Nov 23rd 09 Posted by Fritz McDonald in Strategic Creative

Another Fantastic SIM Tech!

Has it already been a week since the Stamats SIM Tech conference in Boston? It feels like it just ended. Although we’ve had several good conferences in past years, this year was truly amazing. First, I believe we had a tremendous audience—an interesting, articulate, and smart group of people from colleges and universities across the country. They listened well, and more importantly, they actively participated in the sessions, challenging us at times—and we always need to be challenged—and contributing substantive insights and knowledge. Everyone who participated on the Stamats end learned a great deal about how all things interactive are actually happening on college campuses. Second, our conference speakers delivered consistently excellent content throughout the event. From presentations on analytics to mobile marketing and social media, the range of topics was broad enough to touch on nearly every aspect of digital marketing for higher education. And this year we heard directly from institutional Web leaders and practitioners, people like Kevin Grout of Brock University, Greg Carroll of Stetson University and Ryan Fisher of Furman University, and Kevin Roberts and Corey Patterson of Abilene Christian University…and many others. And third, our friends and sponsoring vendors (people like Lance Merker from Omniupdate) added significantly to the atmosphere. Many of you have been supporting this conference for some time now and we deeply appreciate it.

We all learned a good deal, especially the following key takeaways:

• We shouldn’t jump on the latest trend or technological gadget just because it’s new
• We need to make strategic decisions based on what our audiences need
• Our Web site is as important—or even more important—than our social media platforms
• Data will make our lives easier and help open up budgets for web redesigns
• We’re all in the same boat, some a little farther along, some a little farther back—but we are all facing the same internal and external challenges
• It’s better to focus on developing a few social media platforms rather than too many
• We need to learn to live in an environment of constant change

When I think back on this conference, I remember a lot of great moments, particularly:

• David Armano showing us what a network economy looks like
• Rachel Reuben’s bravery and dedication in presenting when she was ill
• Raven Zachary’s humorous tour of iPhone pre-history
• Kyle James’ much-needed common sense
• Sabra Fiala’s impeccable conference management team: Jillian Perry, Brandy Huseman, and Barb DeMaria
• The marketing staff of Texas State and their Facebook triumphs
• Matt Arnold’s photo of his first apartment as part of his presentation
• Meeting people like Ben Schwartz, Assistant Director of Admission for Dartmouth, who is also running his own nonprofit dedicated to improving lives in Africa
• The second morning’s breakfast pastries
• The great tweetstream
• Karlyn Morrissette’s constant community building throughout the event on social media and on the floor
• The Twitter Nation 2009: Lougan, Georgy, Devin, Lane, DMolsen and the rest
• Substantive and excellent presentations by Robert Brosnan and Dave Olsen
• Having Stewart Foss at our conference
• Bob Sevier and Eric Sickler laying an integrated marketing foundation for the event
• A hotel that had once been called The Swiss Hotel

Thanks again to everyone who made a difference at SIM Tech 2009—and that means everyone. We’ll be posting photos, etc., in the coming weeks. I’m looking forward to making this an even bigger and better conference next year…but if you can’t wait that long, please come to Stamats’ Adult Student Marketing Conference in San Antonio, TX, February 23–25!

And now, it’s your turn…tell us what you liked best or learned at SIM Tech…let’s continue this conversation!

Photo by TheTruthAbout…