12 #highered sessions to attend at #eduwebconf13 July 29-31 in Boston, MA

Strategic Conference Session Selection, FTW?

Are you going to the eduWeb conference? Have you looked at the schedule?

Crazy, I know: 4 tracks, 44 1-hour sessions and since we can’t 3D print clones of ourselves, it means that it’s decision time.

I’ve spent close to 3 hours working on this post.

I started with a selection of 20, managed to cut it down to 17, but at this point I remembered the current limitations of 3D printing and cloning. So, I tried my best to include a single pick per time slot. Although I failed at this game once, well twice.

I’m scheduled Monday at 2:30PM to present about social media terms of service. I spent 19 hours reading from top to bottom the TOS of the most popular social media platforms in higher education. I read what 99.999% of social media account holders didn’t even scan before checking the “I agree” box when they created their account. And, in this session, I will share with you what you need to know about all these rules if you’re in charge of social media at your institution.

Selecting this final short list of conference sessions was really hard. Every year, it’s getting harder and harder to select a small number of sessions, but it wouldn’t be very helpful to write a post titled “top 44 must-attend sessions at eduWeb,” right?

The good news is that YOU can share your top picks (or your own session) with the rest of us by posting a comment below. Please tell us what sounds interesting in your picks, so we can try to crowdsource this whole conference session selection process.

Internal Support to Reach External Audiences (MON, 2:30 PM)

Julie Campbell, Interactive Marketing Director at Ball State University, is a great pro. I was so impressed by her expertise that I offered her to teach the 4-week online course on Web Writing for Higher Ed when Michael Powers got way too busy at his institution to keep teaching. In this session, Julie is going to talk about the internal marketing necessary to make sure your external marketing initiatives are successful – or don’t fail because of a lack of buy-in.
Unless you’re in charge of social media at your institution (well, my session on social media TOS is at the same time :-), this is the session you don’t want to miss.

A story of getting things done the agile way (MON, 3:45 PM)

Adrian Liem works at The University of British Columbia. In his presentation, he’s going to tell us how his institution managed to use WordPress to help effectively find, store, organize and ultimately augment the university’s best stories. When I reviewed his proposal as the Marketing Track Chair (or Expert as it’s called for this conference), I knew this session was going to be very interesting in the content strategy world we now live in.

A Web Yankee in King Marketing’s Court (MON, 5 PM)

Mike Richwalsky, Senior Marketing Director at John Carroll University, has an interesting career path. I’ve known Mike for ages, have interviewed him and worked with him numerous times (a search for his last name on this blog returns 40 entries over 8 years). He is one of these higher ed web leaders born from the rise of digital in higher ed over the past decade, a representative of a new breed of marketers. His session will explore the challenges, pitfalls and rewards of a web expert trying to make his way in the traditional bastions of print, writing, design, marketing and communications.

E-Expectations 2013 (TUE, 9 AM)

Stephanie Geyer, Noel-Levitz and Lance Merker, OmniUpdate have a regular date at eduWeb to share with us the results of the E-Expectations survey. The report on the expectations of college-bound high school students was released last week (check out my analysis of this report if you haven’t yet). In this session, they will tell us why and how to position your digital presence in the mobile environment.

Using Instagram to Encourage, Capture and Increase Social Conversation (TUE, 9 AM)

I haven’t had the pleasure to meet Gretchen Edwards from Wake Forest University, but I know Instagram is THE social media platform to watch – especially with the introduction of video last month. In this session description, we are promised case studies of Instagram use and concrete takeaways on how to use Instagram to encourage, capture and increase social conversation.

Keep Printing: The Importance of Printed Materials in Recruitment (TUE, 10:15 AM)

The 2012 E-Expectations Survey showed us that print is far from dead for prospective college students as brochures and mailings are still the most popular resource used to create their short list of schools. Aundra Weissert,  Associate Director of Admissions at Washington College who also blogs at A Millenial Girl, will show us that printed materials can be a valuable part of admissions marketing plans.

SPARTANS WILL.360: the Social Media Annual Report (TUE, 1:30 PM)

When I heard about this new take on the good old annual report, I interviewed Heather Swain from Michigan State University about it for this blog. I also asked her to submit a proposal to the marketing track as I was really impressed by this integrated marketing campaign created around the annual report and the core of what makes Michigan State University.

From “mobile last” to “mobile first”: Pragmatic Responsive Design (TUE, 2:45 PM)

Tatjana Salcedo and Megan Hack from the University of Vermont are both Higher Ed Experts alums who took the 4-week online course on responsive web design for higher ed taught by Stewart Foss. I had the pleasure to work with Tatjana for our 2013 Responsive Web Design Summit and can tell you she is a great presenter. In this session, they will walk you through the journey toward mobile first UVM took and will share some useful tips for anybody going mobile and responsive.

Integrating Social Advertising into Your Marketing Mix (TUE, 4PM)

I met Laura Rigby from The University of New South Wales (Australia) online and got to know her work very well last year when she took the 8-week online course on social media marketing for higher ed I teach at Higher Ed Experts. I was so impressed by her assignments (homework is VERY practical in the course) and what she was doing at her institution down under that I asked her to submit a proposal for the conference. She will have traveled thousands of miles to present on the hot topic of social media advertising to tell us how UNSW built its Facebook following with the help of ads.

How to Measure Everything: Analytics for Content Creators (WED, 9:30AM)

I met Michael Powers from Indiana University of PA a few years ago at eduWeb in Chicago. I’ve always been impressed by the quality of his work. Mike has presented several Web Writing Bootcamp for Higher Ed Experts and developed our 4-week online course on web writing for higher ed. In this session, he will help us assess the performance of content with the help of analytics and other tools.

Higher Education Marketing in an Era of Disruption and Sector Shrinkage (WED, 10:45AM)

I’ve never met Gerald Schorin, Vice President for Communications and Marketing at Sarah Lawrence College, but his proposal definitely caught my eye when I reviewed it for the marketing track. This was before Jeff Selingo, the author of “College Unbound” was announced as the Tuesday keynote. Higher Ed Experts is helping brought Selingo to the conference with its financial support, because something important (and scary) is happening to higher ed. In this presentation Mr. Schorin will outline the threats higher ed is facing and use examples from both higher education and the corporate sector to suggest strategies and tactics for marketing the institution in a vastly different competitive arena.