations of an everyday mindset and access “beginner’s mind.” Bring a pen, a notebook and a willingness to unlock your creativity.

We’ve heard about the enrollment cliff and its likely impact on higher education. For her dissertation, Dr. Carrie Phillips researched how marketing strategies might help mitigate this cliff. This session shares findings from visiting with chief marketing officers about how they’re preparing. The session will begin with a high-level overview of the enrollment cliff followed by a deep dive into how marketing strategies might lessen the impact. You’ll hear about the challenges participants face, strategies they’re exploring and best practices to consider. As you’re looking to navigate change at your institution, this session is a great place to start.

As a higher education professional, you know the importance of engaging alumni and creating meaningful connections goes well beyond graduation day. In this session, we'll explore how to leverage the existing activities at your university to gather alumni and make an impact on local communities. This session will showcase how to enhance your various events to foster alumni engagement, and create positive change; and will show how you can get the media to tell these stories along the way. Attendees will leave with specific ideas to strengthen their events and create meaningful connections that benefit both the university and the community.

Over the past 18 months, court decisions and public policy has drastically changed how higher education can approach DEIB. While academicians and student affairs personnel prepare for their work, advancement practitioners face our own unique challenges. This workshop is designed for all members of an advancement organization – from alumni engagement to development to Marketing and Communications. Participants will be taken through a framework that will allow them to examine their own organizations’ readiness to be nimble in this contemporary environment, ultimately to support a culture that will keep all stakeholders engaged. Additionally, participants will come away with tools to structure DEIB work in a way that is mission-centric and supportive of all communities.