Mass fundraising programmes often steer clear of complex research, equipment or capital asks. But by finding ways to translate these concepts into accessible and compelling calls to action, we can inspire our communities and engage with new audiences. In this session, Heather and Jemma will share their experiences of successfully fundraising for research within their Regular Giving programmes - and give you the tools to do the same yourself.

Since the pandemic, students have had a challenging time. For many, their university experience has largely been online, with little chance to connect on campus, and if this wasn’t enough, they weren’t able to celebrate their achievements with in-person graduations. At King’s, we have developed new strategies to congratulate our recent graduates, show them the benefits of the alumni community and make them become life-long supporters. From giving them an extra special welcome, from both King’s and the wider global alumni community, to inviting them to share their experiences, to launching Forever King’s Edge, a ‘one-stop shop’ showcasing tailored benefits and support, and implementing an innovative consent campaign, we’ve been able to enhance new graduates’ experience of King’s and our ability to stay in touch.

Higher education isn’t immune from the basic marketing premise that getting your product offer right is just as important as anything you do to promote it – which for universities means ensuring a course portfolio that meets demand.

This session will explore the insights you need to understand opportunities for growing, contracting or changing your course portfolio. Does your portfolio reflect student demand and market needs? How to evidence something you’ve suspected for a while? What does it take to get organisational buy in to a review of what you are selling to an increasingly discerning market.

We’ll take you through 5 key stages of portfolio review and hear from Birmingham City University about the work underway there to review and overhaul its portfolio.

Our marketing efforts are most often dependent upon winning hearts and minds, what better time to do this than at Christmas – that is what John Lewis tapped into when they created their legendary Christmas TV advert series. This formula can also work for higher education as well. In this session we will explore how one university, Bangor in north Wales, took inspiration from John Lewis and told a very personal Christmas story which reached target audiences in an exceptional way.  

From time to time all of us face conversations which we anticipate will be challenging. Whether it is a critical negotiation, or a meeting to give difficult feedback to a team member, they can feel uncomfortable and unpredictable.

So how do we prepare when we don’t know how it will go? The key is to focus less on what we will say, and more on our mindset, approach, intentions and objectives.

In this interactive workshop led by Sarah Langslow, a leadership development specialist and executive coach, we will explore how to prepare yourself effectively and show up powerfully.

During the session you will be introduced to a framework to set you up for success in challenging conversations, then have space to practise putting it into action through live role play. Attendees will leave with insights into their own blind spots as well as practical tools to take back into their leadership roles.

Blackbaud is undergoing an evolution with how it delivers Customer Success. What we deliver day-to-day is in a constant evolution. Chris delivers the Voice of the Customer as a new Customer Success Manager and will demonstrate the tailored and unique ways Customers can engage and partner with Success. It takes a while for the machine to work optimised for you. Let’s tweak the model together to bring massive value to you. Listen for what to expect from software providers, understand the data you hold, how to become digitally ready to advance and what impact we can make together on reporting, staffing and employee engagement.

Campus events are some of the most important tools for a university marketer and some forward-thinking institutions are now capitalising on new trends to engage with students online before and after their in-person events. Find out more about how they are using the opportunity to boost interest and applications, and why incorporating a virtual experience into your marketing plan the day before and after your event should be an essential part of your strategy. Revolution Viewing are in the unique and privileged position of having significant amounts of data about how prospective students and other stakeholders are interacting with universities online. We’ve spotted user trends and peaks in website traffic around key university events and we’re here to show you insights and learnings from this. Find out what users are looking for and engaging with, and how to capitalise on this. We will look at recent data from real university virtual experiences, showing you the sort of content that students are consuming, what is working particularly well and how you can use these insights to boost engagement and conversion on your own university website. There are some quick wins to make a difference as well as some longer-term actions that we’ve proven to increase performance across key website metrics. There will also be the chance to discuss best practice ideas with colleagues and friends in Higher Education and to speak to us about the kinds of ideas that would best align with your resources and approach. Leave with some best practice suggestions for combining the strengths of on and offline student recruitment along with up-to-the-minute insights into user behaviour online before and after some very recent Open Days.

From what on earth to use Google Analytics for (what's a UTM link anyways?!) to how to disrupt your audiences inbox with compelling emails, join Jonathan May and Kat Carter from Hubbub as they take you through the weird and wonderful learnings of online giving.

Mid-week plenary supported by Richmond Associates 

Events have changed forever. Habits have been broken and new ways of delivery have been established. In this new chapter of experimentation, institutions need to test and learn new approaches to enhance their event strategies, to meet evolving expectations and needs of their audiences (and event stakeholders).

Ask the experts in this audience session where we will tackle the burning questions every event professional faces - event strategy & design, virtual vs hybrid vs face-to-face, the use of technology, measuring success, gaining academic support and the role of the events manager. Using slido the audience will be able to vote and control the agenda of the session.