Welcome - EMA ALC Canadian Team Captains - Elizabeth Calderon, Assistant Head of School, Development, Mulgrave School (BC) and Praveen Muruganandan, Director, Admission and Advancement, The York School (ON)

EMA Regional Update & Survey Results - Heather Hyslop, Associate Director of Membership & Business Development, EMA

The Ride Report -The process for families of choosing an independent school is a journey. It involves much consideration, a great deal of investigation, and ultimately critical decision-making. This session will share insights from The Enrollment Management Association’s special report The Ride to Independent Schools 2020-2021 featuring insights, data, and recommendations based on a survey of nearly 3,000 families during the summer of 2020. The more that schools can appreciate and understand what parents are thinking and how they are feeling at each stage of that ride, the better they will be at meeting parents’ needs and concerns. Empowered by the insights of parents, schools can create a process that is meaningful and satisfying, which in turn will help with schools’ enrollment. Download your copy of the report from the Member Community today.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the foundation of digital marketing strategies aimed at driving admissions prospects to your school, yet it's often overlooked due to a lack of time. This lightning round will de-mystify SEO and equip you with the knowledge to supercharge website content for SEO on the fly with minimal time investment. You'll want to share the lessons learned with your admissions, marketing, and website teams.

Session Speaker: Daren Worcester, Associate Director Demand Generation, EMA

Slides for SEO on the FLY

Parents and students in the admission process love to watch videos of your school but it can be expensive, time-consuming, or just not possible to invite a video crew to your campus to film a professional video. Maybe you don't have to! In this hands-on lightning round participants will learn to create an Event Highlight video using the video camera and editing software already in your pocket: your phone! Interested in following along during this session? Download the iMovie app for your iPhone and check out this workshop handout.

Slides from presentation

While we might not be post-pandemic yet, we are preparing for our new normal. What processes and procedures worked well for your school and your enrollment goals during the pandemic that you will keep and implement in a post-pandemic world? Share ideas, continue conversations and grab a few new ideas to implement now.

1. The lasting impacts of COVID - good and bad (what are you still dealing with, what will you keep, what will you revert back to)
2. Developing a strategic enrolment plan - what should be included and how do you keep it evergreen?
3. Creating an inclusive admissions process - the role of standardized tests, what is a holistic assessment, diversity goals