Embracing AI for advancement in education

Tracy Playle, our CEO and Founder, is delivering the closing keynote at the CASE Middle East Advancement Conference 2024.

There are promises everywhere right now that artificial intelligence (AI) can change the world of work.

For many of us, this technological surge in popularity appears to be happening at an overwhelming pace. The anxiety of needing to keep up coupled with the fear of being left behind are all too real.

But it doesn't have to be that way.

In this session, author of The Connected Campus and CASE Crystal Apple winner, Tracy Playle will break down the AI opportunities through the lens of what this means for advancement professionals in education. In a session that spans the longer term big picture through to things you can try out right there in the session to start adopting AI right now, you'll come away knowing exactly how this might impact your role and the opportunities within it.

We'll support the leaders in the room to feel fully equipped to engage in conversations about how AI impacts strategic leadership decisions in advancement, and we'll show how practitioners in the room can start using these tools to bring creativity, efficiency and impact to their work.

Above all, we'll also explore the ethical context of using AI tools and how to create your own set of boundaries and principles to ensure that you're using the tools responsibly and with transparency. By sharing a range of tools and their applications, you'll leave the session with practical next steps to apply in your role.

Join Tracy at the CASE Middle East Advancement Conference 2024

From Presence to Future: Empowering Your Leadership from Mindfulness

The value of mindfulness techniques to personal well-being is well known. But increasingly, these practices are being adopted for leadership development and teams. While most techniques teach us to center ourselves in the present, they can also be powerful tools to help us create the right conditions for developing our future.

In this session, the presenter will combine her experience in education advancement with her training as an ontological coach and her own journey as a leader. You will understand how mindfulness techniques can help you to be a better leader, empower your teams and colleagues, and create the optimal conditions for creating and implementing your advancement strategies. You will leave this session with a toolkit of techniques that you can use for yourself and with your colleagues right away, helping you to channel your team’s energy where it is most needed.

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Who’s speaking?

Tracy is CEO and Chief Content Strategist at Pickle Jar Communications. She is also a public speaker and coach. 

Since founding Pickle Jar Communications she has worked with over 300 education institutions around the world to help them advance their approach to content strategy, content design and content marketing. 

Collaboration between academic staff and professional services: a holistic view of the student experience

Every staff member has a role to play when it comes to enhancing the student experience. This session explores the holistic approach required to ensure a joined-up approach across an institution, particularly ensuring academic engagement and collaboration with student engagement and student communication teams.

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Who’s speaking?

Dana is Director of Experience Design at Pickle Jar Communications. An experienced leader within the sector, they are passionate about helping the education sector to create compelling experiences for their students and stakeholders. 

A professionally trained and experienced content designer, Dana can help you and your teams to harness data and insight to better understand your customers and create smarter communications and experiences. 

Closing Plenary: Collaborative Teams The Keynote

From Good Intentions to Business as Usual: Designing a Culture of Collaboration

In most teams and organisations, we typically set out with the greatest intentions for collaboration. We know why we should do it. As social creatures, we (usually) want to do it. We even know how to do it. So, why do we start… and then stop?

Many teams and projects start out with excellent collaboration efforts. And yet it’s predictable for many that once we get busy, individualism and silos creep back in. And so we start back over again, declaring that we ought to collaborate more. The cycle repeats.

In this talk, CEO and coach, Tracy Playle explores what it really takes to create a culture of collaboration in your teams and organisations that will actually transform the way that you work, and last. We’ll explore why successful collaborations have nothing to do with another new technology, more meetings, or frequent brainstorming sessions. Instead, we’ll look at what it takes to design a shared purpose and lay the foundations of trust, psychological safety, openness, creativity, connection, accountability and conflict resolution needed to make collaborations last and thrive.

Who’s speaking?

Tracy is CEO and Chief Content Strategist at Pickle Jar Communications. She is also a public speaker and coach. 

Since founding Pickle Jar Communications she has worked with over 200 education institutions around the world to help them advance their approach to content strategy, content design and content marketing. 

Find out more.

Is this thing on? Amplify your brand message in a noisy space 

There is a lot of noise out there, both inside and outside higher education, and universities are competing fiercely for the attention of prospective students. Universities need to know how to amplify their message and reach the right students in meaningful ways.  

• How can you make your brand stand out, and what do you need to know about your audience in order to capture and keep their attention on a variety of channels?  

• What new channels should universities consider to reach their target audiences?  

Find out more

Who’s speaking?

Dana is Director of Experience Design at Pickle Jar Communications. An experienced leader within the sector, they are passionate about helping the education sector to create compelling experiences for their students and stakeholders. 

A professionally trained and experienced content designer, Dana can help you and your teams to harness data and insight to better understand your customers and create smarter communications and experiences.