We are excited to host our Summer Conference at the University of Richmond.
Thursday, June 29
6-7:30 p.m. - Networking and Happy Hour at Brambly Park
1708 Belleville St., Richmond, VA 23230
Friday, June 30
7:30 a.m. - Self-care: Morning Yoga/Meditation
Jepson Alumni Center Field
Lindsay Browning, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Dance
Shenandoah University
I will guide attendees through a full-bodied yoga practice. We will stretch, balance and breathe together. This will be an inclusive beginner session aiming to leave us all feeling a bit more calm in body and mind. While instructing the class, I will briefly explain the benefits of a consistent yoga/meditation practice as well as bits of yogic philosophy.
8 a.m. - Registration & Breakfast
Jepson Alumni Center
8:45 a.m. - Welcome
Robins Pavilion
Tom Addonizio, Vice President
University of Richmond
9-10:30 a.m. - Keynote
ChatGPT
Robins Pavilion
Ardis Kadiu, CEO and Founder
Element451
10:45-11:45 a.m. - Session Block 1
Media Releases: To Send or Not to Send — That is the Question
Rosenbaum
Sunni Brown, Director of Media & Public Relations
University of Richmond
Presentation Slides (PDF)
It’s a familiar question in the communications industry — Is the media release dead? At the University of Richmond, the media release is alive and well thanks to an intentional approach that achieves results. Director of Media and Public Relations Sunni Brown will share UR’s strategy and three benefits to sending media releases, including how if done right the target audience stretches beyond the media. The presentation would also detail the team's strategy behind what types of releases to write, how to write releases, and where to send them.
A Roadmap for Transformation
Robins Pavilion
Jaime Hunt, Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer
Old Dominion University
Presentation Slides (PDF)
Transforming your approach to marketing and communications can feel like a daunting task. Leaders often understand the ideal end state: an innovative, data-driven, creative organization that strategically provides value, is operationally effective, and crafts omni-channel campaigns that put our audiences at the center. But achieving that vision can feel insurmountable if you find yourself in a situation that is reactive, transactional, and siloed. One way to address this challenge is to use a maturity model to guide your efforts.
A marketing maturity model offers a framework that helps leaders assess the current performance of their operation, identify areas for improvement, and develop actionable plans for achieving that improvement. It also provides a structure for evaluating and improving performance over time. A maturity model typically includes several stages, each representing a different level of organizational maturity, and defines the key characteristics, processes, and outcomes associated with each stage. The goal of the maturity model is to identify the level of maturity of an organization and make a plan to reach the next level. The maturity model framework is truly flexible, adaptable, and scalable. It can be used to mature a specific aspect of your unit or your entire division.
The session is designed to help participants develop a roadmap for transformation using a marketing maturity model. Attendees will learn how to assess the current performance of their operation, identify areas for improvement, and develop actionable plans for achieving that improvement. Participants will also learn how to evaluate and improve performance over time by using a maturity model.
This session will cover the following topics:
Understanding the maturity model framework and its benefits and uses
Engaging your staff to get buy-in for using a maturity matrix
Identifying the right mix of elements to evaluate in your organization
Building a matrix that outlines the state of each element and describes each step toward organizational maturity
Developing a roadmap for improvement
Operationalizing change to ensure continued maturation
Measuring the success of the transformation effort
Maintaining the momentum for ongoing improvement
By the end of the workshop, participants will have a clear understanding of how to use maturity models as a roadmap for transformation and will be able to apply the framework to their own organization.
Reckoning With History: The Historical Markers at Virginia Tech
Quigg
Shanin Glenn, Graphic Designer, Communications and Marketing
April Goode, Operations and Communications Manager, Office for Strategic Affairs
Jesse Tuel, Senior Director for Units, Communications and Marketing
Virginia Tech
Presentation Slides (PDF)
As part of its sesquicentennial celebration in 2021 and 2022, Virginia Tech established a council on history. One result was seven historical markers that were installed across campus, documenting the various histories of the university and its surrounding lands and peoples. The markers highlight Native peoples, enslaved peoples, the role of the land-grant and the institution’s early years, women’s history, student diversity, and Black history.
From the Office of Inclusion and Diversity, Renée Stewart will speak to the “1872 Forward” events during sesquicentennial and Dr. Stacey Wilkerson will share her doctoral research findings, which outline how peer institutions have approached reckoning with history. From Communications and Marketing, Shanin Glenn will describe the design efforts, including accessibility standards, and Jesse Tuel will describe the editorial efforts to produce the markers.
Attendees will come away with an understanding of how their institutions can engage with various stakeholders and investigate the topics of history, diversity, equity, and inclusion.
12-1 p.m. - Lunch & Element451 Presentation
Robins Pavilion
1:15-2:15 p.m. - Session Block 2
Leveraging the Authentic Student Voice: A Case Study
Robins Pavilion
Leslie King, Communications Manager & Instructor
Virginia Tech
Presentation Slides (PDF)
The competition to reach our students through communication channels is fierce. Be it an avalanche of messaging from the university, departments, organizations, instructors, or friends and family, not to mention outside influences from social media, we find ourselves competing for student attention. But through an experiential learning opportunity for undergraduates, the Virginia Tech Department of English created a departmental communications field study program involving seven students. Using this as a case study, we will go over how the pilot program worked, the scope of the students’ communications, and the results. This presentation offers a model for other units that want to leverage authentic student voices while providing real-world higher education opportunities for future communication professionals.
Digital Accessibility 101
Rosenbaum
Madalyn Chapman, Digital Content Specialist
Anna Gould, Digital Content Specialist
Annette Thomson, Director of Web Strategy and Support
The George Washington University
Presentation Slides (PDF)
This session will focus on digital accessibility requirements and best practices for social media and web. This will be a joint presentation between GW's web team and digital content specialists. Attendees will learn the basics of how to make content accessible and more inclusive for their whole audience. Having accessible content can improve your web traffic and analytics, as well as create a more inclusive user community.
The Latinx/e Student Experience: From Recruitment to Retention
Quigg
Lyndenise Berdecía Rivera, Founder
Hacienda Gallo Pinto
Presentation Slides (PDF)
2:15-2:30 p.m. - Break
2:30-3:30 p.m. - Session Block 3
Training Faculty to Talk to the Media
Rosenbaum
Meredith Cole, Director of Communications and Marketing, Vice President for Research Office
University of Virginia
Presentation Slides (PDF)
Researchers are encouraged to specialize and focus on their fields. This creates great discoveries, but becomes a liability when they need to communicate their research to the media, funders or potential collaborators. The Office of the VPR at UVA recently launched a new program for Research Communication Fellows to help researchers work on their messaging, websites, social media presence, public speaking skills, and provide them with media training. This presentation is for other college communicators who might want to try a similar program to increase the impact of their faculty research.
Gather Around the Campfire/Optimizing Video for Higher Ed Social in 2023
Robins Pavilion
Mitchell Powers, Senior Multimedia Producer
University of Virginia
Presentation Slides (PDF)
In this talk, I encourage communicators to consider video as a Social Object, a term coined by Professor Thales Texeira here:
I use Teixeira's insight into the idea of social posts as gathering sites to indicate a strategic path for what we create and share online.
I share his many relevant insights into what works for short videos online, downplay the idea of virality and encourage people to think in terms of shareability and dialogue within social comment threads.
I share examples of some pieces that exemplify this approach and convene conversations, pointing out that many are comparatively simple in themselves while inspiring an online conversation.
I talk about the small details that matter online, headlines, thumbnails, titles, and descriptions.
I do a broad overview of the genres of videos higher ed video producers make and discuss each, analyze the audiences, talk about branding, story pitches, and the basic building blocks of video production.
I conclude with a discussion of documentary-style video, issues of authenticity, and interview techniques for documentary-style video that manage the task of getting a story while maintaining a spontaneous and fluid style.
Throughout this presentation, I play example videos and analyze them as case studies.
The Four-year Next Door: How to Successfully Serve Both Two-year and Four-year Students
Quigg
Jill Ross, Public Relations Specialist
New River Community College
“The Four-Year Next Door” presentation discusses the relationship between New River Community College and our neighbors, two large public state universities (Radford University and Virginia Tech). As a case study, presenters will discuss an ongoing marketing campaign targeted at supporting four-year students who need additional courses to complete their four-year degrees. The presentation also focuses on programs such as the RU-NRCC Bridge program, where first-year, four-year students live on campus at RU while taking classes at NRCC. Presenters will discuss how NRCC works with advisors at VT and RU to ensure a smooth transfer for our two-year community college students through the VCCS’s Transfer Virginia project. As many of the 23 Virginia Community Colleges also have one more four-year colleges or universities in their backyard, and every four-year college or university in Virginia has a community college in its area, the presentation will provide some best practices in working through the benefits and challenges of having a four-year next door and how best to support both two-year and four-year students who attend community college in Virginia.
3:30 p.m. - Conference Adjourns
Thank you to our Summer 2023 sponsor Element451!