2025 MEMS Request for Proposals

Share your expertise and present at UPCEA MEMS 2025: Marketing, Enrollment Management, and Student Success Conference

December 2 - 4, 2025 | Boston, MA

UPCEA members are invited to propose content for MEMS 2025 concurrent sessions which reflect the varied areas of practice of the UPCEA community: leaders in online and professional continuing education. Especially of interest are presentations that are highly interactive in format, feature multiple presenters and institutions/organizations, and can address the needs of a wide range of institutional types and sizes, as well as diverse populations of credit and noncredit learners.


Proposals are due by May 23

Due to high demand, UPCEA members are limited to one concurrent session proposal per event.

Presenters are expected to be subject matter experts and must also be current members of UPCEA, either institutional or corporate. Proposals by corporate members must include a current institutional member as co-presenter.

Topics of Interest

Each year, UPCEA surveys participants at the annual Marketing, Enrollment Management, and Student Success (MEMS) conference on topics of interest for future conferences. The list of topics below summarizes topics of particular interest for 2025. Presenters are not limited to the list below and are free to offer topics that they feel are important to the practice of enrollment, marketing, and student success.

Operational Effectiveness

  • Applying inclusive leadership, setting objectives, and fostering collaboration across teams 
  • In-sourcing vs. out-sourcing: What do you do and why?
  • Making the most of a small budget and/or team
  • Reclaiming content from an online program manager (OPM) and building in-house capacity
  • The evolution and future state of remote/hybrid work 
  • Professional development and lifelong learning within teams

Collaborative Solutions

  • Collaboration across marketing, enrollment management, and student success
  • Differentiating and leveraging marketing vs. sales, applications vs. enrollments 
  • Improving conversion/boosting yield (at any/all points along the funnel)
  • Strategy and leadership development for all levels of the enterprise 
  • Leveraging partnerships between mirrored service departments across divisions

Research, Data and Return on Investment

  • Market research best practices or innovations – qualitative and/or quantitative
  • Innovative responses to gathering sufficient, quality data for online populations
  • Student insights and feedback loops to improve marketing/recruitment/student retention
  • Demonstrating value and keeping the value proposition 
  • Establishing industry and sector benchmarks 
  • Best practices for community-building for online students
  • Innovations in cybersecurity, data protection, privacy and IP protection in the age of AI

Strategic Practices & Technological Advances  

  • Implementing AI and automation throughout marketing funnel and the student journey
  • Effective practices in content strategy (website, video, social media, etc.)
  • Modality definitions and permutations (asynch, synch, hybrid, hi-flex) and outcomes
  • Navigating legislative changes while ensuring a seamless student experience
  • SEO/website management and optimization
  • Ensuring web content accessibility for international and special needs audiences
  • Evaluating options, establishing best practices, and/or transitioning CRMs
  • Digital badging, credentialing, and alternative credentials

Session Formats
  • Workshop: 70-minute session providing a deep dive wherein participants are actively, tangibly engaged in their learning, via collaboration and hands-on interaction. Workshop presenters generally spend less than half of the session sharing their ideas, using the remaining time engaged in activity that promotes interaction and discussion, ending with a takeaway for participants.
  • Presentation: 60-minute session featuring one to three presenters who share a cohesive series of ideas followed by a robust discussion with the audience. Presentations are sought which involve multiple organizations, as well as content which may be scaled or optimized by attendees from a wide range of institutions.
  • Panel: 60-minute session featuring a moderator and four or five panelists from different organizations that can provide insights on a common area of interest. Panelists establish a problem or provide context in the first half of the session and then engage participants in a solutions-focused conversation/Q&A in the latter half.
  • *MEMS Talk: Quickfire introduction of an idea by a single presenter without audience discussion, and with strict guidelines (presentation can be no longer than 6 minutes and use no more than 6 slides, with font no smaller than 28pt). Up to nine or ten Talks are scheduled in one concurrent session, in sequence, to offer attendees numerous, shallow forays into critical topics. A moderator will offer opening remarks, as well as work with Talks presenters to organize a thoughtful order of topics presented, and to ensure smooth, timed transitions between Talks. 
  • *Collaborative: 60-minute session in which presenters of multiple, similar, proposed content are invited to collectively and holistically present their ideas, together, in one concurrent session. Collaborative sessions are curated by UPCEA staff to help support presenters get to know each other and suss out commonalities and themes of import between proposed ideas. 
  • *Roundtable: 25 to 30-minute table-based, small-group, guided discussion about a specific and timely topic, question, or issue. During one, 60-minute concurrent session, multiple Roundtable presenters concurrently share their ideas at one round table each (up to 9 attendees can fit at each table), and promote the sharing of thoughts, solutions, and questions among their respective tables’ attendees. Roundtables are designed to provide space and time to important but particularly nuanced topics which deserve attention, and as such, attendees are free to move between tables. The Roundtable session will have a moderator who will welcome attendees, invite them to find a topic/table of their choice, and watch the time, inviting presenters to host their discussions twice during the hour, to allow attendees to engage with up to two different topics.  

  • *Stop & Share: Hosted during one concurrent session in a large room with multiple tables, Stop & Share presenters will each have their own table, as well as a slide template of up to six slides, uploaded to the app and for presentation (on rotation) on their own laptop or tablet, to allow brief, synchronous conversations with attendees stopping in and milling about. Each informal conversation will center around a hot topic, best practice, or technological innovation. AV will be limited to one power cord per table, for presenters’ equipment. 

*Indicates multi-presenter session format

Selection Process

Proposals will be selected to ensure the conference program offers comprehensive, noncommercial, objective, and diverse content geared toward marketing and enrollment management professionals.

Attention will be given to diversity of institutions, presenters, and geographic location.

Applicants will be notified of proposal status by early July. Note that you may be invited to co-present with others who have proposed similar topics.


IMPORTANT: Presenters are responsible for registering in advance for the conference, paying the event registration fee, and abiding by all UPCEA best practices for event presentations.

 

 

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