At Inigral, admissions departments are one of our closest friends. Our lifecycle engagement platform Schools on Facebook allows us to serve multiple departments on our clients’ campuses. But a lot of our time and energy goes into helping admissions counselors and VPs of enrollment to engage their audience through Facebook, as recruitment and yield are primary revenue drivers for their institution. As a result, we were very excited to attend the 65th annual NACAC conference this year. And yet again, it proved to be a great opportunity to learn, share, and connect with familiar and new faces. Here are seven things that caught our attention as a re-cap of this year’s admissions powwow.

Baltimore Convention Center’s Technological Prowess

Thanks to the state of the art voice and high speed data services, in addition to, the sophisticated network, the Baltimore Convention Center is a leader in hosting high tech conventions, Tradeshows and meetings.

Baltimore Convention Center website

Not according to higher ed marketing folks Kyle Judah and Catie Clark, who had some legitimate gripes with the facility’s service. #FAIL

NACAC on Social Media as a Viable Strategy

NACAC’s CEO Joyce Smith announced the importance of Facebook and social media just this past summer (view our recap of her statement here), yet only three of the sessions were dedicated to social media. Does anyone know why? Seems that John Blackburn wanted more meat instead of the milk, amongst others.

NACAC’s Marketing Campaign

Despite the lack of substantial attention given to social media in the conference schedule, their use of social media told a slightly different story, as 2009 was one of the best years in awareness and engagement yet from NACAC. From branding on their hotel room keys, to the Twitter campaign from both the @NACAC and @NACACconference accounts, along with their presence on Facebook and blogs, which should not go without mention either. More impressive, however, was the fact that all of these presences were aggregated here. Hats off to those guys!

NACAC 2009 Press Coverage

On the third party side, national press coverage from the New York Times and Bloomberg played a strong role in keeping those admissions counselors posted from back home and on campus. NACAC’s Twitter hashtag (#nacac09) complimented that press coverage nicely with it’s “What are people saying” approach.

Twitter Usage at NACAC

According to college social media guru Brad J. Ward of BlueFuego, there was about a 40% increase in admissions counselors tweeting at the conference, compared to last year.

The Social Media Debate

One of the more important dialogues at the conference actually took place on Twitter today. Despite Social Media’s wide-spread adoption on a grassroots level on college campuses this year, NACAC 2009 was the mark of something much bigger: colleges using social media as a business solution. Zinch founder Mick Hagen and college marketer/blogger Karlyn Morissette weighed in on the measurability of social media. While the verdict may still be out on this one, it’s these types of dialogues that need to happen in order for social media to be considered a business solution for admissions counselors. And given the feedback exchanged this weekend, I’m sure that this is only the beginning.