Influence the Future of the Higher Education Marketing Community
The American Marketing Association invites you to join the conversation and engage with your community as a conference presenter at the 2025 AMA Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education. As the leading (and largest) annual conference dedicated to advancing the higher education marketing field, the Symposium is an opportunity for marketers to share, connect, and learn. Whether new to the industry, a mid-career professional, or a senior leader, the Symposium’s content is structured to help higher-ed marketers of all levels build strong brands, drive revenue, engage audiences, support career and team growth, and move our institutions and industry forward.
Joining us as a conference presenter is an opportunity to share content that will strengthen the profession of higher education marketing, expand your network through an audience of peers, and raise your institution’s or company’s visibility. Sessions must:
- Focus on critical topics in higher ed marketing
- Demonstrate measurable impact and leadership
- Provide practical solutions and examples.
- Engage, inspire, and motivate
All sessions will be in-person November 9-12, 2025, in National Harbor, MD.
- Call for Proposals Due: Monday, May 5, 2025
- Decisions Sent: Week of June 30, 2025
Your Proposal’s Role in the Higher Ed Marketing Industry
Address critical conversations
Inspire leaders
Drive change
Encourage practical application
Engage with your community
Suggested Topics by Track
Leveraging data-driven processes and tools to gain audience insights, assess performance, refine strategies, and initiate action. Examples include, but are not limited to:
- Brand and market research
- Competitive analysis
- Audience segmentation
- Campaign testing strategies
Proposals should demonstrate informed and effective decision-making while outlining the process undertaken, insights gathered, actions implemented, and measurable impacts achieved.
Developing strategy, frameworks, and big-picture plans that align brand and marketing activities with institutional mission, strategic plans, and/or business goals. Examples include, but are not limited to:
- Brand strategy and planning
- Marketing planning and campaign development
- Sponsorship and licensing strategies
- Audience engagement, accessibility, and inclusive outreach
- Budgeting and resource allocation
Proposals should highlight how strategy and planning align with and drive institutional change, meet goals and objectives, and engage audiences. This should be strategy-focused, not tactical.
Showcasing the creative and tangible ways an institution’s brand position and value proposition are brought to life through compelling brand campaigns, content, and storytelling. Examples include, but are not limited to:
- Rebranding campaign
- Social media marketing
- Video strategy
- Content strategy
- Publications
- Digital marketing
Proposals should celebrate creativity while demonstrating effective tactics and results for engaging audiences with an institution’s brand. This can be more tactically-focused and emphasize creativity.
Driving revenue and audience engagement through campaigns, affinity and awareness building and activities that support institutional enrollment, retention, and fundraising. Examples include, but are not limited to:
- Advertising campaigns
- CRM utilization
- Special events
- Culturally responsive and multilingual marketing
- Social media
Proposals should showcase overcoming challenges, innovative approaches, and measurable results in reaching audiences and growth in recruitment, retention, and/or fundraising.
Utilizing technology and AI-driven tools to enhance marketing impact, efficiency, and productivity. Examples include, but are not limited to:
- Marketing automation
- AI applications in marketing and communications
- Analytics and data platforms
- Website and campaign optimization
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
- Website and social media tools
- Accessibility in web and digital marketing
- Emerging MarTech innovations
- Workflow optimization
Proposals should demonstrate how technology enhances efficiency, streamlines marketing efforts, enables data-driven decision-making, and delivers measurable results, including return on investment.
Empowering emerging and senior leaders with strategies for their departments, teams, universities, and careers. Examples include, but are not limited to:
- Management and leadership development
- Leading change
- Fostering cross-campus collaboration
- Developing best-in-class organizational structures
- Building a business case for budget investment
- Workplace culture and inclusive excellence
- Career advancement strategies
- Policy evolution and impact
Proposals should provide insights into leadership development, communication strategies, organizational management, or career advancement.
Shaping and defending institutional reputation through strategic communication, media relations, and thought leadership. Examples include, but are not limited to:
- Strategic communications strategy, planning, and reporting
- Thought leadership and executive communications
- Media strategies (new and legacy)
- Social media strategy and impact reporting
- Marketing and communications intersections
- Amplifying student and faculty voices
- Institutional reputation management
- Navigating policy, political and industry challenges
- Crisis planning, response, and measurement
Proposals should explore strategies and initiatives for building and shaping institutional reputation, navigating challenges, and/or engaging in topics impacting an institution or the entire industry.
Anticipating and shaping the future of higher education marketing through cutting-edge solutions and disruptive strategies. Examples include, but are not limited to:
- Evolving political and industry shifts
- Cultural and demographic trends and changes
- Marketing innovations
- Risk-taking and experimentation
Proposals should highlight forward-thinking approaches that equip institutions and the industry for an ever-changing landscape.
All Proposals Must Include:
- A clear and engaging session title (8 words maximum)
- All presenter names, titles, and affiliations, with contact information, a headshot, and a bio (100-word maximum)
- A 100-word summary encapsulating the session and its takeaways. (If selected, this description will be used as the session description.)
- A full session description (400 words maximum) describing the goals and objectives of the presentation and demonstrating your mastery of the subject matter. This description of the value to conference participants should be evident and include key learning outcomes or takeaways from the session.
- 3 clear learning objectives or takeaways with specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time-bound language.
- Selection of a topic category/track
- Identification of content level
- If you have previously presented or will be presenting the submission’s content, including when and at what event. Note: We prefer submissions to be new/original content when presented at AMA.
- Please ensure you are available to present in-person for workshop formats on Sunday, 11/10, Monday, 11/11, Tuesday, 11/12, or Wednesday, 11/13, for all other formats submitted.
- Presenters with primary employment outside of an institution of higher education must have a co-presenting institutional partner who is actively involved in the content and presentation. Not having an institutional partner included in the submission will result in the rejection of the proposal.
Submitted Proposals Timeline
- Monday, February 24: Open for submissions
- Friday, April 11: Webinar on proposal submission process
- Monday, May 5 at 11:59 PM ET*: Submissions closed
- Week of June 30: Selected proposals will be notified
*Due to the number of submissions received in 2024, we do not anticipate extending the proposal deadline.
Selected Proposals Timeline
- Friday, July 19: Final abstracts and speakers are due
- Friday, September 19: Presentation drafts are due for review by the committee
- Friday, October 24: Final presentation decks are due
We’re Seeking Stellar Speakers
Speakers can be…
- Marketers and communicators of all levels at colleges, universities, and graduate, professional, and specialized schools
- Diversity and inclusion leadership/subject matter experts
- University leaders and policymakers
- CMOs and CCOs at colleges and universities
- Research and planning specialists
- Industry experts who can lead or facilitate engaging discussion
- Agencies, consultants, and solution providers with experience serving higher education* (Presenters with primary employment outside of an institution of higher education must have a co-presenting institutional partner who is actively involved in the content and presentation. Not having an institutional partner included in the submission will result in the rejection of the proposal.)
Formats
Breakout sessions will be 50-minute presentations with up to three speakers for presentations, up to three presenters for panel discussions, and a facilitator/moderator for panel discussions. They should include a presentation/panel and time for question and answer.
Workshops will be 120 minutes with up to 4 facilitators. These should be focused on skill building with a clear focus on learning takeaways.
FAQs
Each proposal is peer-reviewed and selected by planning committee members with a primary responsibility to curate high-quality content. No more than one proposal from the same organization will be selected, but multiple submissions are permitted.
The primary author of each submission will be notified by email, sent through the Ex-Ordo platform, if their submission was accepted or declined. After June 24, you will also be able to log into the platform to view the status of your submission.
You will receive an email notification sent through the Ex-Ordo platform if your submission is not selected. You will also be able to log into the platform to view the status of your submission after June 24.
You can see the full list of requirements here.
Yes, you can submit more than one proposal. However, given the volume of submissions received and the desire for a wide variety of content, we will only select a speaker/institution once per programming format. No more than 3 proposal submissions.
No. All sessions will be presented in person at the conference in November.
The AMA partners with the event hotel to program each room for optimized seating. In general, breakout sessions and fireside chats will be held in theater style, and workshops will be held in classroom style. This is subject to change.
AMA will provide a standard a/v set up in each room, including a screen, projector, slide advancer, one PC/Windows laptop, and microphones. If you wish to present from an Apple laptop, you must provide your own and supply the necessary dongle.
Yes. All speakers must register for the conference. One complimentary speaker registration will be provided per session, and additional speakers must register through the website.
Presenters are responsible for the concept, creation, and execution of their presentation. Presentation decks will be provided to conference attendees through the conference app. Please ensure you are prepared to share the content of your presentation.
The planning committee will review and approve all presentations before the conference starts.
If you have any questions, please reach out to Jackie Davis, Manager of Professional Communities at the American Marketing Association, at jdavis@ama.org.