Higher education has always included scandal and crisis, but some institutions weather reputation management better than others. Learn how to increase your chances of avoiding that worst-case scenario. This session isn’t focused on scaring you about the perils of a crisis— we’ve all witnessed how institutions have fared and know the risks. During our time together, hear how you can be a resource in advance of a crisis, how to define processes and institutional values outside of a crisis situation, and tips for assisting your leaders and institution should they face a high-profile problem or an actual crisis. Teresa will provide a realistic and pragmatic review of higher education crises and provide attendees with a to-do list for summer planning and strategizing, and a to-don’t list in advance of what is shaping up to be a politically charged semester

If you can chat over dinner, you already know how to interview. But let’s walk through ten steps that will make sure you get the material you need to write the stories that last. Plus, the tough questions: Should you ask them? Are you allowed to ask them as a campus communicator? Let’s talk.

Effective communications are not predicated on messages sent, but messages received. With this in mind, what makes for an effective message—whether it’s contained in an email, a social media post, a magazine story, or a web page. It all comes back to language, the words we use to connect, to convince, to move, and to persuade. Language matters: a primer on word choice to enhance effective communications.

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.

Immersive 360-degree experiences have moved beyond the theme park and science museum to be considered as another media format for institutions. But how do you conceive of a story with nothing “out of frame”? What are the best strategies to create compelling experiences that embrace authenticity over gimmick? And finally, what are the technical challenges of deploying these stories within a limited budget? Ravi will share his experiences creating panoramic tours, 360-degree video stories, and full-fledged virtual tours for Boston College–and will offer his take on where this is all going.

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.

In today's ever-evolving workplace, it is crucial to develop effective strategies for managing up to your supervisors and navigating your organization's structure. We will explore the art of managing from your seat, providing you with insights and practical techniques to cultivate strong relationships with supervisors and peers while influencing the decision-making process. We will explore how to effectively communicate your ideas, and results to supervisors, ensuring your contributions are acknowledged and appreciated. Additionally, we will delve into techniques for growing your reputation and credibility and positioning you for success in today’s rapidly changing work environment.

Do people read emails anymore? Yes—they do. But not the way you think. This talk will show you exactly how to write subject lines, optimize your links, and lay out your email copy so your message gets across. In this session, you’ll learn: How to write good subject lines that increase open rates. Typical email reading patterns and how to use them to your advantage. How to appropriately use formatting and white space. Recommendations on sentence structure and reading level. How to use links and buttons to guarantee click-through. A quick way to test if your email will get read. This session is useful for everyone, whether you send mass emails or just internal ones.

Regardless of how an advancement shop chooses to structure alumni relations and development, there are often natural opportunities for alumni teams to collaborate with development teams to engage prospective and current donors in meaningful ways. In this session, you will hear relevant examples of alumni professionals partnering with development officers to cultivate donors in the major gift cycle, while also providing alumni audiences with unique and special experiences. You will gain insight into the win-win opportunities that you can create in your advancement shop that lead to major gifts while also engaging alumni with impactful, alumni-centered programming.