Conferences for Marketing and Admissions Leaders

I believe private school marketing and admissions directors should pursue professional development opportunities. It is important to continue to learn in your profession. By attending conferences and workshops you will have opportunities to learn best practices, hear ideas that have worked in other schools and organizations, and network with your peers. 

I want to share with you several conferences that I will be speaking at and a few others that I am considering for my own development that might also be of interest to you.

AISAP Roundtables

Two roundtables will be offered by AISAP (Association of Independent School Admission Professionals) on Tuesday, May 1, at The Benjamin School in North Palm Beach, FL, and on Wednesday, May 2, at Independent Day School in Tampa, FL. You will not want to miss this roundtable.  

Brendan Schneider, blogger extraordinaire on school inbound marketing strategies (www.schneiderb.com), will be speaking about his experience implementing these strategies at Sewickley Academy. Madeline Senkosky, from EdSocialMedia (www.edsocialmedia.com), will speak on strategies for developing remarkable content and telling your school’s story on the Web. And finally, I will be part of this team of outstanding speakers as together we address the shifting landscape of school marketing to inbound strategies as a tool to spread word-of-mouth among our parents and to our community. Registration information is not yet available but you will want to reserve one of these two dates on your calendar (contact Janice Crampton at www.aisap.org).

AISAP Summer Institute

AISAP also offers a summer institute for admissions professionals—from beginner levels to the seasoned veteran. This institute will be held this summer from Sunday July 8, 2012, to Wednesday, July 11, 2012, at LaJolla Country Day School, LaJolla, CA (I can’t imagine a more beautiful location for a conference!). I have been invited to be one of the faculty members to speak at this institute. For more information, check out the AISAP website. Also, if your school is not a member of AISAP, you should join today!

WOMM-U

The Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) will host its annual WOMM-U (formerly School of WOMM). While I have never attended this conference, this looks to be an excellent experience to learn about word of mouth marketing strategies that can be applied to your school. This conference will be held from May 7-9 in Chicago, IL. You can find out more information on the WOMMA website.

Word of Mouth Crash Course

Hosted by Andy Sernovitz, author of the book Word of Mouth Marketing, this one day crash course on word of mouth marketing will be held on Thursday, May 10, in Austin, TX. This looks like a great, power-packed conference to attend. This event will feature “12 how-to-classes, 12 real world case studies, and 6 brilliant authors.” You can find out more information at the Crash Course website. I plan on attending either the WOMM-U or this Crash Course. 

Hubspot’s Inbound Marketing Conference

Hubspot will offer a conference on inbound marketing August 27-30 in Boston, MA.  According to their website, “Inbound 2012 is a 3-day marketing conference and training event designed to help marketing professionals, business owners, and agency executives deepen their knowledge of inbound marketing through a combination of inspiring keynote presentations, focused breakout sessions, expert-led small group workshops, innovative product demos, and exciting networking activities.” This could be a great reason to schedule a trip to Boston! Check out this conference as well as other professional development opportunities available through Hubspot.

ISM Summer Institute Workshops

Independent School Management (ISM) offers several workshops as part of their summer institute that might be worth considering: Admissions 101: The First Three Years; Admissions 201: Strategies for the Admissions Veteran; Enrollment Management: Three Steps to a Full School; Online Marketing for Schools. You can check out the ISM website for more information:

What are your professional development plans?

Will you be attending any of the above-mentioned roundtables, institutes or conferences?

Are there any other conferences that you would recommend?