What do you do when weeks from your ship date your men’s basketball team wins their fifth national championship in 25 years? You need to make the most of a major moment. But you can’t plan ahead for something like that — obviously you would jinx it. Our tiny UConn Magazine team of a dedicated editor/publisher and art director and part-time photographer and associate editor seized the moment. With days to spare we scrapped our issue’s anchor feature and speedily created a brand new one from scratch, one worthy of the moment and including an essay by legendary NCAA commentator Jim Nantz. We did the same with our intended cover. And then we created four more covers. Five covers for five championships. A big response to a big moment. We will discuss how we conceived of, sold, funded, created, printed, distributed, and promoted (oh yeah there’s merch!) this distinct and triumphant 5-covers for 5-wins feat.

In this presentation, we'll explore the world of video storytelling and its unique advantages for higher education magazine and print editors. We'll dive into the strengths of video in conveying emotion through visuals and audio, showcase various video formats and styles, and discuss strategies for repurposing existing print content into compelling video and audio experiences. Additionally, we'll cover the concept of building a content engine by repurposing long-form video content into short-form pieces and provide insights on working effectively with videographers to create engaging and impactful video content.

As creative writers, editors and supervisors, we all must give and receive feedback on collaborative projects, from magazines to brochures to donor letters. Feedback and iteration are the engines that turn your work from good to great. But too often our feedback lands on deaf ears, is misunderstood, or worst of all, results in hurt feelings and mistrust among colleagues. In this interactive presentation, learn 18 great tips on how to give and how to receive feedback on a creative project. You’ll learn the art of scaling your feedback based on deadlines, how to critique respectfully and how active listening and gratitude can improve your collaborative critiques.

Artificial intelligence isn’t new—it just kind of feels like it is. It’s been answering when you’ve asked Siri questions, driving our cars, and even recommending what video to view next on YouTube. But as new AI tools enter the market, especially generative tools that can create and refine content, communications and marketing professionals face unprecedented opportunity and challenges. Learn how to be an early adopter of AI to help you do more with less, as well as some of the pitfalls and cautionary tales of AI use.

How do you make a magazine worthy of recipients’ coffee tables? The editor and art director of CFA, Boston University’s College of Fine Arts magazine, will break down their collaboration process to produce an eye-catching and engaging publication.

It's no secret that representations of gender identity have shifted in the last few years. At the Fashion Institute of Technology, where personal appearance relates to many of the disciplines we teach, the change was unignorable. Should alumni magazines touch on hot-button issues like gender identity? Here's how we addressed the subject, and why we loved the results.