This past week I was able to spend time in New York City as part of CASE Chairs Council and the Summit for Leaders in Advancement. The conference brings together leaders in our Advancement-focused disciplines for several days of learning.
Conference Insights
AI Future
Begin thinking about what’s next as it relates to AI. In the opening keynote, the presenter shared early data that 40% of the workforce may need to reskill because of AI in the coming decades. While the number seems high to me, I think he is right that AI will serve as a disrupter in some industries. As such, we (as institutions) would be smart to have conversations now about how we refine programs and offerings to be in a place to support those individuals.
Future is Bright for Marketing and Communications Teams
I had the opportunity to learn more about a new framework CASE is putting together around the work that marketing and communications teams do as part of their role. This tool, when complete, will become a standard benchmarking resources to help our marketing and communications teams evaluate our effectiveness and see how we fare in a variety of areas. Seeing the framework in an early draft has already helped me think about the work of our teams and ways we can continually improve. A special thanks to Dr. Terry Flannery, Dr. Teresa Valerio Parrot, and Christy Moss for their hard work on this.
Earned Media Helps Everyone
In a session on Advancement and MarComm collaboration, the presenters discussed the value of earned media. Specifically, as it relates to donor stories, there is value in engaging in follow up moments to show the impact of the gift. That’s what donors want to see, but it’s also how we can talk about the impact our institutions are having in the local or regional community, something that helps the entire university. Too often, we just think of these as donor stories and make an announcement. However, we don’t do enough to follow back up to share more about the impact.
Higher Education is a Team Sport
I had several conversations and heard the same mantra from multiple people. As institutions, we do a great job talking about the impact our university has in our community. However, there is also a narrative about the negative perception of higher education in the community. Institutions must work together to help connect those dots. We need to show that the local university everyone cherishes is also part of the bigger higher education system that everyone has a problem with. If we can do this collectively, there’s an opportunity to see change in the perception. However, it requires that universities compete a little less against each other, something incredibly challenging for enrollment-focused institutions.
Tell Your Truth
One of the keynote speakers shared about the value of having crucial conversations with our teams. She suggested telling our truth as part of the conversation because starting there is never wrong. She then suggested that we open conversation and be curious about the situations that need to be discussed. The presenter shared that we as leaders need to get good at giving feedback because we are doing a disservice to our team when we’re not willing to be candid and share. Over time, that hurts our team members and doesn’t allow them to grow.
Here’s a leadership course I’m hosting with the Enrollify team that talks about lots of leadership skills, including how to have these tough leadership conversations.
Your Thoughts?
Many of these are deep, thought provoking topics, so I am curious what thoughts you have. It was a great conference, and I’m already looking forward to next years!
And Carrie On 