Agenda
08:00 am
👋Registration, Exhibition and Networking
09:25 am
📣Chair’s Introduction and Kickoff
Lizzie Burrows
Chief Marketing Officer
Imperial College London (CONFIRMED)
09:35 am
✈️Seatbelts Off? The Strategic Decisions on Student Recruitment Amid Financial Turbulence
The risks factors facing our markets and how marketing leaders should respond
Thinking beyond doing ‘more for less’ amid financial crisis
A brave new world? The big decisions central to all student recruitment strategies
Time for a reset: The questions every marketing team needs to be asking itself on impact
Jonathan Sabarre
Director of Marketing and Communications
Newcastle University (CONFIRMED)
10:00 am
🎲”One of a Kind … Kind of”: The Real Game Changers Needed on Distinctiveness
Why we can’t give up on distinctiveness
The role that audience values and changing decision-making behaviours have in influencing the need to define it
Embracing and building a culture of courage to set ourselves apart from others
Tracy Playle
Chief Content Strategist and CEO
Pickle Jar Communications (CONFIRMED)
10:25 am
☕Networking Break and Exhibition
10:55 am
🏠Head, Heart and Home? Telling Stories that Build Belonging
The emotional drivers behind student decision making
What does authentic ‘cut through’ look like?
How can we support our audience to really identify and resonate with a message?
Building belonging at every touchpoint: Can it work?
Martyn Edwards
Director of External Engagement
University of Leicester (CONFIRMED)
11:20 am
💬The Big Chat: Driving Sustainable Growth and Building Brands with International Audiences
Why us? What makes a brand truly compelling to international students?
Core Trends: How is demand evolving and what is the route towards a sustainable recruitment model?
Messaging and channels: Are we reaching our target markets effectively?
Drivers for success: What are the strategic enablers to delivering an impactful marketing campaign capable of hitting international student recruitment targets?
Shivani Bhalla
Head of International Student Recruitment
Brunel University London (CONFIRMED)
Melanie Fowler
Executive Director of Marketing and Communications,
De Montfort University (CONFIRMED)
Alli McNamara
Global Marketing and Communications Manager
UL Global, University of Limerick (CONFIRMED)
Rebecca Giddings
Deputy Director, Brand and Marketing
University of Wolverhampton (CONFIRMED)
12:00 pm
🎉Moving to Breakout Sessions
12:10 pm
💡Breakout Series
Breakout 1: Gen Alpha Unpacked: Rethinking Higher Ed for Tomorrow’s Learners
Explore Gen Alpha’s evolving expectations for their futures, higher education, and careers
Understand what truly matters to this next generation—and how to connect meaningfully with them
Discover the implications for brand, experience, and communication strategies across the student journey
Tash Kyndt
Business Director - Education
Havas People (CONFIRMED)
Beth Clements
Senior Insight Executive
Havas People (CONFIRMED)
Breakout 2: AI on your side: Building the Ideal Human:AI Ratio
What does work look like when AI is more than just a tool?
Explore this through the lens of a live university partnership, showing how AI is reshaping roles, routines and results
The real frontier? It’s not just about knowing how to prompt ChatGPT. It’s about building teams where human creativity and machine intelligence play to each other’s strengths
Practical use cases, lessons from the edge, and how to turn AI from a buzzword into everyday impact
Alex Calder
Head of Education and Innovation
Anything is Possible (CONFIRMED)
Unlocking the creative potential of generative AI in HE marketing
Enhancing data-driven insights: could generative AI unlock faster, smarter decision-making for targeted campaigns?
ChatGPT and beyond: tapping into generative AI’s full spectrum for transformative marketing
Join a light, open discussion about the future possibilities of AI in higher education marketing
Breakout 3: The Role of Generative AI in HE Marketing: How to Use it Productively and Creatively for the Benefit of Future Student Engagement
Steve Male
Associate Director of Applicant Marketing and Market Development
Keele University (CONFIRMED)
Breakout 4: Open Days: Made From Every Experience
360 feedback: collection, dissemination and insight-led decisions
Open day standards and why consistency is key
Creating the Sheffield experience framework, a customer service strategy for every interaction
How collaboration has helped us extend visitors' experiences within campus and beyond
Nikki Hodgson
Head of Student Recruitment (Customer Service & Recruitment Events)
The University of Sheffield (CONFIRMED)
12:40 pm
🍴Networking Lunch, Meet Ups and Exhibition
1:50 pm
✨Breakout Series
Breakout 5: Maximising Programmatic Impact in Higher Education: The Role of First-Party Data, Creative, and Attribution
Explore how trusted first-party data and scalable, high-quality audiences drive measurable brand uplift in higher education
The critical role of creative that’s tailored to audiences—not treated as an afterthought—through dynamic creative optimisation
Unpack the shift from last-click attribution and show how accurate media measurement, beyond Google, reveals true performance impact
Luke Westland
Strategic Commercial Director
Crimtan (CONFIRMED)
Breakout 6: Unlock Hidden Insights: Data-Driven Strategies to Radically Improve Your Student Recruitment Marketing Performance (Without a Bigger Budget!)
Stop Wasting Ad Spend: Discover the surprising data that reveals which platforms are delivering the least impact (and where to reinvest for better results).
Enhanced Analytics: See our unique sector trend reporting and forecasting for domestic and international audiences.
Gain an Unfair Competitive Advantage: Walk away with the evidence and actionable strategy to outperform competitors
Holly Lawson
Associate Director, Marketing and Head of Creative and Digital Services, University of Warwick (CONFIRMED)
Breakout 7: From Website Glow-up to Recruitment Engine: Data, Design and the Digital Student Journey
Website as both brand platform and recruitment engine
How website design and UX can support and shape student recruitment strategies in an increasingly competitive landscape
Aligning user insight, analytics and content strategy to deliver better digital journeys for prospective students
Optimising post-launch performance using data to drive decision-making, iteration and engagement
Dearbhla Clarke
Associate Director of Marketing and Student Recruitment
Kingston University (CONFIRMED)
Mark Higginson
Director of Strategy and Insight
Cues.ai (CONFIRMED)
Breakout 8: Creative Briefs that Pack a Punch – How to Inspire and Ensure Impactful, Effective Work is Delivered by Your Creative Partners
A creative brief is a roadmap for creative thinking. It needs to be laser-focussed on the problem or opportunity the creative work needs to solve. Cutting to the heart of the matter is fundamental to great brief-writing. In this interactive session, learn a powerful 10-minute technique to focus your thinking and ensure your briefs set you up for success.
2:20 pm
🎉Moving to Next Breakout Sessions
2:30 pm
✨Breakout Series
Breakout 9: Build a 30-minute Action Plan for Student Growth
A rapid download of the most effective growth strategies based on recent research
Avoid the common traps and key missteps that many of us seem to make in trying to engage our whole institutions
Build a mini-plan, blending Marketing Partnership’s insights with your own experiences
A quick-fire, fun, and interactive session where you’ll leave with more clarity on where your actions will have the greatest impact
Penny Eccles
Founder and CEO
Marketing Partnership (CONFIRMED)
Amy Bronze
Consultant
Marketing Partnership (CONFIRMED)
Breakout 10: Delivering by Twilio
Breakout 11: How to Build a Leads Generating Machine (and Drive Results on Conversion)
Breakout 12: The Channel Hop: What Content and Where?
Understanding your content and channels
Planned vs reactive activity
Creating integration and consistency through marketing, communication and engagement
How to capture learnings and feed them into ongoing plans
Lorna Gozzard
Director of Engagement, Brand & Marketing
Royal College of Art (CONFIRMED)
3:00 pm
🧁Networking Break and Exhibition
3:25 pm
📣Afternoon Chair Introduction
Andy Blair
Director of Marketing, Communication and Engagement
University of Winchester (CONFIRMED)
3:30 pm
🎟️The Expectations and Experience of Offer Holders: New Insights from IDP
There’s plenty of sector insight into how students make decisions before applying to university - but much less focus on what happens after an offer is made.
In this session, IDP will explore the expectations, needs, and experiences of UK Domestic Offer Holders. We’ll take a closer look at the crucial "choice window" - the period between receiving an offer and firming up decisions - where student expectations evolve, and the right university communications can make all the difference.
What information do students need to help finalise their firm and insurance choices?
What communications keep them engaged, build excitement, and help prevent them from reconsidering their decisions?
Drawing on fresh findings from the latest Offer Holder Survey, we’ll unpack how institutions can better support students at this pivotal stage - and how strengthening engagement here can drive stronger conversion outcomes in an increasingly competitive landscape.
Jon Montgomerie
Associate Head of Client Success, UK
IDP (CONFIRMED)
Amandeep Aulakh
Associate Head of Client Partnerships, UK Domestic
IDP (CONFIRMED)
3:50 pm
✋Understanding Tomorrow’s Students: Engaging, Communicating, and Connecting
Discover how students engage with universities at live events
Hear directly from students on what influenced their thinking and decisions
Submit your questions in advance for both our live student panel and our online student research panel
Gain authentic insights from students to enhance your event marketing strategies
This session will feature a group of real students sharing their honest takes. Send your questions to the panel: researchinsight@ucas.ac.uk
Jo Richards
Senior Insight Lead
UCAS (CONFIRMED)
4:30 pm
🛒New Audiences and New Products: Why the Way We Market Needs to Change (Fast)
The importance of the portfolio offering: is what we think is relevant really the case?
Diversification: would does it really mean to you and how is the sector responding to it?
Experience at the heart of our marketing: what do our current students value and how are we bringing this out?
Paul Woods
Group Director of Marketing, Recruitment and Communications
London South Bank University (CONFIRMED)
4:50 pm
🔍A Final Thought and Conference Close
*Programme subject to change
