Graphic designers and creatives in higher ed are wearing more and more hats these days making it tough to constantly pump out new creative content. In this session Nikki Davis, Senior Graphic Designer at Slate Group, will go through her Survival Guide for Creatives, such as the importance of slaying your dragons before breakfast to remixing ideas and mind mapping techniques.

Whether we’re communicating with prospective students or current students, building campaigns, or writing for the c-suite at regional public institutions, communications teams have to be able to do it all – and do it all well. In this session, Carrie and Rachel share concrete tactics and strategies to collaborate across departments, build meaningful relationships, and empower the diverse voices of your campus community to tell powerful stories (that drive enrollment, retention, and alumni engagement!) You’ll come away from this session with effective methods for creating authentic content that resonates with the varied audiences you’re tasked with serving.

In today's digital era, your website is your most critical recruitment tool. Google Analytics 4 has a treasure trove of actionable data you can use today to improve your conversion rates. In this session, we will uncover how to identify key recruitment gaps within your web strategy. Additionally, we will learn how to adapt to the emerging cookieless world of web analytics.

If you’re like most universities, your website is costing you thousands of visitors every year. These lost opportunities are prospective students who might’ve found their way to enrollment. If only your website weren’t essentially invisible to Google and other search engines. Luckily, search engine optimization (SEO) can save the day. Especially luckily, your competitors aren’t doing SEO well either. So, if you invest a little money and time, and insight into how higher-education SEO works, you can attract thousands (maybe tens of thousands) of additional website visitors each month.

Few phrases strike as much angst into a marketing and communications team as "complete redesign" and “website migration.” The entire process is fraught with potential UX, content, accessibility, design, SEO, and campus-relation pitfalls at every turn. In this session, the UAFS web team will share the strategies, tactics, and painful lessons learned during their website’s successful transition from antiquated to award-winning.

A milestone anniversary is often seen as a major cause for celebration. A time to look back and commemorate all that’s been - maybe round up some extra donor support. But for the McCombs School of Business at UT Austin, a big birthday is not a laurel to rest on. In this session, you will learn how McCombs’ Office of Marketing & Communications, Office of Development, and Office of the Dean came together in its centennial year to communicate innovation, human-centeredness, and empathy; to champion new voices and new perspectives in storytelling; and directly appeal to students, alumni, and supporters.

Your donors and stakeholders understand the role your university plays in educating students...but do they appreciate how your faculty researchers are making the world a better place? Building your university's brand as a research institution requires a different approach, but when done well, it can be an incredibly compelling motivator for prospective donors and students alike. When the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) was classified as a Carnegie R1 institution in December 2021, we had the opportunity to lean in to our brand position as a research university. Attendees will gain insights into our metrics-driven, brand-advancing campaign that conveyed the impact of academic research to audiences who may not understand what it means, or why its worthy of their support.