Pre-Conference Workshops

In Canadian post-secondary institutions, strategic enrolment initiatives must navigate a layered governance ecosystem—committees, senates, and boards—each with distinct mandates and decision-making rhythms. This pre-conference workshop, led by a governance officer with deep expertise in SEMM and institutional strategy, offers senior leaders a practical framework for advancing initiatives through formal governance channels. It also equips them to coach and support their teams in crafting proposals that resonate with institutional priorities and governance expectations.

Through a blend of strategic discussion and case-based analysis, participants will explore how to align enrolment proposals with governance structures, identify key stakeholders and approval pathways, and refine governance-ready submissions. Ideal for executives and senior administrators who sponsor SEMM initiatives or guide middle managers through board-facing processes, this session will strengthen institutional alignment, cross-functional collaboration, and the strategic positioning of student-centered innovations.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand the structure, roles, and decision-making processes of governance bodies within Canadian post-secondary institutions.
• Apply governance decision-making knowledge to strategically align SEMM proposals with institutional priorities and governance expectations.
• Develop and refine governance proposals considering the formal channels required for endorsement.

Creating and sustaining a Strategic Enrolment Management (SEM) culture is essential to effective enrolment planning and management. In this interactive session, participants will learn and discuss how to effectively develop a SEM culture with or without a SEM plan. Participants will work in groups as they apply SEM culture and organizational development principles to enrolment scenarios.

Learning Outcomes:

• Identify the key elements of a strong SEM culture and explain their impact on enrolment success, with or without a formal SEM plan.
• Apply SEM culture and organizational development principles to practical enrolment scenarios through group activities.
• Explore strategies to build collaboration and shared ownership of enrolment goals across departments and stakeholders.

Rooted in creating a student-centric experience, the concept of Student Journey Mapping can be a cornerstone for decision-making in postsecondary education. From changing how students are recruited to how donors are engaged, the Student Journey Mapping process can help good business practices evolve into great ones.

In this workshop, participants will dive into the process of Student Journey Mapping by exploring how to collect first-party data to shape organizational decision-making. The facilitator, JP Rains, Director, Communications & Digital Strategy at Laurentian University will share the successes and failures he’s experienced while working with over a dozen institutions helping participants improve their outcomes.

Learning Outcomes

• Understand how Student Journey maps can be used to benefit your institution
• Determine internal factors that should be considered prior to beginning the process
• Outline which audiences and sub-audiences should be mapped to meet the needed journey outcomes
• Discover how post-secondary marketing and communications professionals can apply learnings from other industries to benefit their institution
• Identify qualitative and quantitative data that should be collected and assessed during the mapping process
• Prioritize findings into an action plan outline highlighting what to optimize, opportunities to move forward and solutions to common barriers