The eduWeb Conference was well done. I’m not entirely sure I learned super-duper amounts of usable stuff, but I absolutely met some great people and gained a stronger understanding of digital mar/com within the realm of higher education.
One of the presentations I enjoyed the most was from @rachelreuben. She is the Associate VP of Marketing Communications at Ithaca College.
Rachel's presentation was offered additional promotion from @karinejoly in a blog post.
She detailed her experience during a major re-branding exercise at the institution centered around the idea of preparedness. Ithaca’s ads use the word “Ready” as a tagline along with a phrase like “to hit the high notes” or “to fight poverty.”
Conceptually the “Ready” campaign seems to work and I like the design, but I couldn’t help wondering what was so differentiating about the concept? Couldn’t or wouldn’t any college or university proclaim their students are “ready” for the real world? Jeez… that’s the idea, right? I think the notion of differentiation is very difficult in higher education. Universities are careful not to undersell a particular component of the education by over-promoting a strong department which ultimately results in the cardinal sin of brand strategy – being all things to all people.
Sarah Sykora @ssykora and her colleague Gene Bergin from Babson put together a cool presentation about how they used a micro-site and asked alumni to supply definitions of the word “entrepreneurship.”
Sykora and Bergin presented about "Entrepreneurship" at Babson College
The concept yielded both alumni engagement through “crowdsourcing” and increased school spirit from faculty, staff, and students due to a rallying point behind a unique selling feature of the school. Babson is ranked #1 in teaching entrepreneurship and has held that ranking for the last 19 years. I’m very appreciative of concepts in higher education marketing that seem so simple yet intensely strategic.
Of note: QR codes were crushed by multiple presenters. I saw a great tweet (retweet from @stevehj) from @NickAlexopulos that captured the sentiment perfectly. When I look at a QR code I just can’t figure how that ugly thing is going to continue making an impact on marketing strategy. 
For my own presentation I discussed how Washington and Lee University has put together a unique alumni engagement strategy. You can read more about the approach in previous posts. I was very excited to have a room full of attendees, some of whom were live tweeting under the #eduweb hashtag, despite being given the final presentation spot on the last day. The audience had a great questions! 
All in all I learned quite a bit and had plenty to think about on my delayed flight back from Boston. Thanks US Airways! See you next year eduWeb.
