Schedule for Wednesday, April 9, 2025
Check back for conference speaker updates. You may register for the virtual conference here.
Welcome / Opening Remarks
8:45 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.
Introduction with Ron Agrella, digital solutions and Marketing Cloud manager; Colin Murphy, chief communications officer, and Rob Baker, director of CRM and Digital Experience.
What would Scooby do? Uncovering the real mysteries about your audiences to improve experience… and it starts with you
9 a.m. to 9:45 a.m.
Speaker: Tracy Playle, CEO and Chief Content Strategist at Pickle Jar Communications
Summary: Some of us go to great lengths to understand and truly get to know our audiences. Through community management and regular engagement, to audience research and user testing. There are many ways that we can — and already do — seek to know them better and empathize with them through our content.
But what don't we know about them? What are the mysteries yet to be uncovered that might actually hold the key that will take our engagement strategies from great to outstanding? What are they not saying? What are they not sharing? What's hidden from plain sight, and leading us on a path of assumption and belief, instead of truly knowing and fully understanding?
In this session, we'll explore the power of supercharging your curiosity to really have you sniff out the truth about your audiences. We'll take an ontological approach that will help us to see what's beneath the surface, or right under your nose that you might not be seeing or might be afraid to explore.
BREAKING: University news site redesign puts accessibility above the fold!
9:45 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
Speakers: Aaron Baker, Janell Sims and Molly Miles, Harvard University
Summary: Harvard University’s news site recently underwent a major relaunch, featuring a fresh new design and an improved user experience with enhanced accessibility. In this session, you’ll learn how accessibility was prioritized at every stage of the project, from selecting vendors and planning development sprints to conducting user testing and quality assurance. The team will share key takeaways from the process and showcase some exciting new features that highlight how accessible design can take center stage.
Break
10:30 a.m. to 10:40 a.m.
Enhancing university websites through data-driven insights: Case studies from our recent work
10:40 a.m. to 11:25 a.m.
Speakers: Cassie Gold and Dan Moore, Simpson Scarborough
Summary: In today’s digital world, the visibility and usability of university websites play a critical role in attracting prospective students, supporting current students, and maintaining alumni engagement. This insightful session explores recent website redesign projects led by SimpsonScarborough, emphasizing the value of a data-driven approach to managing web presence. By outlining a structured strategy for defining, measuring, and optimizing website performance, the presentation highlights key successes in implementation, findings from impression testing, and actionable insights drawn from analytics. Attendees will gain a deeper understanding of advanced techniques for analyzing user behavior—such as scroll tracking, heatmaps, and session recordings—to extract meaningful engagement patterns. This discussion will demonstrate how leveraging these analytics can shape website design and content strategies, ultimately creating a more dynamic and effective digital experience.
UX Research and testing on that ever-minimal EDU Budget
11:25 a.m. to 12:10 p.m.
By Melanie Lindahl, The University of Texas at Austin
Summary: With limited school budgets, investing in essential UX strategies often feels out of reach. While we understand that user research and feedback are key to creating successful products, getting started—and proving the long-term value of UX from the outset—can be challenging. Over the years, Melanie has developed a simple, effective, and budget-friendly approach to gathering the insights my team needs to improve our projects. The best part? You don’t need to be a UX expert or have a large budget to make it work. In this session, Melanie will walk you through a practical, cost-effective method that can be seamlessly integrated into your project workflow.
Lunch Break On Your Own
12:10 p.m. to 12:40 p.m.
Unlocking higher ed web development team capabilities with AI
12:40 p.m. to 1:25 p.m.
Speaker: Mike Miles, Director of Web Development at MIT Sloan
Summary: In this session, Mike will explore how AI can be harnessed to boost developers' creativity, simplify the coding process, and open new opportunities. He will discuss AI’s role in analyzing code structures, suggesting solutions, and encouraging innovative thinking among developers. Additionally, he will address the ethical challenges and limitations of integrating AI into code development for higher education, emphasizing the need for human oversight, clear guidelines, and collaborative workflows. Through this discussion, Mike will highlight AI’s potential as a powerful tool for code comprehension and problem-solving.
Visual Content Strategy
1:25 p.m. - 2:10 p.m.
Speaker: Mike Powers, OHO Interactive
Summary: Many content strategists come from writing backgrounds, but today’s websites rely just as much—if not more—on visual content like photos and videos. So how can you ensure that your visual assets effectively support your brand and messaging, just as well as your written content? And where do you source all the images and videos you need?
This session will guide you through building a practical visual content strategy, covering everything from identifying what assets you need to sourcing or creating them and optimizing their impact on your website. Along the way, we’ll explore how photos enhance storytelling, the various types of higher ed videos and when to use them, SEO best practices for visual content, and even how to tactfully decline yet another “grip and grin” photo request.
Break
2:10 p.m. to 2:20 p.m.
Teaching Web Teams to Speak Enrollment
2:20 p.m. to 3:05 p.m.
Speakers: Robyn Lofton and David Poteet, NewCity
Summary: You know that prospective students are the primary audience for your website, but many marketing and web teams aren’t fluent in the language of enrollment. They may recognize the terminology but haven’t experienced it firsthand. When enrollment leaders talk about increasing applications, what are they really asking for? How can the website play a role in addressing issues like summer melt? And when enrollment teams join web projects, the communication gap can leave them feeling like outsiders. It’s no surprise that many enrollment leaders feel their last website redesign didn’t deliver the results they needed—but you can change that.
This session goes beyond just learning enrollment jargon. You’ll gain insight into how the website connects with other enrollment touchpoints, discover strategies for building trust and collaboration with enrollment teams, and learn how to ensure your website effectively supports their goals.
Fostering lifelong learning: Building a thriving online alumni community
3:05 p.m. to 3:50 p.m.
Speakers: Haley Belenis and Alicia Sullivan, University of California-Davis
Summary: Lisa and Haley will tackle a growing challenge in higher education: keeping alumni engaged through digital platforms that offer ongoing professional development opportunities. As digital technology continues to shape how we connect and learn, institutions are exploring new ways to strengthen alumni relationships beyond graduation. This session will highlight a successful model from the UC Davis Graduate School of Management, offering both inspiration and practical strategies for building an interactive online learning community.
Designed for a diverse audience, this presentation will provide insights into developing and managing digital platforms that support lifelong learning for alumni. Topics will include using digital marketing to foster engagement, leveraging data to measure success, and addressing the unique challenges of alumni involvement after graduation. With lifelong learning becoming increasingly important, this session will equip professionals in alumni relations, digital marketing, and continuing education with actionable strategies to enhance alumni connections.
By sharing real-world experiences and outcomes, Lisa and Haley will contribute to the broader conversation on the future of alumni engagement and digital innovation in higher education. This timely discussion will offer valuable takeaways on how institutions can use technology to create thriving, supportive online alumni communities.
Conference Conclusion
3:50 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.