Meteorological Meetings
Photo by Ricardo Resende on Unsplash
Written by Trina Everall.
“I've got glorious sunshine in Dundee,” says Rebecca Trengove, director of external relations at University of Dundee. “Oh I’m glad I stayed in Norwich, it looks like it’s about to rain here,” Angelina Bingley, director of admissions, recruitment and marketing at University of East Anglia.
We wait patiently as initials and then photos appear on our ever familiar way of communicating these days: Microsoft Teams. Miles apart but each greeted with a cheery, “Hello!” from Penna’s education marketing (and football) oracle, Jane Johns. “How are we doing, everyone? It’s lovely to see you all,” a huge Cheshire smile heard in her voice…and we’re in. The quarterly advisory begins.
The advisory board is one of those groups that you tend to join and never leave. This one seems to be flourishing. So what’s the secret?
Maybe it’s the timing (it’s both easier and harder for me to focus on work late Friday morning having worked in media for many years when literally nothing but chat happens on a Friday after Media Thursday!). Maybe it’s the familiarity we’ve missed. Faces we recognise or voices we’ve heard at conferences. Putting faces to comments we’ve read while in a lengthy LinkedIn wormhole, (don’t tell me you haven’t lost track of space and time while deciding whether to applause, heart or lightbulb a picture of someone’s office dog printed on their t-shirt).
Perhaps it’s the refreshing change of accent or even (I can’t believe I’m saying this either) a campus virtual background (I said it and I meant it!), to keep us in tune with our ever changing circles and connections. Or, is it as simple as the content, handing over to third party experts in their fields, opening the floor up to guest speakers, asking the board what it is they’d like to talk about…?
This month we heard from James Street at Stafford Long about the power of (market) research. When do we use research and how to stand out? “You’ll never know everything but research will help you know more.” Or as Einstein once put it, “I don’t need to know everything, I just need to know where to find it, when I need it.”
Rebecca queried the recruitment process for student focus groups, “UK UG students might give a very different response to an international student - how do you get accurate representation?”
Jane Scott, director of marketing from Queen Margaret University cited a possible ‘over-reliance’ on taking focus groups as ‘truths’.
With universities varying in size, with budgets and resources, we touched on how to make the most of data that already exists. Perhaps more importantly, as Ailie Ferrari, associate director of advertising, marketing and student insight at the University of Bradford pointed out, “How can we make this data available for others to use around the university?”
We concluded with Mhari MacDonald, head of marketing from the University of Dundee suggesting that every research project should have five action points so everyone is clear on what the objective is, but also what the outcomes will be used for. Lots of nods of heads and virtual hmmms echoed in agreement.
With a round up from James suggesting ways to get wider teams involved (thought leadership blogs with discoveries from all research findings - in case you were wondering), there’s just enough time for a round of thanks and goodbyes before plugging the next quarterly meet.
Perhaps the reason this advisory board works is far simpler. Whatever it is, it is working for attendance and I can’t believe we’re all there just for weather updates.
Get in touch to talk about content partnership opportunities: trina@stori.works.
