Don’t let a milestone anniversary slip by with a simple slice of cake or balloon emoji on Instagram. Take the time to plan out a comprehensive marketing and communication strategy that is intentional and multi-faceted to really leverage the momentum of the big occasion. Share your company’s origin story and lean into all the triumphs and achievements throughout the years. Tap into nostalgia. Nostalgia strengths people’s emotional connection with your company and deepens their loyalty and brand affinity. Your audience will be delighted with special edition product releases and/or retro branding. Infuse all these elements into social media, advertising, PR efforts, design, web content and more. Historical dates and photos can be throwback posts on social media. Create a special commemorative logo that can visually brand the anniversary. Highlight the founders of the past while also celebrating current employees in videos and blog content. Now is the best time to control the narrative, tell your brand’s story by highlighting the past and outlining the vibrant future yet to come.

Ghostwriting, or writing for someone else, can be a frightful journey. In this session, learn top tips for taking a message (e.g. speech or letter) you’re writing for a dean, board chair, or other campus leader from request to delivery. How do you start? Where can you find information and inspiration? How do you capture someone else’s voice — even when you rarely interact with them? What processes can help create structure and momentum in successfully completing the project? We will also meet a few demons that can stand in our way — Imposter syndrome? Eek! Mean responses? No! — and share ways to slay them. To cap off the session, we will brainstorm ideas for messaging a few different scenarios.

Have you ever wanted to engage donors more fully in an authentic and meaningful way with faculty, staff, students, alumni and donors? The Utah Valley University (UVU) Strategic Engagement team’s initiative, the EverGREEN Ambassador Program, was conceived in line with the university’s inaugural comprehensive fundraising campaign. The EverGREEN Ambassador Program was launched to strategically engage with key donors after the formal public campaign launch. As part of the fundraising campaign, the EverGREEN Ambassadors Program invited UVU’s supporters to serve as extensions of the Institutional Advancement Strategic Engagement team. In this session we will explore ways to identify principal-level donors for an integrated influencer marketing campaign. Learn how you can establish and scale an influencer marketing program for your donors and alumni with meaningful and engaging content.

Inspiring donors and raising philanthropic support for society’s most complex issues — those where tangible outcomes and positive impact may not be realized for years — is a challenge facing nonprofits, including educational institutions, worldwide. From climate change to homelessness to racial inequity to social justice, philanthropy is critical to tackling society’s most complex issues, and institutions that innovate and inspire philanthropic investment are best prepared to achieve substantive, positive change. In this session, we will address real-life challenges encountered when complex social issues are involved and provide creative solutions for addressing them.

An insightful speaking session where we will delve into the area of brand and the role it plays within post-secondary institutions. In today's competitive educational landscape, a strong and consistent brand is essential for universities to differentiate themselves, attract students, engage stakeholders, and foster a sense of identity and community. This session will explore the various aspects of brand and visual identity, including methods of implementing effective branding strategies within university departments and faculties, developing a singular cohesive identity, and building brand champions both external and internal. Examples from the University of Calgary (UCalgary) will be shared, including the launch of our current brand campaign called “Start something”.(CASE 2023 Circle of Excellence Grand Gold Winner).