Concept4 at the College Marketing Network Conference 2024

Concept4 recently visited the College Marketing Network conference which was held in Birmingham at the end of January. In attendance were our Managing Director Jane Cleaver and Digital Director Alex Buck. The conference brought together over one hundred and fifty marketing professionals from colleges across the country. The day is intended as an inspirational hub for sharing best practice, new ideas and innovation. The theme of the day surrounds the evolving landscape of further education and provides the delegates with the opportunity to attend lectures, engage in varied workshops and chat with exhibitors. The day concluded with the annual College Marketing Network awards event celebrating the best in College marketing achievements.

Concept4’s main role at the event was to present one of the delegate workshops. Jane and Alex would be delivering the session ‘UX & UI Web Design Best Practice - Promoting the College & Recruiting Students.' This was well attended and saw good engagement from the attendees. The key message was to keep a user centric approach in mind from the outset, considering all stakeholders to ensure a user friendly, visually appealing website. This was one of many workshop offerings to delegates. Other workshops on offer featured social media, admissions, video, branding and innovating on a tight budget! Our secondary role at the conference was to sponsor the award for best website development, something very close to our hearts. There were some really good entries for us to judge but the standout winner was Bishop Burton College. Congratulations to them and the other winners on the night. There was particular success for the marketing teams at The Milton Keynes College Group, Heart of Worcester College and West London College.

The conference was also an opportunity for Alex and Jane to catch up with quite a few of our existing college customers. In attendance were delegates from Bridgend College, West London College, South City College Birmingham, Dudley College and Coleg Y Cymoedd. All of whom have created their current website with us as their chosen partner. From all perspectives this was a very successful event, a conference which has become a cornerstone event for college marketing professionals. There was some great initial overall conference feedback about upbeat interactions, a good energy and useful shared knowledge. Our team were very happy with our own small part it the event’s success and Jane is keen to get involved again next year. Roll on 2025! Meanwhile our college website offering has already had a great start to 2024 with an incredible four college wins!