A Guide to AMA Higher Ed 2024
Let’s run it back. Five years later, AMA Higher Ed returns to Las Vegas on November 10-13.
A quick flashback to 2019: I was three months into my new role at RHB and serving on the conference committee (a highlight was introducing the Vegas Golden Knights CMO keynote to the electronic beat of “John Wick Mode,” which the Golden Knights blast for player intros). I also recall having meetings at the coffee shop at the bottom of the escalator from the conference space, trying not to get distracted by wedding parties and all the Vegas-style comings and goings.
Join me for sessions
This year I’m leading a pre-conference session, “From Principles to Practice: Marketing Essentials for Higher Education,” designed for newer attendees and those seeking a solid foundation or refresher on marketing principles—and their application to higher ed and its inherent complexities.
In addition, Richard Campbell (Auburn University CCO), Kristen Lainsbury (Bates College VP for Communications and Marketing), Robin Oliver (Ohio University VP for University Communications and Marketing) and I will host a panel session titled, “OOO-no! Creative Solutions for the Chronically Understaffed.” We’ll offer a sector-wide perspective on talent recruitment and retention, and these campus leaders will share their approaches to building stronger, more diverse and more nimble teams.
Flowers to Las Vegas destination marketing
I’m not a Vegas-goer. When I’ve flown into LAS, it’s usually been to head off toward Zion or the Grand Canyon. Yet, I’ve long admired the marketing of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and its success in boldly communicating core truths of the Vegas experience.
You know the campaign and tagline: “What happens here, stays here.” Remarkably, LVCVA launched this campaign more than 20 years ago—on Super Bowl Sunday in 2003 to be exact. The campaign evolved in 2020 to “What happens here, only happens here.”
A campaign of this duration is unheard of in higher ed. We underestimate the power of continuity—continuity of message, effort and investment. When institutions tire of their own messaging too quickly or when a new president wishes to “launch a new brand,” we set ourselves back. Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, in contrast, has understood that the market does not see us as we see ourselves. While their tactics have evolved along the way, LVCVA has benefited from the awareness, recognition and associations they’ve built up through years and years of consistency.
Ready. Set. Vegas.
Our 2019 recommendations hold up well. My number one Vegas tip is the same: spend some time away from the Strip.
Last time there for AMA, we hosted a gathering at The Mob Museum, the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement. Getting off the Strip and supporting a nonprofit organization was a win-win. We enjoyed a journey back to the Prohibition era with an evening in the museum’s Underground Speakeasy and Distillery. We’ll be going back.
If speakeasies are your thing, check out The Laundry Room too, tucked inside the swanky Commonwealth. The Mob Museum and Commonwealth are both downtown, north of the Strip.
Looking for more content to get ready for AMA? Mallory Willsea and Seth Odell offer some great travel tips in this recent Higher Ed Pulse episode.
