A Conference You Should Attend

I am attending and presenting at my first conference in a year-and-a-half since dialysis and getting a kidney transplant three months ago. I was tied down and weak for that time and did little work I fear but I am feeling fine and roaring to get back to work.

The conference is one I recommenced to anyone interested in admissions, enrollment and retention.  It is the best on all the three topics I have been to in years. It is the Small Colleges National Conference on Enrollment but it really is not just for small colleges. The presentations would be helpful for any sized college. What the presenters brought forward were practical ways to increase admission's, enrollment and retention success and can be applied to any size college no matter what the scale. These people knew what they were talking about too.

I attended sessions on Using Institutional Analytics to Improve the Effectiveness of Small College Admissions; Fundamentals for Student Success, Retention, and Completion, Incorporating the Latest Enrollment Tools and Initiatives to Meet Enrollment Objectives; Creating a Campus Environment that Supports Student Success and a session Critical Insights that Help Drive Students Success. I am very pleased to say that I picked up new insights from everyone of them; something that can be rare at some conferences. These were  to "here's what we do" brags, but real, down to earth here's how's to increase success. And of course a great session on Academic Customer Service is coming up tomorrow morning.

Moreover, it was run exceedingly well by Jim Black, President of Strategic Enrollment Management and Neal Clarke who is the Dean of College Counseling and Guidance at The Walker School in Marietta, GA.  They have been leading it for many years and have the running of it while keeping the enjoyment of it very high. People had time to mingle and meet new colleagues too as well as enjoy an entertaining raffle supported by all the vendors.   (I did not win anything BTW but had fun.)

They were also able to attract some of the top vendors of tools to increase admissions, enrollment and retention from all over the country. And they did not overcrowd the vendor room so you could actually have some great conversation and learning from them  More on some of what I learned about some great products in another writing.

I highly recommend this conference to schools of all sizes. It and the Institute for Educational Policy's retention conference are two that should be on your schedule.