I am currently attending the annual AMA HigherEd Symposium. While my sixth year, this is the largest conference with more than 1500 attendees from 400 institutions.
My original thought was to craft a recap post at the end of the conference, but with so much day-one content, I’ve decided instead to do a wrap-up of each day based on what’s discussed.
5 Takeaways from Day One
Funenomics is a Trend
The world is really tough right now. We’ve had about five years of compounded crisis events. Because of that, people are looking for fun in the work we do. Whether it’s gamification, Augmented Reality, or something else, we need to find ways to keep/make the work fun. This is important for our teams but also for those we are engaging with as part of our marketing and communications efforts. As a leader, do not underestimate the power of infusing fun in your brand.
Ray Day, Stagwell
Learn Everywhere
You can learn something in every situation. Use those challenging opportunities to learn what you like and what you’re looking for in both leadership and in an institution. However, keep grounded in the fact there are teachable moments in every situation. Sometimes we need negative experiences to help us understand what we want and learn how to do things better when we have the opportunity. These negative moments can also teach us resilience, which is something that will serve us well in any experience.
Luke Anderson, Emory University
Tackling Messaging about Crisis and Polarizing Issues
As marketing leaders, we need to be having the tough internal conversations about how we communicate on our campus related to crisis and divisive issues. Those tough conversations likely involve prioritizing stakeholders. Because with so many tough issues these days, we are likely alienating someone regardless of what we do. If we have a real, internal conversation about what’s best for our campus and community, we’re less likely to have a messy conversation in the public eye figuring it out.
Ray Day, Stagwell
Speak Truth, Always
I got in trouble at age 7 because I was honest with my after-school teacher when she asked me if I liked her haircut. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned a bit more tact around that. However, that’s sometimes our job as marketing leaders is to raise our hand and speak a contrary opinion to our leaders. We have to be willing, for the sake of the brand, to say that idea is going to cause problems, or that idea doesn’t align with who we are as an institution. Much like it did for me as a seven-year-old, that can sometimes create issues. However, I think that it’s important as marketing leaders that we be comfortable will speaking what is our truth, even though there may be times we’re speaking alone. Many times, the candor is needed and appreciated. I can honestly say doing this has gotten me into rooms above my title because the leader knew I would be honest and was looking for that. Just maybe more tact than the seven-year-old version had.
Ray Day, Stagwell
Interconnectivity is Critical
The world has a lot of intersectionality in it. Specifically, with AMA there are practitioner, educational and academic members. Historically the organization hasn’t overlapped those spaces much, but that misses opportunity for key connections and learnings from one another. In the same way, we can use our institutions to provide such interconnectivity for our students. Accounting students could benefit from connecting with the accounting team, marketing from the marketing team, Human Resources from Human Resources. How do we naturally build in these connections from the business function of our institutions to create moments that our students can learn from, and we can learn from them?
Bennie Johnson, AMA
Senior Leader Experience Programming
All of these takeaways came from the Senior Leader Experience. It was a packed afternoon of deep thought and conversation. Of course, looking forward to the full conference and will share thoughts again then.
And Carrie On 