Start your conference experience with a behind-the-scenes look at marketing at the highest level. Hailey Sullivan, Chief Marketing Officer for the Denver Broncos, will share how the organization crafts and executes its marketing strategy to deepen fan engagement and strengthen the brand. Joined by Sandy Young, Vice President of Partnership Marketing, the session will transition into a fireside conversation on strategic partnerships, innovation, and lessons that translate beyond sports.

Delivered on time and under budget, UA Little Rock's mostly in-house website redesign included the first full content refresh in more than a decade. The project's success wasn't driven by design or technology alone but it hinged on intentional and strategic communication. For over two years, the marketing team used clear project updates, user testing, design focus groups, and leadership briefings to build trust, manage expectations, and secure campus buy-in. This session breaks down the communication strategies that kept a complex project moving, built trust across campus, and turned a website redesign into a successful shared institutional win.

In an era of email overload, print can still be one of the most powerful tools in your advancement and marketing toolboxes — when it’s created with a strategic mindset. In this session, Capstone Communications’ Erin Peterson and Metropolitan State University of Denver’s Laura Miller will reveal how a data-driven magazine rebrand can strengthen alumni engagement and generate measurable ROI. This practical, fast-moving session will unpack what alumni say they want most from print and the smartest ways to measure impact. Erin will share research-grounded insights from decades of work with alumni magazines nationwide, and Laura will walk participants through MSU Denver’s recent transformation of RED Magazine into MSU Denver Magazine — a rebrand aligned with institutional strategy. The research and case study will illuminate why print still works and how to create a magazine that audiences read, love and act on.

Brand guides are great at setting teams up for success, but no organization can build a template for every project that comes along. Most of us spend our days working in the space between clear rules and real requests. This session explores how to extend a visual identity over time without losing what makes it recognizable. Framed around five foundational concepts, it offers a practical, human approach to balancing rules and judgment so new work can meet real needs while still feeling like it belongs to the same institution.

Put your crisis communication skills to the test in this interactive simulation. This session will challenge your team to respond to a rapidly unfolding crisis, assessing preparedness, decision-making, and communication strategies in real time. Gain valuable insights into your team’s strengths and areas for improvement, and leave with actionable steps to enhance your organization’s crisis readiness.

Student creators can be more than ambassadors if you give them a system. We produced 200+ social media assets in four months with student staff while they were in class, studying, and working side gigs. Here's the secret: We hired for "reliable" first, "creative" second. We built a training program that ensured consistency without killing creativity. We designed QA processes that caught brand violations without slowing publication. Our Street Team produced consistent, high-utility content that answered real questions in real time. This session reveals recruitment rubrics (what to look for beyond aesthetic talent), a 2-hour onboarding program, weekly sync agendas, the systems that scale (shot lists, scripts, brand guidelines), and QA processes that work (peer review before brand review before posting).

This session will explore how branding influences institutional culture and student decisions from first awareness through enrollment and persistence. Participants will learn how aligning mission-driven brand messaging with the student experience can set clear expectations, build trust, and support both enrollment and retention. Using practical examples from Forsyth Tech (a community college that serves around 22,000 students a year), the session highlights where brand promises succeed, where they break down, and how centering student perspectives and experiences can lead to authentic adjustments and a measurable difference.