Highly sought advancement professionals understand strategy. Whether you’re an early professional, mid-career, or aiming for an executive chair, those who are most valuable to their team understand what their university stands for, who it benefits, and why people should care. These essential but ephemeral ideas are wrapped up in the university’s brand and organizational strategy. In this session we’ll explore how to understand your university’s strategy and how to align your goals, talents and interests with the needs of your institution for the greatest mutual benefit.

One of the greatest privileges of working in education is in a community filled with unbounded ambition. although most academic-development interaction centers around prospect and donor work, this session will explore ways we can cultivate meaningful relationships with members of the academic and campus community to strengthen fundraising potential and expand our intellectual curiosity. You can learn how to effectively identify who and how to approach them, maintain relationships, and build your own board of directors.

Curious how DEI practices can enhance your engagement strategy but unsure how to proceed? Join us to discover how to harness DEI data to elevate your alumni engagement efforts. Learn how to apply these insights to craft inclusive and meaningful experiences, identify and address the unique needs of alumni from diverse identities, and ensure that every interaction fosters a sense of belonging and community.

Collaboration crediting. Prospect assignment hierarchy. Portfolio assessment cadence. Prospect and portfolio transfer policies. These are just some of the Prospect Management (PM) relevant topics organizations wrestle with, whether their PM program is just starting out or has reach its maturity zenith. Join in the conversation on establishing PM policies and strategies from 3 perspectives: one with a fledging PM team, one with a mature PM program, and a gift officer's perspective on PM.

Each one of our institutions has a distinct voice, a personality that your constituents can recognize immediately. This interactive session will help you identify your school's voice and show how to bring that voice alive in the pages of your periodicals and multimedia efforts.

In higher education, you are always in a marketing campaign. You might be building communities, raising awareness, connecting with students, or soliciting donor dollars. Mapping out an audience-centric campaign plan will inform your tactical marketing approach. Learn Ashley’s framework for designing effective campaign plans. She’ll cover tactics to build and organize your audience and make connections, and strategies to increase conversion and retention rates.

"Top-ranked education. World-class faculty. Small class sizes. Tight-knit community.” – Said every institution ever. How can you stand out above the noise? In this session, we’ll explore ways to effectively differentiate and elevate your institution's brand in a competitive landscape. Learn how to craft a strong positioning essence and statement to make your institution more distinct and memorable, and discover how your messaging can bring your positioning to life through your offerings and stories.

Your first step in building an effective marketing campaign is understanding your audience. In this session, we’ll explore various methods to gather and analyze qualitative and quantitative audience data, including interviews, focus groups, observational methods, social listening, surveys, and analytics. By integrating these data sources, you’ll learn how to uncover deep audience insights, identify key trends and preferences, and translate this information into actionable strategies to achieve your marketing goals.

You may be asked to assist with or lead media relations efforts for your institution—be prepared to own earned media! This session will prepare you to talk about the importance of earned media, provide necessary context on today’s media landscape, and present you with the tools to prepare yourself, faculty, or administrators for media opportunities. Teresa will share how to assess an inbound media opportunity or pitch a proactive story, outline the information to include in a briefing document, and discuss how to provide resources to those who will be interviewed (including you!) so that the experience is positive, and tips for increasing speakers’ chances of being included in a reporter’s piece. Finally, the session will cover how to report earned media successes.

Attendees will meet daily with advisory groups co-led by expert faculty members to debrief from the day’s learning and problem-solve in real-time.