EDUCATION SUMMIT 2022: highlights & personal takeaways

This week marked the 10th anniversary of the Education Summit hosted by Salesforce. The event spanned multiple global regions, featured headliners such as activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai, decorated Paralympic athlete Blake Leeper, and author and TIME’s 2021 Kid of the Year Orion Jean.?

The event also included breakout sessions spanning content tracks along the entire student journey: from Recruitment & Admissions to Student Experience and the Alumni/Donor experience. We heard major announcements on how Salesforce will partner with universities, colleges and schools as the industry invests to become future-ready. Here are some of the key discussions and themes from this unique event:

What does it mean to be future-ready at a university?

In an industry where change is constant, we are at an especially impactful moment. Never before has the path forward been so clear, and yet also so daring. Leaders at universities must make strategic decisions to build for business agility, proactive and holistic student support, a data empowered culture, and real-time collaboration networks. Much of this work has to do with preparing for a new future that supports multi-generational learners - or lifelong learning.?

What can we learn about lifelong learning from INSEAD?

Recognizing that for business leaders learning has become a lifelong commitment INSEAD needed to deliver a hyper-personalised recruitment experience for the +20,000 executives joining their programmes globally every year. With Customer 360 for Education, this leading business school is now managing the entire recruitment experience from one unified platform. On its use of technology, INSEAD shared:

“Participants come to INSEAD to live a truly transformative learning experience and expect the same level of excellence when they interact with us,” said Séverine Guilloux, Executive Director of Open Programmes and Online Learning Innovation at INSEAD. “With Customer 360 for Education, we can deliver connected learning journeys with a personal touch and create long-lasting relationships with our participants and community of learners.”?

What is inspiring about this statement is that it underscores learning as a personal journey. As universities aim to support lifelong learning models and engage with learners in the long-term, it will be critical to create a real and meaningful connection between learners and the university brand. Thank you very much to @Séverine Guilloux, @Peter Zemsky and @Pankaj Kumar for sharing this unique story with us.?

How else are universities in the UK and Europe investing in becoming future-ready?

This year’s Higher Education Summit was a terrific showcase of the rich innovation happening in the United Kingdom and Europe. Here are some other examples:?

• @César Crespo Bravo and @Thomas Grar at ISDI Digital Talent Community shared how their institution has been focused on creating a single hub for students, alumni, industry leaders and professors.
• @Ben Titley shared how Lancaster University implemented a B2B CRM to increase and strengthen relationships and improve its service delivery models.?
• @Paul Napleton presented on how the team at University of East Anglia is using artificial intelligence to drive personalised experiences for prospective students starting their learning journey.?
• @Olga Ko?uchowska at SWPS Career Services shared how her team leverages CRM technology to invest in the career paths of their students. By the way, this team also won an award at Education Summit in the category of Excellence for Student Success!???

It was fantastic to see these customer stories from the UK and Europe presented at the 10th annual Education Summit along with so many others from around the world.

Here are my personal takeaways on the key discussion points:

1. “Customer” is no longer controversial: Salesforce very intentionally announced Customer 360 for Education at this year’s Education Summit, and we heard reference to this term across several sessions, including on the mainstage with INSEAD. To be clear, this is not about the relationship between students and their professors, but rather about adopting a service-minded approach to supporting students in a holistic and personalised way.?

2. The Great Re-Bundle: As @Mary Curnock Cook pointed out, we are entering an era of not just the unbundling of course offerings, but also the re-bundling of new programs to meet student expectations. This is business agility to serve lifelong learning in action.

3. Mobile, Conversational, Personal: @Susan Morrow demonstrated how technologies will need to seamlessly blend across conversational, mobile and profile-based experiences to create one frictionless journey for use cases such as Recruitment and Admissions.?

Our community of global education institutions are not only taking up the charge to be future-ready, but they are in fact defining what the future of education will look like, right now.?

Did you attend #EDUSummit22? Connect with me here and comment to share your takeaways - I’d love to hear them. If you would like to catch-up on any of the above content, take a look at the recordings now available for a limited time.

Author/Byline: Julio Villalobos, Industry Advisor, Salesforce.org