In this panel discussion, leaders and practitioners in recruitment, communications, and digital marketing will share their best advice on how to transform your recruitment operations from heavily visit-based to an operation that places the audience first and uses content as a strategy to achieve your goals.
Panelists:
November 25, 3:20 pm ET (Canada Focus)
🇨🇦JP Rains, Director of Communications and Digital Experience at Laurentian University
As Director of Communications & Digital Strategy at Laurentian University, JP leads the institution's digital brand and communications efforts. He is also a lecturer in the School of Sports Administration, within the Faculty of Management at Laurentian University. His evenings and weekends are spent as President of Rains Media, working on digital marketing projects with clients in Education, Retail, Health, and Professional Services.
Prior to that, he was the Vice-President of Strategy at Soshal (now Craft & Crew), a digital marketing agency, where his primary function was to lead the development of solutions for clients. He is a past chair of the board for the Post Secondary Education Web Conference of Canada and is a published author in the Journal of Education Advancement and Marketing.
🇨🇦Vedika Taunk, International Recruitment & Marketing Manager at Humber College
Vedika started her career in digital marketing at Yahoo! and has since worked in the higher education sector for 11 years in New Zealand and Canada in international marketing, communications and recruitment roles. Vedika currently works at Humber College, Canada’s largest college, where she is the International Marketing and Communications Manager. Vedika has presented at various conferences in New Zealand, the US and Canada and is passionate about student-centric storytelling, digital advertising, data interpretation through Google Analytics and drip communication strategies.
🇨🇦Kendall Beselaere, Team Lead Undergraduate Recruitment & Admissions - Marketing & Communications at Western University
Kendall Beselaere is Western's lead marketing & communications strategist for undergraduate recruitment and admissions. Kendall is passionate about audience-focused communications and is always the first to ask "What do the students need?" In the 5 years she's been at Western, she has been at the forefront of the evolution from a purely in-person operation to digital-first recruitment. As lead strategist, she creates and coordinates personalized email communication journeys, social media content calendars, website content, and coordinates stakeholders across the institution.
Kendall lives in Calgary and in her free time, you will find her at the summit of the most stunning Alberta mountains.
November 26, 11:20 am GMT (European Focus)
🇬🇧Dana Rock, Director of Marketing & Communications at the University of Derby
Dana Rock is Director of Marketing and Communications at the University of Derby.
Led by data, insight and a passion for Higher Education, Dana is focused on inspiring and enabling others to achieve their potential. They have a reputation for creating innovative campaigns, delivering inclusive and personalised communications, empowering teams and putting users at the heart of what they do.
They have previously worked at Oxford Brookes University, University of Exeter and University of Nottingham. When they are not leading teams and campaigns, they love running training courses and sharing their love of data, insight and innovation with others.
Twitter @dinojrock
🇬🇧Claire Furnish, Content Designer at the University of Southampton
Claire spent 15 years as a graphic designer working for agencies in Hampshire and Berkshire. Clients included Pfizer, Toshiba and De La Rue. In 2012 she moved into faculty-based marketing at the University of Southampton looking after subjects from healthcare to social sciences. In 2019 Claire became a content designer as part of the University’s digital transformation programme, OneWeb. Claire’s work includes helping relaunch over 200 postgraduate taught course pages.
🇪🇸Emanuel Dìaz, Head of Content Marketing at IE University
Emanuel Díaz is Head of Content Marketing at IE University in Madrid and a storytelling lover and aficionado. His passion for content started in the banking industry in his native Puerto Rico, where he was leading copy and digital marketing for the institution. The challenge of making a bank soulful caught him.
A Fulbright grant took him to Madrid to study at IE, in which he stayed as the Associate Director of Alumni Communications. Emanuel has a passion for creativity, emotional content, and weaving stories that showcase the beauty of working in the educational sector. He is also a proud collaborator in LGBTQ+ initiatives and does improv theatre in his free time.
🇬🇧Simon Fairbanks, Head of Student Recruitment Events at the University of Nottingham
Simon Fairbanks has over 14 years of experience in the Higher Education sector. This includes recruitment, marketing, and events roles on four different campuses: Nottingham, Birmingham, Warwick, and Coventry.
He recently spent two years working at Pickle Jar Communications, where he advised international schools, colleges, and universities on their content projects. He provided strategy, research, creative content, and training to help the education sector share its stories through digital communication channels.
Clients who have benefited from his expertise include AHUA, Bangor University, City & Guilds, Emory University School of Medicine, the University of Liverpool, the Office for Students, Queen Margaret University, UCL, United World Colleges, and Zurich International School.
As a published author, Fairbanks is particularly interested in storytelling, and how content strategy can deliver stories with greater impact. He spends his free time writing, running, and watching Hey Duggee with his two young children.