OHO U 2024 Online Conference: New Frontiers

New Frontiers

Just as so many higher ed institutions pride themselves on being at the forefront of discovery, so too much higher ed marketers be ready to evolve as new technologies and marketing approaches emerge. We will showcase some areas of opportunity, including AI.

Visual Content Strategy

2024 Red Stapler winner, HighEdWeb Association

Many content strategists have backgrounds as writers, but modern websites depend on photos and videos as much as or more than written content. How can you make sure your visual content is supporting your brand and messaging as well as your text content is? And where are you going to get all those photos and videos from?

This session will show you how to put together a practical content strategy for visual content: from figuring out what you need, to finding or producing those assets, to publishing them to best effect on your website. Along the way, we'll talk about how photos work as storytelling, best practices for different genres of higher ed video, and how to (productively) turn down a request for another grip and grin shot.

Mike Powers is a content strategist at OHO Interactive and an award-winning higher ed speaker. A former academic with over two decades of higher ed experience, he's taught classes, planned budgets, managed social media, run websites and a variety of other duties as assigned. As a content strategist at OHO, he helps clients find sustainable ways to create user-oriented, on brand content.
 

AI Unleashed: Turning Student Data into Marketing Gold

Join us for a dynamic talk that showcases how to use Artificial Intelligence to compile and analyze a broad spectrum of existing customer data to reveal key demographic trends and insights. Discover how to use these insights to create highly targeted, data-driven marketing campaigns that resonate with today’s diverse student populations. Whether you’re looking to refine your outreach strategies or leverage AI for more personalized marketing, this session offers practical tools and techniques to elevate your higher education marketing efforts.

Jim has always been creative, from his days as a newspaper reporter to his time as a managing director for a regional arts facility. As the Director of UX Research and Strategy at OHO, he uses that creativity as well as his expertise in ethnographic inquiry and user experience research to create websites and applications that meet his client’s business goals and make their customers happy. Jim’s clients in the higher ed space have included Harvard, Yale, and Columbia, as well as other leading colleges and universities in the US. Clients outside of higher ed include the New York Times, Standard & Poor’s, Amtrak, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and others. When he isn’t busy consulting for OHO clients, Jim is an award-winning playwright and filmmaker whose plays and films have won awards in New York, Boston, Dublin, and London.

Panel Discussion: Rethinking the .Edu  

The challenges and opportunities presented by our university websites are evolving, and that means the way we approach their oversight has to evolve. We will convene a panel of higher ed digital leaders to discuss how they are approaching this evolution.

Georgy Cohen has spent 20 years wrangling digital content for universities and other organizations. As Vice President of Digital Strategy at OHO, Cohen leads a team that helps clients create sustainable and impactful approaches to engaging website users and achieving organizational goals. Georgy has worked in or with higher ed since 2004, including stints at Tufts University and Suffolk University and her own independent consultancy to higher education. Her background is in journalism.

Tisha D. Arnold describes herself as a helper at her core, an observer and thinker by nature, and a foodie by passion. Her 20+ year career has spanned roles from traffic and billing to educator, web developer, graphic designer, and storyteller, each teaching her something new. Arnold is now Director of Strategic Communications and Marketing at Grambling State University. Under her leadership, the university has seen growth in web presence, media visibility, and licensing royalties. Despite her success, her greatest priority is living life with intention, enjoying the arts, and spending time with family.

Aimée Abshire is a collaborative leader with 20 years of experience in the development and implementation of effective digital content and communication strategies.
As senior director of web and digital strategy in the Office of Communications & Marketing, she oversees the University's web presence, including the main website, 150+ UL Lafayette subsites, the University's portal (ULink), and the University's mobile app. She serves as a strategic partner in the development of all online interfaces for the University and other digital initiatives.

Michael O’Neill is the Director of Web Strategy at the University of Iowa, with extensive experience in web technologies, digital marketing, content strategy, and agile transformation. Michael also serves as Chair of the HighEdWeb Leadership Academy and is a frequent presenter on web strategy, leadership, and organizational design in higher education.

Lightning Talk: From Keywords to Conversations: Navigating AI-Driven and Intent-Based Search  

As AI and Search Generative Experience (SGE) reshape how users search, the focus has shifted from keywords to intent and conversational queries. This quick-hitting session will cover essential considerations for optimizing content for AI-driven and conversational search behavior. Learn how to structure pages to meet intent-based, conversational queries and leverage AI tools to stay ahead of evolving search trends. 

Adrienne is a digital marketing professional with extensive channel, analytics, and training expertise. She has 9+ years building marketing and communication programs across online and offline channels to support organizational growth, and broad marketing experience developing and  translating brand strategy into diverse, multi-channel campaigns. Adrienne leads with a creative, yet data-driven approach.

Carrie brings over a decade of experience in higher education and enrollment marketing, both in-house at various institutions and on the agency side, offering a unique perspective on creating the most impactful client-agency partnerships.

 Specializing in lead generation for graduate and online programs, she brings a passion and curiosity for non-traditional students to her work. Carrie seeks to help OHO and its partners create long-lasting and strategic relationships to ultimately serve more learners

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