A Recap of the 2023 Engage Summit Sessions

The Engage Summit was an awe-inspiring event that left attendees captivated from start to finish. With a lineup of extraordinary keynote speakers, each sharing their unique insights and stories, the summit ignited a spark of inspiration within every participant. 

From hands-on activities to collaborative problem-solving sessions, these workshops empowered participants to turn inspiration into action, equipping them with tangible takeaways that would fuel their future endeavors.

If you missed out the first time, or want to relive the magic, check out our sessions below. 

Presenter: Ardis Kadiu, Founder and CEO of Element451

In this session, Ardis introduces leaders from various industries to address challenges and explore opportunities in the world of higher education. With this year's theme of unifying the student experience, the discussion focuses on leveraging data, AI, marketing strategies, and tips and tricks to manage the student journey effectively. 

Element451 Keynote with CEO, Ardis Kadiu - Engage Summit 2023

Little Things Make The Biggest Difference

Presenter: Stan Phelps, Keynote Speaker + Writer

Customer experience today is largely about the little moments. This keynote will equip you with the tools needed to add value or reduce friction in the admissions, enrollment, and post-grad experience. As a result of this session, you'll learn a foolproof process for improving every customer experience at your institution, gain a deeper appreciation for the need to exceed expectations as a team, and improve the experience of every student your team engages. As a result, you'll learn innovative ways to build stronger relationships with students. 

Little Things Make the Biggest Difference - Engage Summit 2023

Are You Guilty of Talent Management Malpractice?

Presenter: Chris Quinn, Co-Founder and President, Imprint Talent Readiness

Join us for an inspiring talk on how leveraging people's data can help overcome bias in the workplace and inspire high performance. We'll explore how data-driven insights can help identify and address unconscious biases in hiring, promotions, and performance evaluations. 

By understanding the data, we can create a more equitable and inclusive workplace that creates high-performing individuals and teams. We'll also discuss real-world examples of companies that have successfully used people data to mitigate bias and drive better business outcomes. Don't miss this opportunity to learn how to use data to create a more engaged and inspired workforce.

Are You Guilty of Talent Management Malpractice? - Engage Summit 2023

Catching Fire: How to Ignite Marketing with Experience

Presenters: Allison Turcio - Assistant Vice President for Enrollment and Marketing, Siena College
Jason Rich - Special Assistant to the President + Director of Marketing and Communications, Siena College
Ned Jones - Vice President for Enrollment Management, Siena College

Join us for an exciting presentation that explores the intersection of student engagement, Gen Z's educational preferences, and the power of outstanding experiences. Did you know that a staggering 86% of individuals are willing to pay extra for a remarkable encounter? 

Just imagine the transformative effect this could have on student engagement! Gen Z, the generation redefining education, seeks authenticity, personalization, affordability, convenience, speed, and seamlessness. In this session, we will discuss how schools and institutions can adapt to these new demands and empower the next generation of learners. 

Catching Fire: How to Ignite Marketing With Experience

Presenters: Lenell Hahn - Director Of Admissions, Southeast Missouri State University
Alisa McFerron - Assistant Director Of Admissions, Southeast Missouri State University

Is your institution not a “fit” for the current direct admission vendor partnership opportunities? Could you have a population of student data that would allow you to create an “in-house” direct admissions program? Southeast Missouri State University has leveraged their Element451 platform to automate creating a degree-seeking beginning freshman application for their early college credit student population. 

During the presentation, we will review the current direct admission vendor relationship opportunities, as well as, highlight how SEMO used this idea to creatively bring the opportunity to hundreds of students already in their database.

Automating In-House Direct Admissions

AI Driving Enrollment Management — A Review of Tool, Tactics, and Products, Planning, Communications, and Operations in Student Recruitment

Presenter: JC Bonilla - Global Chief Analytics Officer, VaynerX

In the session, Dr. JC Bonilla, NYU Faculty and Global Chief Analytics Officer at VaynerX will review how AI can support the 3 omnipresent forces in enrollment management:  planning, communications, and operations. 

The session will review emerging technologies and trends that educators can use for instrumenting the planning of recruitment cycle, designing and launching modern communications with AI-driven creative, as well as sustaining admissions operations with AI back-office infrastructure.

AI Driving Enrollment Management - Engage Summit 2023

Presenter: Mike McGetrick - Principal, Creative and Interactive Services, Spark451

Your website is your digital storefront and is typically the first touchpoint in the journey of your prospective students. And the web’s greatest companion is your CRM, allowing you to capture leads, engage them, and move them through your enrollment funnel. The CRM and your .edu website combined are the hub and spokes of your marketing stack.  

But there’s so much more to that connection. This session will introduce strategies and tactics for amplifying the web and CRM combination to build a behavioral marketing engine that delivers optimal results.

Maximizing the Web-CRM Connection - Engage Summit 2023

Higher Ed Content Marketing 3.0: Creators, AI Agents, and Owned Channels — Oh My!

Presenter: Zach Busekrus - Founder, Enrollify

Remember when your organic Facebook posts reached thousands of prospects?  Or when your university admissions blog was a significant driver of new inquiries? Content marketing has been a tried and true strategy for higher ed marketing and student recruitment for years now, but the tactics, channels, and mediums are ever-evolving.

In this session, Zach Busekrus from Enrollify will share musings on the assets that higher ed will need in its marketing portfolio for the “third wave” of content marketing — think strategies to leverage creators, building out systems and processes for using AI Agents like ChatGPT and creating niche media brands to build owned audiences. You’ll leave this session inspired and empowered to craft a 3.0 Content Marketing strategy that helps your team reach its goals.

Higher Ed Content Marketing 3.0 - Engage Summit 2.0

Breaking The Data Silos: How Element451 Open Data Enables Innovation

Presenters: Jacob Patton - Director of Data and Integrations, Element451
Petar Djordjevic - Chief Technology Officer, Element451
Milos Tomic - Software Engineer, Element451

Are you ready to break down the data silos and unleash the power of innovation? Join us to explore how Element451's open APIs and data integration enable better insights and drive innovation. APIs are the key to unlocking innovation, integration, efficiency, flexibility, and a better user experience. By providing developers with access to data and functionality that would otherwise be difficult to obtain, open APIs enable increased innovation and easier integration across multiple systems. This not only saves time and resources but also leads to enhanced user experiences through more intuitive and customized applications.

In this session, we will take a closer look into the Element451 data ecosystem, showcasing how it can help you break down departmental barriers to unlock the power of your data. By leveraging open APIs and integrations, you’ll gain deeper insights into your students and enable more meaningful engagement.

Breaking the Data Silos - Engage Summit 2023

Presenters: Jacquelyn Thompson, Ed.D. - Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management, Florida State College at Jacksonville
Devin Purgason - Executive Director of Marketing and Student Care, Forsyth Technical Community College
Kristina Faller - Director of Marketing and Brand Experience, RIT Certified
Lenell Hahn - Director of Admissions, Southeast Missouri State University

Achieving student success takes an entire campus community. Join us for a discussion with campus leaders from Florida State College at Jacksonville, Forsyth Technical Community College, RIT Certified, and Southeast Missouri State University on how Element451 contributes to their success. This multi-perspective discussion will explore the use of data and marketing campaigns, navigating staff turnover, and how to get campus buy-in and create institutional cohesion. Plus, a Q&A section will address any questions you may have!

Element451 Customer Panel Q&A - Engage Summit 2023

Presenters: Ardis Kadiu - Founder + CEO, Element451
Eric Range - Vice President of Product, Element451
Ty Fujimura - Chief Product Officer, Element451

Join us for an exhilarating presentation session at the Engage Summit, where industry leaders, learners, and higher ed professionals unite. Experience the electric atmosphere as our visionary CEO and Founder, Ardis Kadiu, joins forces with our Chief Product Officer, Ty Fujimura, and Vice President of Product, Eric Range. Prepare to be amazed as they unveil the remarkable progress made over the past year and provide an exclusive sneak peek into mind-blowing features and AI-driven technology that are set to revolutionize education. Don't miss out on this exciting opportunity to witness the future of learning unfold.

Next-Gen Now: Element451's 2023 Product Roadmap

Presenter: Corinne Hancock, Keynote Speaker + Chaos Coach

It’s no secret that working in higher ed can be chaotic. In work and in life, we’re put to the test not when things are going right, but when the unexpected hits. How we react to chaos can be the difference between success and failure, and determine whether our teams come together or completely fall apart. This session will equip you with strategies to use chaos to your advantage. 

In this session, you'll get yourself, your team, and your company chaos ready and learn to stay focused on the mission no matter what is thrown at you. You'll also learn to lead yourself and others through unexpected challenges and uncertainty while emerging out of chaos stronger than ever.

The Chaos Advantage - Engage Summit 2023

Presenters: Jamie Boggs - Senior Engagement Specialist, Element451
Timothy Davis - Engagement Analyst, Element451

In today's fast-paced world, it's critical to make data-driven decisions to stay ahead of the competition. But are you tired of feeling like you need a Ph.D. to make sense of your data? AI-enabled Insights to the rescue! We’ll show you how to make better-informed decisions throughout the student journey, improving team efficiency and alignment.

Element451’s advanced AI-powered tool, Insights, allows you to ask questions about your data in plain English without the need for technical expertise. With this game-changing feature,  you can quickly gain a greater understanding of your enrollment strategies and student engagement.

Interrogate Your Data with AI - Engage Summit 2023

Presenters: Megan Butts - Senior Engagement Analyst, Element451
Eric Range - Vice President of Product, Element451

From enrollment to graduation, every student follows their own unique journey. But with Element451’s Journeys module, you can map their milestones, monitor progress along the way, and offer a helping hand when they need it most. By bringing all the signals together into one system, you can gain a better understanding of each individual student's journey and then leverage the aggregate insights to identify areas for improvement.

In this session, you’ll learn how to leverage the Journeys module and unlock the power of student journey mapping. Join us to find ways to empower your students to succeed on their individual journeys and uncover key insights to impact your entire student body.

Mapping the Student Journey - Engage Summit 2023

Driving Marketing and Enrollment Efficiency — Moving from Passive to Active Tactics

Presenter: Joe Sallustio, Senior Vice President, Lindenwood Global & University Strategic Enrollment Management

If you build it, they will come. Wrong. If you build it, relentlessly market, analyze data, crystallize the value proposition, and sell it....maybe they will come.  In the competitive market of higher education, questions of value, affordability, return on investment, and the relevance of education have created a more timid consumer market. This session will cover tactics that help the critical functions of marketing and enrollment move from passive to active.

Driving Marketing and Enrollment Efficiency - Engage Summit 2023

Rise of the Chatbots: Transforming Student Engagement and Success with AI

Presenters: Petar Djorjevic - Chief Technology Officer, Element451
Ardis Kadiu - Founder + CEO, Element451
Eric Range - Vice President of Product, Element451

It’s time to take your engagement strategies to the next level with the power of AI. We’ll explore the cutting-edge, AI-driven chatbot solution that is transforming the way higher education institutions engage with students — Element451’s BoltBot.

BoltBot, powered by ChatGPT (GPT-4), is set to revolutionize your team’s ability to achieve personalized communications at scale. We’ll dive into incredible use cases and discover how this feature can shift the paradigm from traditional human-first, reactive approaches to digital-first, proactive strategies.

Rise of the Chatbots: Transforming Student Engagement and Success with AI - Engage Summit 2023

Presenter: Day Kibilds - Strategy Director, Ologie

When we build a communications calendar for enrollment, we start with: what do we need to tell them? Usually, it’s a long list of facts and accolades about our institutions, and some steps for them to take. We send this information over and over again, hoping for the best. Yet, how often do we stop and think: what emotions might be coming up for our students this time of year? What else is competing for their attention? What information is actually relevant to them right now?

This approach will not only keep your audiences informed about what’s important but also support them in their journey and begin to build a connection with your institution.

Adding Empathy to your Comms Plans - Engage Summit 2023

Presenters: Ardis Kadiu - Founder + CEO, Element451
Daniella Nordin - Senior Engagement Strategist, Element451

Feeling seen, feeling heard, and feeling welcomed. This is our goal for every enrolled student. Join us for an engaging session that opens the dialogue of how to shift the paradigm from traditional human-first, reactive approaches to proactive strategies with our innovative features. At Element451, we're all about putting the power of AI in your hands to impact student retention. Our goal is to move beyond early alert to early success. We want to empower students by giving them real-time guidance and support when they need it most to help them thrive.

Discover how to leverage tasks for case management, an appointments module for faculty and advisor meetings, journeys for tracking alerts, BoltBot for 24/7 assistance, marketing automation for proactive outreach, and more. We’ll help you empower your student success team to take a proactive approach to student retention. Don't miss out on this critical session and transform your student success strategy.

2023 Engage Summit Sessions

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