2019 Convention Concurrent Sessions

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All Sessions

Campus Development Track

Government Relations Track

Marketing Outreach Track

All Sessions

Convention Sessions

This year CECU will be hosting over 40 different concurrent sessions at this year's Convention! Here you will find a listing of the session tiles by day. If you would like to read more about a session please click the associated Track Tab above for a detailed description of each session in that track (Campus Development, Government relations, Marketing Outreach).

Please note that there may be changes to this schedule, once on site please refer to your program and/or the Convention mobile app for the most up-to-date schedule. 

Monday, June 3rd  |  11:00 AM - NOON

Applying Change Management to Campus Operations  |  Campus Development

• John Olson & Barbara Larar, ECPI University 

Best Practices for New Student Engagement  |  Marketing Outreach  

• Dr. Jean Norris, Vince Norton & JP Smith - Norton | Norris Inc.

​False Claims Act Update: Recent cases, potential threats, and ways to minimize exposure  |  Government Relations  

• Steven Gombos and Jacob Shorter, Gombos Leyton, PC & Eric Bing, The College of Health Care Professions​​
  

Financial Literacy for Today's Student  |  Government Relations 

• Sally Samuels, FAME

Performance based methods of re-working old non-converted inquires, Case Studies of Success & Failure  |  Marketing Outreach 

• Martin Najarro, Enrollment Partners & David Flack, Edufficient

The New Paradigm of Education Funding: Looking Beyond FICO Scores to Grow Enrollment  |  Campus Development  

•  Chris Keaveney, Meritize 

What's holding you back from automating student engagement?  |  Marketing Outreach 

• Nilesh Patel, LeadSquared Inc.

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Monday, June 3rd  |  2:00 - 3:00 PM

​Closing the Skills Gaps Through Apprenticeship Programs  |  Government Relations 

• Jessica Langley or Melissa Cochran,  National Healthcareer Association

Conversion Rate Breakthroughs in Marketing and Admissions  |  Marketing Outreach

• Tom King, Enrollment Resources 

EDU Mkt Automation: The Technology & Proven Strategies You Need Today  |  Marketing Outreach 

• Joe Laskowski and Ryan Evans,  Higher Ed Growth

Efficiency and Effectiveness. How to optimize your marketing efforts and get better results.  |  Marketing Outreach

• Jim Bologa, Porter and Chester Institute & Aaron Edwards, Edwards Strategies

Employer & Alumni Engagement...a 360 Degree Approach  |  Campus Development   

• Burke Malin, Gurnick Academy of Medical Arts & Micaela Alpers, Career TEAM 

Litigation Update: The Legal Threats Facing For-Profit Colleges  |  Government Relations 

• Steven Gombos and Jacob Shorter, Gombos Leyton, PC

Real Time Data & Predictive Analytics: Beyond Attendance and Assessment  |  Campus Development  

• Thomas Hartman, CourseKey

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Monday, June 3rd  |  3:15 - 4:15 PM

​Borrower Defense to Repayment Regulations – Their Impact on the Composite Score Ratios and the Financial Responsibility Standards  |  Government Relations  

• Jonathan Tarnow, Drinker Biddle & Reath; Ted Blendermann, McClintock & Associates; Jack Woll, Almich & Associates

Building a Marketing Program for the Year 2020  |  Marketing Outreach

• Greg Grag and Darryl Mattox, Gragg Advertising

Developing Employer Sponsored Education Programs  |  Campus Development  

• ​Matt Killday, Thruline Marketing

​It’s Compliance, Not Rocket Science: Accreditation and State Visits – How to Successfully Prepare Using Mock Visits  |  Government Relations 

• Valerie Mendelsohn, ACC and WCU & Lauren Brabo, ACC

M&A in Higher Ed: Key Points of an LOI  |  Government Relations 

• Emily Murphy and Katie Wendel, Thompson Coburn LLP

Search & Social Must-Haves Every EDU VP Needs to Know is 100% Live…but Probably Isn’t For Your School 

• Level Agency​

Turn Your Social Media into an Admissions Conversion Machine  |  Marketing Outreach 

• Tom King, Enrollment Resources​

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Tuesday, June 4th  |  11:00 AM - NOON

​Beyond Engagement – Strategies to Improve Student Outcomes  |  Marketing Outreach  

• Renee Pacini, Campus Management

Eight High-Impact Practices for Maximizing Graduate Career Outcomes in the New World of Work  |  Campus Development  

• Jay Hollowell, MaxKnowledge

​Innovations in Distance Education and Accreditation: Department of Education's Proposed Rules  |  Government Relations 

• Jonathon Glass and Yolanda Gallegos, Cooley LLP

Overwhelmed by the Digital Surge? There's an Easier Way to Manage Electronic Course Materials  |  Campus Development   

• Bruce Schneider, Ambassador Education Solutions

​​Staying on the Road to Success While Driving Change of Control  |  Government Relations  |  Strand 12

• Dennis Cariello and Audrey Kaplan, Hogan Marren Babbo & Rose LTD; Michael Kornman, NCK Capital, LLC

Step aside millennials. How to attract and engage your new class of students: Gen Z  |  Marketing Outreach

• Jenny Andrews, Sikich LLP

Transforming Students to Employees - Highlights of the Most In-Demand Employability Skills  |  Campus Development  

• Corina Santoro, Cengage Learning 

​Use Technology to Improve Title IV Compliance & Efficiency  |  Campus Development  

• Siana Stewart-Mullings, Campus Ivy

Tuesday, June 4th  |  2:00 - 3:00 PM

​7 Ways to Prevent Student Payment Plan Defaults   |  Campus Development  

• Calvin J. Fortenberry, TFC Tuition Financing 

Arbitration and Class Action Waivers. What's all the fuss about?  |  Campus Development 

• Aaron Lacey, Thompson Coburn, LLP; Ben DeGweck and Tres Cleveland; Maynard, Cooper & Gale; Bruce Denson, Jr., Cobbs Allen

How to Build an Incredible Brand that Students Will Never Forget  |  Marketing Outreach  

• Bill Buchanan, Becker Media

​Is that Student Eligible?  Attorney Workshop on High School Validity and Career Pathway Programs  |  Government Relations  

• Stanley A. Freeman and Nicolas E.M. Michiels, Powers Pyles Sutter & Verville PC

Market Research in a Time of Rebirth  |  Marketing Outreach 

• Joel English, Centura College; Aaron Edwards and John Goodwin, Edwards Strategies

Millennial Marketing - What you did yesterday won't work tomorrow.   |  Marketing Outreach 

• Mike O'Brien, Career Conext

Private Postsecondary Schools and Data Privacy – It’s So Much More than FERPA  |  Government Relations 

• Jonathan Tarnow and Katherine Armstrong, Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP

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Tuesday, June 4th  |  3:15 - 4:15 PM

​Borrower Defense to Repayment - What Schools Need to Know  |  Government Relations  

• Christopher DeLuca, Rouse Frets

Community Outreach: A Way to Increase Quality Enrollment, Placement, and Brand  |  Campus Development 

• Susan F. Schulz, Schulz School Advisors & Panel

Effective Leadership: Strategies for Developing Leaders at all Levels  |  Campus Development  

• Valerie Cimarossa, University of Advancing Technology 

Is your Administration and Faculty exhausted?  |  Campus Development   

• Dr. Scott Fitzgibbon, The Pacific Institute 

Leveraging AI & Predictive Analytics to Monetize Historical Lead Data  |  Marketing Outreach   

• Pat Murphy, LeadScorz Inc.

Marketing Attribution:  Measure the performance of each element of your Marketing Mix  |  Marketing Outreach  

• Hank Cohen and Joseph Poulose, WindStar Media

Proprietary School Audit Guide and Exciting Changes  |  Government Relations 

• Mark Priebe, Department of Education Office of Inspector General

Thinking outside the Box – Student Retention Everyone Plays a Role   |  Marketing Outreach  

• Lisa Olmedo and Darryl Mattox, Gragg Advertising 

Campus Development Track

7 Ways to Prevent Student Payment Plan Defaults  

• Calvin J. Fortenberry, TFC Tuition Financing  
• Payment plans are a necessity in today’s student loan environment. Avoid the stress, hassle, and extra staff effort involved when students fall behind on their payments with these time-proven tips. During this session, we will run through various best practices you can implement at your school immediately to improve student payment plan success
  
  Take-a-ways:
  • How to choose which students to finance
  • The best ways to set expectations with students and set up proper payment plans right from enrollment
  • Best practices for communications & delinquent student follow-up
  • The right questions to ask and fees to avoid when dealing with third party servicing and collection agencies

Applying Change Management to Campus Operations  

• John Olson & Barbara Larar, ECPI University 
• This presentation will show how campus administrators can apply the fundamentals of change management to control external and internal influences and student attrition. Participants will be able to apply John Kotter's Change Management Model to various campus situations. They will see how to walk through the four stages of change--need for change, change direction, change behavior, and change sustainability. This will be a hands-on presentation that will involve participants through various individual and group activities.

Arbitration and Class Action Waivers. What's all the fuss about?

• Aaron Lacey, Thompson Coburn, LLP; Ben DeGweck and Tres Cleveland; Maynard, Cooper & Gale; Bruce Denson, Jr., Cobbs Allen
• Many school owners and operators are aware of the back and forth positions of the Department of Education in the last several years regarding the permissibility of pre-dispute arbitration agreements and class action waivers (collectively “Pre-Dispute Provisions”) in student agreements. The Obama administration took the position in its Borrower Defense to Repayment regulations (“BDR”) that the use of such Pre-Dispute Provisions should be banned. These regulations are now currently in full effect; however, the Trump administration, through Secretary Devos, has taken the position that the use of pre-dispute arbitration agreements and class actions waivers are and should be permissible so long as schools prominently disclose that they are using them. 
  
  Most schools owners know there’s a fight over this, but may be wondering, what is all the fuss about? What exactly is arbitration? What is a class action waiver? Do these Pre-Dispute Provisions help schools, students or both? What are the pros and cons of including these provisions within the enrollment process? If I have these Pre-Dispute Provisions with my students, should I also have them with my employees? If I decide to use these provisions, should I only have new students or new employees execute them? What are the practical implications of all of this? 
  
  This presentation will be more than an update on the partisan fight over the use of Pre-Dispute Provisions. The presentation and materials will discuss the validity of Pre-Dispute Provisions and help educate school operators on the pros and cons when determining whether to implement the use of such provisions. 
  
  The presentation will have three main learning objectives: (1) an update on the current state of the BDR regulations and legal proceedings relating to the validity and use of Pre-Dispute Provisions; (2) a discussion on the pros and cons of Pre-Dispute Provisions for institutions and their students; and (3) practical tips and advice that school operators should consider if they decide to use Pre-Dispute Provisions at their institution. 
  
  The panel will include attorney Aaron Lacey, with the Thompson Coburn law firm, who was selected by the Department of Education to serve as one of the negotiators charged with overhauling BDR regulations. Mr. Lacey will give special insight into the current state of affairs with the rewrite of BRD. Also participating will be Tres Cleveland and Ben DeGweck, both attorneys in Maynard, Cooper & Gale’s Higher Education practice, who have represented numerous higher education clients in both court cases, class actions and arbitration matters against students and employees. Their insights, developed over years by drafting Pre-Dispute Provisions and fighting cases in the trenches, will be instructive for school operators wondering if these issues really matter to their school. The final panelist will be Bruce Denson, President and Chief Operating Officer of Cobbs Allen. Mr. Denson is widely recognized as the foremost expert of risk mitigation through insurance in the higher education sector. Mr. Denson will bring his unique perspective, developed over years of helping institutions mitigate risk through specially tailored, school specific insurance products. ​

Community Outreach: A Way to Increase Quality Enrollment, Placement, and Brand  

• Susan F. Schulz, Schulz School Advisors & Panel
• The career school and college sector plays a key role in the education of skilled technical workers and professionals.  Many times it is  overlooked by prospective students and parents, employers,  and other  levels of the community.  A Community Outreach mindset creates  many benefits and a department is easy to set up and run. This presentation provides the “formula” to build for success, identify community contacts and resources including business, industry, philanthropies,  key industries in the community, understand needs of area demographics,  and analyze current training to meet employment needs. Success models are given.

Developing Employer Sponsored Education Programs

• ​Matt Killday, Thruline Marketing
• The disconnect between employers, educators, and potential students/employees has never been more ubiquitous. In many career verticals, demand for employees is rising sharply while enrollments in corresponding educational programs continue to decline. Join us for an informative discussion on building partnerships and programs that engage employers in the educational process from day one, and not just as the student nears graduation.  The end result: a higher number of engaged students focused on the ultimate outcome…meaningful, relative employment.

Effective Leadership: Strategies for Developing Leaders at all Levels 

• Valerie Cimarossa, University of Advancing Technology 
• A brief overview + a handful interactive activities that school leaders can apply to build and improve effective leadership at every level.

Eight High-Impact Practices for Maximizing Graduate Career Outcomes in the New World of Work 

• Jay Hollowell, MaxKnowledge
• Our 21st century economy is redefining the age-old concepts of work and career with implications that impact how we, institution-wide, prepare our students and graduates for initial and advancing employment. This interactive session will present eight high-impact practices, as takeaways, that focus on equipping graduates with the capabilities they need to navigate a new world of work and to maximize graduate career outcomes.   

Employer & Alumni Engagement...a 360 Degree Approach 

• Burke Malin, Gurnick Academy of Medical Arts & Micaela Alpers, Career TEAM
• The efficacy of any higher education program can only be measured by meeting the desired outcomes of its graduates.  For most graduates, this is a career within their chosen field of study.  Regardless of the greater focus of employment outcomes, this is what we are here to do… to support students in improving their lives and achieving their career goals through education.  To do this, we must create meaningful relationships with students, alumni, and the employment communities we serve to understand the desires and needs of all parties.  Join Burke Malin, COO of Gurnick Academy of Medical Arts and Micaela Alpers, President of Career TEAM's Education Division as they discuss how together, they have redefined engagement with career content, tools and platforms to help create a job readiness competitive advantage for their students and alumni within their employment community.

Is your Administration and Faculty exhausted? 

• Dr. Scott Fitzgibbon, The Pacific Institute 
• Equipping campus leaders with the foundational principles for maximizing both employee and student potential has never been more essential.  The competitive advantage needed to thrive in the current educational climate resides in an employee and student base that show up eager and committed. Without the basics in place, we feel that we are working hard, but have somehow ended up with an organization that feels stuck.  
  
  It started with minor miscommunication, that lead to misunderstanding and negative emotions, and consequently a lack of teamwork that resulted in an organization where the synergy is now gone.  Instead of employees pulling in the same direction toward a unified purpose and mission, we have individuals who feel they are “taking on the world” and thus end up exhausted.  What does leadership feel like, how did we get here?
  
  ​In this session, we will discuss the foundational element of human interactions in an easy-to-recall behavioral framework that allows both employees and students a mechanism to label and reappraise their interactions.  Being able to regulate emotions during an event is not easy, but strong emotions reduce the capacity to communicate and tear at the core of effective teams.  With an easy-to-recall behavioral framework, people are able to identify the cause of a threat response better through labeling, allowing them to change their response to an event through reappraising within a behavioral context, which is easier to do after labeling has allowed them to reduce the overall threat response and negative emotions.  ​​

Overwhelmed by the Digital Surge? There's an Easier Way to Manage Electronic Course Materials 

• Bruce Schneider, Ambassador Education Solutions
• Inclusive access. Day-one access. Publisher direct content. Access codes. Codeless models. Print-on-Demand. License management. Financial controls. It's enough to make your head spin. As institutions supplement print textbooks with electronic course materials, they are not only feeding students' digital appetites, but also enhancing course quality. Yet this leap to digital is not always an easy one. Learn how to design a digital strategy that simplifies the management and delivery of electronic course materials, plus streamlines publisher relationships and processes. From automating fulfillment and simplifying the opt-out process, to taking the guesswork out of digital content costs and measuring outcomes, we'll review the ins and outs of an effective digital course materials program.

Real Time Data & Predictive Analytics: Beyond Attendance and Assessment

• Thomas Hartman, CourseKey
• When it comes to measuring and monitoring the quality of a student’s education experience, few would argue the importance of quantitative metrics such as attendance and grades. Yet when it comes to student engagement and retention, i.e. persistence, far less attention is given to structured collection and analysis of qualitative insight and the resultant actions that lift outcomes. This workshop will explore the invaluable role real time communication, data collection, and analytics play in both the student’s commitment to and the schools delivery of a high-quality learning experience.

The New Paradigm of Education Funding: Looking Beyond FICO Scores to Grow Enrollment 

• Chris Keaveney, Meritize
• The presentation will focus on how current student lending can prevent capable and high-achieving students from pursuing their education goals simply because they don’t have great credit or a co-borrower. The student loan debt crisis combined with the country’s skill’s gap has created the need to redefine funding options and training opportunities in order to satisfy employer demand. Mr. Keaveney will review macro trends and data and offer up alternative ways schools can assist students in securing funding, including the proprietary Meritize lending platform which considers a student’s academic, military and work achievements to enhance credit evaluation and increase loan opportunities, especially for those previously underserved by traditional lending vehicles. 

Transforming Students to Employees - Highlights of the Most In-Demand Employability Skills  

• Corina Santoro, Cengage Learning 
• In a recent survey from Today’s Learner, 88% of students cited getting a better job as the reason to attend college. For students, education is seen as both a launching pad for a first job and as a means to reinvent themselves for a career change. At the same time, 1 in 3 students felt that school is not adequately preparing them for the workforce. 
  
  Additionally, roughly ¾ of employers surveyed cited skills like communication, listening, critical thinking and interpersonal skills as in demand, with about half saying it was very or somewhat difficult to find qualified applicants. The key to career success? Uniquely human skills. 
  
  As a learner first, customer-obsessed company, Cengage has spent countless hours interviewing thousands of employers across a variety of sectors to better understand their needs in entry-level employees. Utilizing this feedback, we have developed a deep understanding of the role education and career resources can play in developing interpersonal and uniquely human skills. Come to this session to explore our findings and learn how you can approach these skills from an employer’s perspective to truly prepare your students for success after the classroom.
   
  Attendees of this session will gain a deeper understanding of:
  • ​The most in-demand employability skills required for long term career success
  • Educational trends to help students learn these skills 
  • The top things employers look for in the job application process 
  • Cengage Career Center resources available to assist their employability goals 

​Use Technology to Improve Title IV Compliance & Efficiency

• Siana Stewart-Mullings, Campus Ivy
• This session will focus on how technology can assist schools, in particular Career Colleges with the ever changing Title IV Regulations.
  • How an ill functioning FA Office affects your school
  • How automation increases compliance & efficiency
  • How mobile technology can help your students

Government Relations Track

Borrower Defense to Repayment - What Schools Need to Know

• Christopher DeLuca, Rouse Frets
• The Federal borrower defense to repayment regulations have been the subject of a tremendous amount of change and controversy over the past few years. The Obama Administration finalized a new set of regulations that were scheduled to become effective July 1, 2017, but were placed on hold by the Trump Administration before their scheduled effective date. The Trump Administration re-negotiated these regulations and published new proposed rules in 2018. However, a federal district court later ruled that the first set of Obama-era rules needed to be enforced. In 2019 we expect further guidance from the Department regarding the effect of the 2018 district court ruling as well as new proposed regulations from the Trump Administration. This session will focus on the current status of the borrower defense to repayment regulations and insights from a member of both the 2016 and 2018 federal negotiated rulemaking committees as to what schools might expect in the future. 

Borrower Defense to Repayment Regulations – Their Impact on the Composite Score Ratios and the Financial Responsibility Standards

• Jonathan Tarnow, Drinker Biddle & Reath; Ted Blendermann, McClintock & Associates; Jack Woll, Almich & Associates
• A panel of CPA Firm Partners moderated by an industry attorney discuss the impact of future accounting standard changes on the composite score ratio and the consequences as a result of ED’s new Borrower Defense to Repayment (BDTR) Regulations.

Closing the Skills Gaps Through Apprenticeship Programs 

• Jessica Langley or Melissa Cochran,  National Healthcareer Association
• What if you could decrease workforce shortages, certify your new and existing employees, increase retention and improve quality of care, all while utilizing state and federal resources? In this session, you’ll discover the power of Registered Apprenticeships, how they’re transforming healthcare in regions throughout the U.S., and steps you can take to follow their lead.

False Claims Act Update: Recent cases, potential threats, and ways to minimize exposure 

• Steven Gombos and Jacob Shorter, Gombos Leyton, PC & Eric Bing, The College of Health Care Professions
• The federal False Claims Act continues to be a significant threat to educational institutions.  Given the adverse publicity driven by enemies of the for-profit sector, the plaintiffs' bar will continue to test the parameters of the federal FCA in lawsuits.  This session will provide an update on recent decisions and pending cases to detail the nature of the threat and potential exposure to institutions, ownership, and management.  And based upon those threats, practical compliance considerations will be presented to minimize exposure.   

Financial Literacy for Today's Student 

• Sally Samuels, FAME
• The Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act stipulate the need to teach financial literacy. Student loan debt is over 1.5 trillion dollars, which is 10% of the National debt and 43% of those loans are in distress. The way applicants interact with Federal student aid is changing. 
  
  This session will provide an in depth look at evolving changes that are revolutionizing the process of understanding and applying for student financial aid and improved ways to provide financial literacy from the baby boomers to the next gen students.

Innovations in Distance Education and Accreditation: Department of Education's Proposed Rules  

• Jonathon Glass and Yolanda Gallegos, Cooley LLP
• During the first quarter of this year, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) launched a wide-ranging negotiated rulemaking designed to improve the agility of institutions offering distance education and certain types of workforce training and to allow accreditors more flexibility to review these programs, all to better serve 21st century technology and employer/industry demands. 
  
  Jonathon Glass and Yolanda Gallegos, veteran higher education attorneys, and an experienced industry professional,  will brief attendees on the regulatory changes proposed by ED and the feedback from the negotiators and broader higher education community.  Unlike prior rulemakings, which focused on relief from prior regulations, this rulemaking reflects the Department’s positive regulatory agenda.  The results could provide institutions with opportunities to partner with businesses and industries that employ their students and affect a wide range of institutions and organizations, such as curriculum-developers and companies offering specialized training materials or activities, that are changing the shape of higher education.   Moreover, ED is now taking some of its most transformative steps away from the traditional credit-hour model and toward the direct assessment model, allowing for institutions to enter new curricular forms without traditional courses, instructors, grades, and deadlines.

Is that Student Eligible?  Attorney Workshop on High School Validity and Career Pathway Programs 

• Stanley A. Freeman and Nicolas E.M. Michiels, Powers Pyles Sutter & Verville PC
• When can a college properly conclude that a particular high school diploma is valid, and when must the credential be rejected? For decades, institutions and regulators have struggled to come up with an answer to this basic student admissions and eligibility question and to devise policies to guide the analysis. In recent years, the emergent role of distance learning in secondary and post-secondary education has made the question all the more difficult to answer. In this session, two experienced education attorneys who have been tackling high school diploma problems with their college clients for years will discuss the regulatory standards and practical considerations that come into play when colleges are assessing the validity of high school diplomas. The panelists will discuss how college admissions offices handle the problem and will share war stories about actions that have been taken against high school diploma mills and against colleges that accept their credentials. The session also will provide an update regarding the Department’s oversight of Career Pathway Programs.

​It’s Compliance, Not Rocket Science: Accreditation and State Visits – How to Successfully Prepare Using Mock Visits 

• Valerie Mendelsohn, ACC and WCU & Lauren Brabo, ACC
• With state agencies and accreditors feeling the pressure to conduct more site visits, is your institution prepared?  In the event of an unannounced visit or a complaint investigation, you could be ready to respond at a moment's notice, provided you lay the groundwork in advance.  This training explores the steps you should take before the visit and how to make the process as quick and easy as possible.  This session explores how an institution --whether a single campus or a large, multi-campus college system—can remain in a state of readiness for any type of visit from a state agency or accreditor and will provide practical advice on how to make the process run as smoothly as possible.  

Litigation Update: The Legal Threats Facing For-Profit Colleges

• Steven Gombos and Jacob Shorter, Gombos Leyton, PC
• Although the Trump Administration has eased some pressures facing for-profit schools through more even-handed application of the Department’s regulations, for-profit schools still face many unique legal pressure points. Many states have adopted regulations targeting proprietary schools. Attorneys generals in some of those states have continued the prior administration’s aggressive approach to career colleges and universities. And courts continue to expose for-profit schools to substantial liability through class action suits and qui tam False Claims Act actions. The presenters have robust experience litigating in each of these areas.  Drawing on that experience, this presentation will examine current legal developments, address the most common legal challenges facing Title IV participating institutions, and explore strategies schools can use to protect against liability.  ​​

M&A in Higher Ed: Key Points of an LOI

• Emily Murphy and Katie Wendel, Thompson Coburn LLP
• In recent years, there has been an uptick in merger and acquisition activity involving institutions of higher education, and many familiar with the industry expect this trend to continue. In this presentation, we would detail why some schools have opted to pursue a strategic transaction, explain the critical role of the letter of intent (LOI), and briefly highlight three key components of LOIs for higher education transactions.
  
  

Private Postsecondary Schools and Data Privacy – It’s So Much More than FERPA

• Jonathan Tarnow and Katherine Armstrong, Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP
• While the Family Educational Rights Privacy Act (FERPA) has been the primary U.S. law pertaining to education records and the personally identifiable information of students since 1974, more recent years have seen an ever-increasing number of federal and state laws that impose a patchwork of data privacy and safeguarding requirements on private postsecondary schools. In addition to often-overlooked requirements of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and FTC Safeguards Rule, the more recent enactment of the New York Cybersecurity Regulation and the California Consumer Privacy Act have led to a proliferation of state regulatory activity with respect to personal data privacy including that of students. Navigating compliance with the myriad of different and sometimes conflicting privacy and data security requirements has become increasing complex for both on-ground and online institutions, regardless of where the institution the physically located. This session will provide an overview of the most significant legal and regulatory developments in privacy law that apply to private colleges and universities – whether from the state, federal or international level – and the liabilities that can be assessed if student education records and other personal data is not properly safeguarded, and will offer practical insights into how an institution can manage its compliance in this critical area.

​Proprietary School Audit Guide and Exciting Changes

• Mark Priebe, Department of Education Office of Inspector General
• Discuss planned upcoming changes to the proprietary school guide and foreign school audit guide.  I plan to also discuss common deficiencies we are seeing in our QCR's and provide tips to schools for selecting a quality auditor / firm to complete their financial and compliance audits.​

Staying on the Road to Success While Driving Change of Control

• Dennis Cariello and Audrey Kaplan, Hogan Marren Babbo & Rose LTD; Michael Kornman, NCK Capital, LLC
• Whether buying, selling or investing, being prepared and understanding the various responsibilities included in the change of control process is key to a smooth and successful transaction.  This presentation will cover organizational and regulatory compliance related details for schools and other parties engaging in the change of ownership and/or control process.  This presentation will provide an overview of the various steps of the process, from effective and organized diligence through regulatory approvals, and provide the opportunity for questions and discussion.  Joining attorneys Dennis Cariello and Audrey Kaplan will be Michael Kornman, an experienced investor and school owner to provide firsthand perspective of the process.  This presentation will benefit not only school owners and operators, but personnel in other positions supporting the transaction and resulting changes.

Marketing Outreach Track

Best Practices for New Student Engagement

• Dr. Jean Norris, Vince Norton & JP Smith - Norton | Norris Inc.
• In this session you will learn how to create meaningful content, while viewing excellent examples with proven engagement metrics at various stages of the enrollment cycle.  You’ll also see how schools and colleges are serving up videos, infographics, and blogs to tell their story.  And we’ll share the success stories from innovative enrollment managers who allow students to explore fit and gather information while doubling their conversions.

Beyond Engagement – Strategies to Improve Student Outcomes 

• Renee Pacini, Campus Management
• You have a great story to tell.  Are you reaching the right audience, at the right time?  Are they listening to what you have to say?  And more importantly, are they responding to your call to action?  Turn MO into successful outcomes by fostering engagement with your constituents.

Building a Marketing Program for the Year 2020 

• Greg Grag and Darryl Mattox, Gragg Advertising
• Marketing has changed significantly. Gone are the days of running four channels of media and building a school. Gone are the days of relying exclusively on PPL to hit your starts. Gone are the days of having an internal coordinator run your marketing program. Today’s recruitment marketing has taken a light year step. Marketing today requires expertise from a variety of disciplines. Internal marketing and referral management, PPC, SEO, web programming, traditional media buying, attribution modeling, social media management, content management, remarketing, branding and positioning, landing page conversion strategies, compliance management, analytics and efficiency management. In this presentation we will look at emerging technologies that will change the dynamic of EDU marketing. The “how to” building blocks associated with an integrated strategy that drives consumer awareness as well as trust and results. How attribution now plays a major role in the long term outcome of your school.
  
  Learning Outcomes:
  • Step by step building of an efficient marketing program.
  • Technological advancements that will change recruitment marketing and enrollment. participation and curriculum management.
  • How to stay ahead of the technology curve.
  • Where to put dollars for the greatest marketing results.​​

Conversion Rate Breakthroughs in Marketing and Admissions

• Tom King, Enrollment Resources 
• In this fast-paced and interactive session, participants will explore several Marketing breakthroughs proven to improve conversion rates on your school’s website and landing pages. Enrollment Resources will also demonstrate  Admissions optimizations that your team can implement at your school today. Participants will learn no-cost and low-cost improvements that schools can use to increase inquiries, enrollments, and starts — optimizations guaranteed to increase your revenues. If you want to improve your ROI and conversion rates, this session is NOT to be missed!
  
  Key Takeaways:
  • How a simple change to the call-to-action in a program page’s body-copy increased “Book a Tour”/”Contact Us” leads by an average of 37%
  • How small tweaks to website language doubled the click-through rate
  • How a “structured” interview pathway increased tour-enrollment rates by 36% 

EDU Mkt Automation: The Technology & Proven Strategies You Need Today

• Joe Laskowski and Ryan Evans,  Higher Ed Growth
• Join us to learn more about how the EDU Marketer of today is using innovative ways to attract a shrinking pool of savvy student prospects in a more competitive age.  The last few years have been filled with change, speculation and consolidation for both education and new student prospect generation. The regulatory environment has often been difficult to understand and interpret, and student prospects today have an increasing number of options.  This presentation will talk about how the industry has transformed in recent years and how both lead buyers and lead sellers have adapted. We will discuss topics that include Relevant Technology, Campaign Efficiency, Compliance, and Data Analytics.

Efficiency and Effectiveness. How to optimize your marketing efforts and get better results. 

• Jim Bologa, Porter and Chester Institute & Aaron Edwards, Edwards Strategies
• In this session we will look at one institutions enrollment marketing strategy and discuss the various aspects of the changes and enhancements they have recently made and give details around the impact it has had.  We will give specific optimization tactics and strategies, exploring categories such as Google Ads, paid social, content development, affiliate marketing and much more.  We will give insight into enhancing your reporting suite and overall analytics to make more education decisions and be more nimble.  In the end, you will come away with real insights and updates that are happening in the marketing world and how you can align your institution around them for immediate and long-term success.  

How to Build an Incredible Brand that Students Will Never Forget

• Bill Buchanan, Becker Media
• Learn how to build an incredible brand by utilizing the latest strategies in social media, digital direct response and traditional media. Leverage the combined impact of all your advertising to generate more students and dramatically lower your overall cost per enrollment.  

Leveraging AI & Predictive Analytics to Monetize Historical Lead Data 

• Pat Murphy, LeadScorz Inc.
• This session is designed to educate Attendees on advanced technology services being employed by today’s business marketers that leverage Artificial Intelligence software, Predictive Analytics tools, Cloud Services and (SaaS) Applications for lead generation and admissions funnel nurturing. The session will focus on how the EDU sector can use such tools to expand and optimize lead acquisition channels by leveraging the historical data currently locked in CRM, Student Management and other internal databases. The presentation will include an overview of the underlying technologies and data analytics tools being employed, and address how such services are driving the evolution of data management and marketing practices within the sector. Attendees will learn how these services can help increase lead volumes and quality, as well as generating actionable analytics that will benefit Admissions, Marketing and Executive Management. Presenter will speak to the variety of lead validation and scoring methodologies, application types, and vendor services being utilized, including how these services can be integrated with legacy IT systems. Attendees will leave this session with knowledge on how to evaluate whether such tools can improve on the current systems and lead management practices of their organizations.

Market Research in a Time of Rebirth   

• Joel English, Centura College; Aaron Edwards and John Goodwin, Edwards Strategies
• Within a culture that has agreed that what we need most from higher education is career-based programming that prepares graduates for skilled trades, we believe we stand to win if we are willing to look objectively and critically at the programs we offer within the communities in which we offer them.  Our challenge is to intensely evaluate the programs that we teach, the campuses we administer, and the communities in which those campuses are situated to assure that we are teaching the right things, in the right marketplaces, at the right time.  But the closer educators and administrators are to a school and a community, the less likely they are to be able to think objectively about what programmatic changes might be needed in order to remain viable.  This presentation gives the example of how Centura College, based in Virginia Beach, Virginia, has been critically analyzing its offerings within its campuses, and how it has employed Edwards Strategies to conduct critical market research that has led to key strategic decisions.

Marketing Attribution:  Measure the performance of each element of your Marketing Mix

• Hank Cohen and Joseph Poulose, WindStar Media
• We have all been to many conferences and seminar sessions on media/marketing attribution, including previous ones given at CECU conferences. It is WindStar Media’s belief they have all have fallen short of providing a concrete understanding of how attribution works and how the insights gained should be applied through the continued optimization of your media mix. Most completely miss the mark for offline TV and Radio attribution. WindStar’s Presentation will introduce the essential questions that marketers have about the effectiveness of their advertising. Present our Attribution Platform, ConnecTrak, that can provide data to answer these questions. We will outline the necessary data needed for an attribution platform to deliver reliable and actionable data. We will show you output reports which will provide the data that gets turned into insights. 

Millennial Marketing - What you did yesterday won't work tomorrow. 

• Mike O'Brien, Career Conext
• Your new students, Millennials & Generation Z do not answer phones, think all emails are spam and want ever bit of information available to them right now. They believe everything they read on Yelp and use recommendations and referrals for food, movies and yes education.  They have no patience, do not want to work hard to find information and believe everything can and should be done with that appendage hanging from their body...  their cell phone.   
  
  After this session you will: 
  • Understand why this is the current environment.
  • How to improve contact rates and conversation rates. 
  • Create strategies and implement software to provide information and answer questions in realtime with Artificial Intelligence.
  • Build a referral program that develops the right behaviors.
  • Be able to evaluate your own organization in these terms and take steps forward to improve organization processes. 

Performance based methods of re-working old non-converted inquires, Case Studies of Success & Failure  

• Martin Najarro, Enrollment Partners & David Flack, Edufficient
• This session will delve into the often overlooked area of non converted inquiries.  During this session we will discuss various methods along with the associated costs and expectations.  We will discuss fee based as well as performance based options and will provide best practices along with case studies.

​Step aside millennials. How to attract and engage your new class of students: Gen Z 

• Jenny Andrews, Sikich LLP
• While millennials make up almost 50% of the U.S. workforce; generation Z, born between the mid-1990s and early 2000s, are now on the rise in the post-secondary education world. How do you capture your new incoming class? In this session, learn key differences between millennials and Gen Z, new trends in attracting Gen Z candidates, and best practices for giving them an engaging educational experience.
  
  

Thinking outside the Box – Student Retention Everyone Plays a Role 

• Lisa Olmedo and Darryl Mattox, Gragg Advertising 
• In this presentation we talk about how everyone in the organization, from the top to the bottom, plays a role in getting and retaining students. During the presentation we will look at how Situational, Institutional and Dispositional Barriers all play a role in a students’ decision to stay in school. We will also discuss staff training, the first three weeks and the importance of a team centered approach to student retention.​
  
  Learning Outcomes:
  • Ideas on creating a positive working environment. 
  • Why you need to hire the right people & how to get the most out of them.
  • Why continual training is important.
  • The cost of a new student.
  • Why it is so important to retain students.
  • Student perceptions of your school.
  • Student obstacles.
  • The importance of the first three weeks.
  • The impact of faculty and curriculum.

Turn Your Social Media into an Admissions Conversion Machine  

• Tom King, Enrollment Resources
• Most schools are lost when it comes to running effective social media campaigns.  In this fast-paced session, we show you the best way to use each social platform to optimize conversion rates for your school.  Starting with the biggest mistakes being made today and what to watch out for, we move into how to set up your social media channels for optimization. We will show you how to use Facebook and Instagram to improve starts and retention and how to best use LinkedIn and Twitter. Learn to use proven content marketing methods to drive web traffic and branding.  Finally, we cover how to inspect what you expect and track the effectiveness of your social media campaigns. We will show dozens of quality examples that you can use to make immediate improvements to your social media to better improve your marketing, admissions, placement and retention. We may also look at your social media and provide some feedback.
  
  Takeaways:
  • Learn how you can make immediate improvements to your school’s social media to improve the return on your marketing, admissions, placement, and retention efforts.
  • Learn to use proven content marketing methods to drive web traffic from your social media channels, improve conversion rates, and strengthen your school’s brand.
  • Learn how to measure, track and evaluate the effectiveness of your social media efforts.

What's holding you back from automating student engagement? 

• Nilesh Patel, LeadSquared Inc.
• When the world is moving towards automation and AI, what is stopping career schools from embracing student engagement and admissions automation? In my experience of working with career schools for more than 6 years, I have seen way too much scepticism that challenged me to dig deeper and find out what really is holding them back. No, automation is not sending weekly emails, it is not posting social media messages automatically and it is not chatbots. It is much more than that. It is a work of art, weaving beautiful student journeys at each step of the enrollment process which, most of the times, is the difference between a drop-off and an enrollment.
  
  In this session, I will share some of my stories, experiments and findings of working with educational institutes. We will discuss the most common automation mistakes, practical tips and tricks to increase student engagement and the future of automation in career schools.

​Annual Convention
June 2-5, 2019
Hyatt Regency
New Orleans, LA

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​President Level

​Director Level

​Advocate Level

​Annual Convention Sponsor