Author: andrewcareaga

Former higher ed PR and marketing guy at Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) now focused on freelance writing and editing and creative writing, fiction and non-fiction.

Conference envy

Later this month I’ll be heading to Chicago for Ragan Communications’ conference on Corporate Communications and the Social Media Revolution. (It’s billed as “the can’t-miss social media summit,” so how could I skip out?) I’ll also attend the free un-conference that’s happening the day before. So I shouldn’t be experiencing conference envy. But then I read about a couple of others that turn me green.

First, there’s TechCrunch40 and its powerhouse keynoters: Marc Andreessen, David Filo, Mark Zuckerberg — names synonymous with innovation. And it’s in San Francisco in a couple of weeks.

Then, also in San Francisco, starting today is the Office 2.0 Conference, which, according to the CNET preview, “will push the Web 2.0 concept for business as far as it can go.” I love to learn about the latest software to make managing products and processes easier. The problem is, I’ve yet to find one that has really made life any easier for me or my team. But, who knows? Maybe this is the year Office 2.0 offers up a gem, and I’d love to be in San Francisco to hear about it firsthand. Guess not.

Also this month is CASE’s Annual Conference for Senior Communications and Marketing Professionals. I co-chaired last year’s event in Philly. And where might this year’s conference be? San Fran, once again.

OK, maybe I don’t have conference envy so much as a desire to visit San Francisco. If any readers are going to any of these, send me a postcard. I’ll do the same from Chicago.

New higher ed blog: The Old College Try

Just discovered a new higher ed marketing blog, The Old College Try, that’s worth a visit. (Thanks to CollegeWebEditor‘s Karine Joly for the intro, via a recent “three questions for…” conversation with TOCT’s creator, Deanna Woolf.)

The blog’s been around since July, and I spent some time surfing its contents this morning. Woolf writes with a witty, engaging style, addressing issues like the lack of paid celebrity spokespeople for colleges and universities (“We can dream of the day when radio spots are read by Pierce Bronson instead of the local station’s go-to regular”), marketing safety on our campuses (“To me, it’s hard to ‘market’ a safe campus by citing great crime stats, the night watch/escort service, or the emergency phones every 100 feet. … People are going assess how safe they feel when they visit your campus and see it with their own two eyes”), or a different angle on college football photos (“[Y]ou could capture a cool photo of a pre-game tailgate party that would be perfect for the student activities brochure you do later in the year. … Or what about the president horking down a hotdog? What a great shot for an off-the-wall university magazine piece on her or him.”) Horking down? Not sure if that’s a typo or not, but it does conjure up an interesting image.