Like 140 other members of the higher ed web family, I’ve planned to go to Salisbury University on July 18 and 19 for the 6th Web Communications and Strategies Conference.
This was one of my top 3 conferences pertaining to higher ed websites earlier this year.
If you’re coming too, we’ll meet at last ;-)
And, for those who can’t make it this year, I’ll try to blog as many seminars and presentations as humanly possible — it may not be always in real-time, but I’ll do my best.
Whether you’re coming or not to Salisbury University in 2 weeks, I’m sure you’ll be interested to read the Conference Chair Shelley Wetzel’s perspective on our industry and the 2005 edition of this event:
1) This year marks the 6th edition of the Web Communications and Strategies Conference at Salisbury University. How did you come up with the idea of such a conference 6 years ago? What was the initial goal?
Initially, my boss, the CIO, and the director of IT wanted to create a conference specifically for web developers in higher education. We didn’t see anything being offered that targeted higher ed, and after going to a small (around 100 people) conference at the University of Delaware, we got the idea to try it out. At first, it was only people from the “system” (Salisbury University is part of the University System of Maryland) who attended, but it slowly attracted others; this year we have a presenter from the University of Oslo (Norway)!
2) In your opinion, how web communications and strategies have evolved in higher education for the past 6 years?
I’m not sure we have evolved, at least not as far as I’d like to see. Basically, it comes down to understanding the importance of the Web in general. It is the #1 marketing tool out there and higher ed institutions have to understand that they are “businesses…” Yes, a dirty word for many… But, if management doesn’t understand how important a university’s brand (if they truly know what that is), image, message(s), vision and strategy are to what they represent regarding this institution and, thus, be able to integrate it (integration is another dirty word), then the Web and its strategies to use it effectively will not be accomplished. Some higher ed institutions know how to market and integrate what they do across all media and, thus, are very successful in their short and long term strategies.
3) This year’s program is packed with quality presentations, seminars and workshops. If somebody can only attend 3 of these events, what should they be and why?
Hmm… Tough one… Okay, here are my favorites: (1) Antarctica.uab.edu: Incorporating Blogging into Publications Strategies, (2) Brand Marketing as a Precondition to Web Development: a Faculty’s Struggle to Reinvent itself on the Web (interesting also because it’s from an international perspective … the gentleman from Norway … but you never know, it may be a smaller world than we know), (3) special presentation during Monday’s lunch: Ipodcast…Should .edu? Great topic… Should edus get into podcasting???, (4) panel discussion on Monday: How IT and Marketing Can Understand and Work Together Successfully? An oxymoron to me, but well worth attending and since it’s the only session going on that time, please do come, (5) Improving Your Website: How to Get Buy-in Across Campus Geez, what a good topic; haven’t we all had problems getting buy-in across campus? and my final one (6) The Importance of RSS to a University
Are you coming to Salisbury? Drop me a note at karine@collegewebeditor.com or post a comment below, so I can make sure we get a chance to chat about our industry and maybe get your feedback about the blog.