Not Another HE Conference 2023
Join us on March 23rd & 24th
Education Cubed are ripping up the conference rule book and bringing you an event that simply can't be missed...this is Not Another HE Conference. Inspiring speakers, live co-creation with your target audiences, allocated time for action-planning and tailored network building. And because this is Not Another HE Conference, we are keeping the number of delegates to a maximum of 100 so that we can help you create your own network of peers with similar roles across the sector.
The conference is relevant to all those working within Undergraduate, Postgraduate and International Student Recruitment, Communications and Marketing. Please note, due to delegate numbers being limited and the client-focused ethos of the conference, we will be unable to admit any suppliers/agencies.
The ticket price for the full two day conference is £490 exc VAT per delegate, discounted to £450 exc VAT per delegate if you buy more than one ticket for your university.
Please note the above prices include lunch on both days and an evening meal on day one but does not include the cost of accommodation. We've provided details of hotels near The Lowry in our "Tickets & Accommodation" section below.
Thanks to our partners FindAUni, Revolution Viewing, Springpod and UCAS for supporting us in this special mission.
And special thanks to The University of Bantshire for providing our evening entertainment - as we said, this is NOT Another HE Conference.
The conference is relevant to all those working within Undergraduate, Postgraduate and International Student Recruitment, Communications and Marketing. Please note, due to delegate numbers being limited and the client-focused ethos of the conference, we will be unable to admit any suppliers/agencies.
The ticket price for the full two day conference is £490 exc VAT per delegate, discounted to £450 exc VAT per delegate if you buy more than one ticket for your university.
Please note the above prices include lunch on both days and an evening meal on day one but does not include the cost of accommodation. We've provided details of hotels near The Lowry in our "Tickets & Accommodation" section below.
Thanks to our partners FindAUni, Revolution Viewing, Springpod and UCAS for supporting us in this special mission.
And special thanks to The University of Bantshire for providing our evening entertainment - as we said, this is NOT Another HE Conference.
Location
The Lowry Theatre
Pier 8, The Quays, Salford, Manchester M50 3AZ
Pier 8, The Quays, Salford, Manchester M50 3AZ
Date & Time
March 23rd, 2023, 9:30 AM - March 24th, 2023 - 2:00 PM
Agenda
DAY ONE - Thursday 23 March
Insight-led presentations and action planning from our stellar speakers (30 mins presentation, 5 mins questions, 15 mins action-planning) focusing on what you should be doing and why you should be doing it. You will be seated on a table with peers from across the sector who have a similar role to you to enhance the action-planning time at the end of each session and to build your own network that will last beyond the conference.
Timings subject to change.
9:00
Arrival at The Lowry Theatre
9:45
Welcome to Not Another HE Conference - Hayhurst & Rogers, Education Cubed
A rousing welcome from our On The Road hosts.
A rousing welcome from our On The Road hosts.
10:00
The Road to 2030: The Challenges and Opportunities Ahead for HE - Vivienne Stern, Chief Executive, UUK
In this session Vivienne will reflect on what challenges and opportunities lie ahead for higher education for the rest of this decade, leaving you with a sense of whether you are already planning for the right things or whether there are other things we should all be thinking about!
In this session Vivienne will reflect on what challenges and opportunities lie ahead for higher education for the rest of this decade, leaving you with a sense of whether you are already planning for the right things or whether there are other things we should all be thinking about!
10:50
What just happened? Making sense of the PG pipeline from the inside out - Mark Bennett, Director (Audience & Editorial), FindAUniversity and Jennifer Parsons, Director of Partners, Projects & Insights, UniQuest.
The postgraduate recruitment funnel is long, complicated and varied. And most institutions are stuck somewhere in the middle: trying to understand where they currently are, where they might go next and – if they’re honest – also trying to figure out what just happened. This presentation will help. We’ll take vast amounts of data from the top of the funnel: what millions of prospective students are searching for (and why!) and mix it with equally vast amounts of data further down: what’s actually going right (and wrong) across thousands of conversations and conversions.
The postgraduate recruitment funnel is long, complicated and varied. And most institutions are stuck somewhere in the middle: trying to understand where they currently are, where they might go next and – if they’re honest – also trying to figure out what just happened. This presentation will help. We’ll take vast amounts of data from the top of the funnel: what millions of prospective students are searching for (and why!) and mix it with equally vast amounts of data further down: what’s actually going right (and wrong) across thousands of conversations and conversions.
11:40
Break
12:00
Data, Measurement and ROI (Panel) - Rich Webb, Technical Director, Education Cubed; LJ Gould, Director of Marketing at Manchester Metropolitan University; Tom Greveson, CEO, Revolution Viewing; Paul Harvey, Director of Marketing, Recruitment & Admissions, University of Surrey; John McCarthy, Associate Chief Operating Officer, The University of Salford
Data is becoming an increasingly important part of ensuring that marketing and student recruitment strategies and tactical plans deliver planned returns for our institutions. Join this experienced panel to hear about how they use data to support their recommendations, build internal credibility and get results that matter.
Data is becoming an increasingly important part of ensuring that marketing and student recruitment strategies and tactical plans deliver planned returns for our institutions. Join this experienced panel to hear about how they use data to support their recommendations, build internal credibility and get results that matter.
12:50
Lunch
13:50
10 Strategies to Succeed in 2026 - David Penney, Director of Marketing, UCAS
The competitive landscape is increasing. Decision making factors are changing. So what does this mean for student choice, your institution, and your skills as an education marketer? David Penney will talk you through UCAS’ predictions for 2026 and the top 10 things you need to do as HE marketers to know (and prepare for) to be successful.
The competitive landscape is increasing. Decision making factors are changing. So what does this mean for student choice, your institution, and your skills as an education marketer? David Penney will talk you through UCAS’ predictions for 2026 and the top 10 things you need to do as HE marketers to know (and prepare for) to be successful.
14:40
Co-creation Live! That First Connection - The Inside View - UCAS and Savanta
Often the first time students get to meet you is at a UCAS event. So what attracts them to you, and what turns them away? Our panel of students will tell you – hosted by UCAS and Savanta, you’ll discover what they expected, what caught their eye on the day, and what they want from you now. Get to see their own footage of what stood out to them, hear about their experiences, and ask your burning questions to attract the next generation and build connections.
Often the first time students get to meet you is at a UCAS event. So what attracts them to you, and what turns them away? Our panel of students will tell you – hosted by UCAS and Savanta, you’ll discover what they expected, what caught their eye on the day, and what they want from you now. Get to see their own footage of what stood out to them, hear about their experiences, and ask your burning questions to attract the next generation and build connections.
15:30
Break
15:50
Marketing Courses & Driving Leads Now that the Prospectus is Dead - Emma Bridge, Director of HE, Springpod
The prospectus is dead. Over recent years, the prospectus has taken on many different names, guises, shapes and sizes. But is it about time we all accept that the prospectus is dead and give it the farewell it deserves? Director of Higher Education at Springpod, Emma Bridge, will share with us how prospective students are really choosing courses and universities and how we can confidently step away from the old faithful prospectus.
The prospectus is dead. Over recent years, the prospectus has taken on many different names, guises, shapes and sizes. But is it about time we all accept that the prospectus is dead and give it the farewell it deserves? Director of Higher Education at Springpod, Emma Bridge, will share with us how prospective students are really choosing courses and universities and how we can confidently step away from the old faithful prospectus.
16:40
Break
17:00
Not Another HE Quiz (with drinks and canapés) - The University of Bantshire, Jo Redfern, Managing Director, Education Cubed and Mark Garratt, Director of Marketing, Communications & Recruitment, Anglia Ruskin University, Chair CASE Europe University Marketing Forum, Chair University Centre Leeds
Carlsberg don't do conference entertainment, but if they did...
Carlsberg don't do conference entertainment, but if they did...
18:00
Free time before evening meal
We will finish at 18:00, giving you time to check into your hotel, have a break and get yourself ready for the evening.
We will finish at 18:00, giving you time to check into your hotel, have a break and get yourself ready for the evening.
19:30
Evening meal
We will be treating all delegates to a three-course evening meal and drinks at:
The Botanist, Orange Building MediaCityUK, Salford M50 2HE (1 minute walk from The Lowry).
We will be treating all delegates to a three-course evening meal and drinks at:
The Botanist, Orange Building MediaCityUK, Salford M50 2HE (1 minute walk from The Lowry).
DAY TWO - Friday 24 March
Focusing on leadership skills and how to “win” in Higher Education, day two will give you the time and space to consider how you will implement your actions and strive for excellence when you get back to the office. There will also be a live co-creation exercise with prospective students.
Timings subject to change.
Focusing on leadership skills and how to “win” in Higher Education, day two will give you the time and space to consider how you will implement your actions and strive for excellence when you get back to the office. There will also be a live co-creation exercise with prospective students.
Timings subject to change.
9:20
A Student Recruitment and Marketing Odyssey - Dan Barcroft, Director, Student Recruitment, Marketing & Admissions, The University of Sheffield and Charlotte Renwick, Acting Director, Marketing, Recruitment & Admissions, Leeds Beckett University
Charlotte and Dan are two of the sector’s most straight-talking and accomplished student recruitment marketing professionals. With a passion for Higher Education and all that it brings to the world, between them, there isn’t much that they haven’t experienced or a type of institution that they haven’t worked in. As they’ve orbited each other around the sector, they’ve collected a wealth of knowledge, experience, triumphs and failures. In this candid session they’ll share their journeys and invite you to consider your own leadership development, giving you food for thought and practical tools for ongoing survival in the sector, combined with a lot of humour.
10:00
More power to you! Craft impactful reports and pitch decks to help you win internal battles, budget and resource - Caroline Bysh, Vice Principal, External Relations & Student Experience, SRUC and Sarah-Jane Spooner, Head of Product, Education Cubed
Stories are fundamental to who we are and how we understand the world. A good story can entertain, educate and inspire us. Every day we tell stories as part of our jobs, but how do we ensure we are communicating with purpose, clarity and conviction. Join us in this session as we show you the failsafe theory, learn from what actually works in practice in higher education and how to apply these things to what you do in your teams and beyond.
Stories are fundamental to who we are and how we understand the world. A good story can entertain, educate and inspire us. Every day we tell stories as part of our jobs, but how do we ensure we are communicating with purpose, clarity and conviction. Join us in this session as we show you the failsafe theory, learn from what actually works in practice in higher education and how to apply these things to what you do in your teams and beyond.
10:40
CRM, Segmentation and Personalisation: What HE Can Learn from Banking - Sheetal Patole, Chief Data Officer and Scott Melville, Head of Data Led Operations, Barclays
We know that the topics of CRM, segmentation, personalisation and hyper-personalisation can be real pain points for universities - believe it or not, they can be just as painful in very similar ways for the banking sector. But it won't surprise you that banks have been addressing these areas for (slightly!) longer than universities and have larger budgets to play with. Sheetal and Scott will present some data management best practice from the perspective of attracting and converting audiences, how this relates to the tasks that student recruitment and marketing teams have to do, supported by some examples of what has worked well and what has failed from multiple sectors. This session will arm you with strategies to implement and questions to ask in order to prioritise and drive change in these areas for your own institution.
We know that the topics of CRM, segmentation, personalisation and hyper-personalisation can be real pain points for universities - believe it or not, they can be just as painful in very similar ways for the banking sector. But it won't surprise you that banks have been addressing these areas for (slightly!) longer than universities and have larger budgets to play with. Sheetal and Scott will present some data management best practice from the perspective of attracting and converting audiences, how this relates to the tasks that student recruitment and marketing teams have to do, supported by some examples of what has worked well and what has failed from multiple sectors. This session will arm you with strategies to implement and questions to ask in order to prioritise and drive change in these areas for your own institution.
11:40
Break
12:00
Imagine all the people! Recruiting and retaining the best staff - Chris Rogers, Chief Commercial Officer and Georgia Masters, Account Director, Education Cubed
"If you think it's it's expensive to hire a professional, wait until your hire an amateur" Red Addair. Chris Rogers presents a deep dive into Education Cubed's knowledge, know-how and understanding of recruiting and building agile teams which are perfect for higher education.
"If you think it's it's expensive to hire a professional, wait until your hire an amateur" Red Addair. Chris Rogers presents a deep dive into Education Cubed's knowledge, know-how and understanding of recruiting and building agile teams which are perfect for higher education.
12:30
Excellence over Mediocrity: Strategic Planning, High Performing Teams and Personal Resilience - Vicky Hayhurst, Chief Strategy Officer, Education Cubed
Join us for the least most important session of the conference (!) as HE fanatic and qualified workplace coach, Vicky Hayhurst, shares with you the advice she wishes she’d been given at the start of her HE career, 18 years ago. Tear up the self help books and start planning for your direct reports, peers and boss to look after you instead! This is a crash course in strategic planning, creating high performing teams and building personal resilience and credibility, for those of you who are striving for excellence rather than mediocrity (or for those of you who are just hanging around for the end of conference lunch).
Join us for the least most important session of the conference (!) as HE fanatic and qualified workplace coach, Vicky Hayhurst, shares with you the advice she wishes she’d been given at the start of her HE career, 18 years ago. Tear up the self help books and start planning for your direct reports, peers and boss to look after you instead! This is a crash course in strategic planning, creating high performing teams and building personal resilience and credibility, for those of you who are striving for excellence rather than mediocrity (or for those of you who are just hanging around for the end of conference lunch).
13:00
Closing remarks - Jo Redfern, Managing Director, Education Cubed
13:10 - 14:00
Lunch
Speakers
Vicky Hayhurst
Vicky Hayhurst is Education Cubed's Chief Strategy Officer - fully accountable for the strategy and end to end delivery of our Professional Services products: market research, creative, video, training and consultancy. Vicky is one of our lead consultants, a skilled facilitator and qualified workplace coach, with 22 years of marketing project management experience. Vicky has worked in the private and public sectors, including 18 years in both the client and supplier sides of Higher Education. Having worked with over 100 universities, Vicky is well known and trusted within the sector, with a passion for helping our clients to solve the problems that keep them awake at night.
Chris Rogers
Chris is Education Cubed's Chief Commercial Officer - he is key member of the senior team and Executive Board, contributing actively to the strategic and operational development of the business. He has over ten years' experience in HE marketing, successfully leading teams of marketing professionals for over seven years. Chris has substantial experience in delivering complex marketing projects across public sector, global non-profit professional bodies, and for-profit Education Institutions.
Vivienne Stern
Vivienne Stern took up the role of UUK Chief Executive in September 2022. She was previously the Director of Universities UK International (UUKi) which represents UK universities around the world and works to enable them to flourish internationally. Vivienne has over 20 years’ experience of working in higher education policy and politics at national and international level. Prior to her role in UUKi, Vivienne was Head of Political Affairs at Universities UK, and led the sector’s response to several major pieces of legislation relating to universities. Before that she worked for the Chair of the House of Commons Education Select Committee, and as policy specialist working on topics including quality, student experience, innovation and university-business links. Vivienne is a graduate of the University of Cambridge, where she studied English Literature.
Mark Bennett
Director (Audience & Editorial) at FindAUniversity, publishers of FindAMasters & FindAPhD, Mark is responsible for ensuring those websites and the information they contain are as useful as possible and for helping universities understand prospective postgraduates’ needs and intentions. As part of this he directs various research and insights projects and regularly presents on PG marketing, recruitment and policy topics. Mark holds a PhD in Gothic Literature from the University of Sheffield and regularly attempts to convince his 7 year-old that ghosts are not actually real.
Jennifer Parsons
Jennifer Parsons is the Director of Partners, Projects and Insights for UniQuest. Her role means ensuring that she and her team use the wealth of data and insights collected within the UniQuest platform to create strategic, actionable insights that keep our partners at the forefront of student recruitment and engagement innovations. She has over 20 years’ experience in higher education which has included roles as Director of Internationalisation, Director of Student Recruitment, Chair of the London Universities International Partnerships which brought together 12 universities from across London to work collaboratively to increase recruitment to the city.
Rich Webb
LJ Gould
LJ is the Director of Marketing at Manchester Metropolitan University. With over 20 years marketing leadership experience across HE, B2B and consumer markets, LJ has driven significant change in brand, campaigns, digital and user focussed content design, putting audience and user need at the heart of marketing strategies using data and insight to inform decisions. Evaluation and measurement are at the heart of LJ's "test and learn" ethos, helping to achieve business goals and inspire teams to be innovative, creative and achieve their best.
Tom Greveson
Tom founded Revolution Viewing (RV) in 2004, with a camera, a tripod and a couple of bags of enthusiasm. Tom and his team have grown the business, to become the leading provider of virtual experiences and visual content solutions in the HE sector. RV’s flagship product is Vepple, the personalised virtual experience platform that has proven to be a true game changer. Vepple is a student recruitment tool used by universities to deliver an engaging and highly immersive experience. It captures leads and drives open day registrations. Empowering people to make life-changing decisions is both the mission and passion of Tom and the team at RV.
Paul Harvey
Paul joined the University of Surrey as Director of Marketing, Recruitment & Admissions in June 2021 for his first foray into the world of Higher Education. Previously he worked in marketing and comms roles across a range of global FMCG brands, before an eight year spell with Merlin Entertainments that saw him rise to the role of Global Marketing Director for the LEGOLAND theme park business. Swapping plastic bricks for a job on campus has given him the chance to bring his commercial experience to Surrey to help build the team in a more data-led approach, with a focus on being customer/student-centric and introducing new digital platforms to help Surrey deliver its strategic ambition. Away from work he can be found on the hockey pitch or walking his two dogs, who make regular appearances in the background on Teams calls.
John McCarthy
John was appointed Director of Marketing & Student Recruitment in May 2015, and then Executive Director of Marketing & External Relations in June 2016. He is a higher education marketing specialist with over 20 years of responsibility at a senior level in both consumer and corporate marketing, marketing strategy, student recruitment, internationalisation, institutional development & fundraising and communications roles. He has worked in five universities during his career and has responsibility for the University’s brand, branding and marketing strategy, as well as its global student recruitment activities. John is a corporate strategist and uses his statistical background to provide insight and evidence based analysis and solutions to help address the complexities of market positioning and optimising the University’s enrolment goals. .
David Penney
Dave Penney has worked in higher education for over 15 years at four different universities and is now Director of Marketing at UCAS, where he leads on communications to inspire over a million students a year to take their next step with UCAS.
Emma Bridge
Emma Bridge has worked in Higher Education over 18 years and joined Springpod as Director of Higher Education in September 2022. In her role she works closely with universities to ensure they are able to achieve their student recruitment needs with a range of opportunities from both Springpod and her years of experience. She was previously the Director of Communications and Events at the University of Leicester and before that, Associate Director of Marketing and Communications at the University of Bradford.
Dan Barcroft
Dan Barcroft currently leads the Student Recruitment, Marketing and Admissions function at The University of Sheffield. Dan’s career in Higher Education spans 18 years, five institutions and a number of roles and portfolios covering the prospective student journey for both the UK and overseas markets. Across his career Dan has been most passionate about improving the prospective student visitor experience, along with empowering and developing people to achieve their full potential through honest, real and compassionate leadership. Outside of the sector Dan has been a trustee for an LGBT charity and continues to contribute to the charity’s regular events programme. Dan has also studied at Lancaster University (Undergraduate) and Durham University (Postgraduate), is an alum of Stonewall’s flagship leadership programme, has two cats (Toby and Jasmine) and is a massive Kylie fan!
Charlotte Renwick
Charlotte has worked in marketing and communications for over 20 years and spent the first eight years of her career in PR and digital agencies, handling clients such as the BBC, the NHS and FMCG brands. Charlotte moved into HE in 2009 at the University of Bradford, first to lead communications and fundraising, and later as Head of Marketing and Communications. She joined Leeds Beckett University in 2014 as Associate Director of Customer Marketing, and in her current role as Director she heads up admissions, global student marketing, market research, UK recruitment and access & widening participation.
Sarah-Jane Spooner
Sarah-Jane Spooner, is Education Cubed's Head of Product - responsible for the end to end delivery of our Professional Services products: market research, creative, video, training and consultancy. Sarah has nine years of marketing project management experience in the client and supplier sides of Higher Education and Further Education. Before joining Education Cubed, Sarah worked for the sector’s leading rich media agency, Revolution Viewing, where she led hundreds of video projects for over 60 UK universities working with students, professional service staff and academics. Sarah is a content expert who knows exactly what prospective students need from marketing and communications at all stages of the student recruitment cycle.
Caroline Bysh
Caroline Bysh is Vice Principal for External Relations and Student Experience at SRUC - Scotland's Rural College. She has worked in further and higher education marketing and recruitment for 22 years and has a unique blend of consultancy and agency-side experience alongside working at Director level since the age of 29. She is a plain-speaking Yorkshirewoman who wields a mean tambourine and has an obsession with skincare.
Sheetal Patole
Biog to follow.
Scott Melville
Biog to follow.
Georgia Masters
Georgia is an Account Director at Education Cubed, leading on the strategy, implementation and reporting of student recruitment campaigns for universities. Georgia is a key member of the Account Management team and is the lead for all Campaign Manager projects in the company. Georgia has worked in Higher Education for seven years, collaboratively working with over 35 institutions domestically and globally. Her experience ranges from working media side at The Student Room, as well as working within recruitment teams for the University of Sussex and Clifton College school in Bristol.
Jo Redfern
Jo is the founder of Education Cubed. She began her career at The Independent and spent 15 years at the newspaper. Jo worked up from the graduate scheme to joining the board as Sales Director. In 2009, Jo moved to UCAS where she joined the Executive and was responsible for running UCAS Media. Jo moved to be Commercial Director of The Student Room in 2014 before launching an agency in late 2016. Education Cubed is based in Brighton and has been built on Jo’s foundations of a deep understanding of the student and HE marketplace. Jo is a well-known figure on the HE marketing circuit, a frequent platform speaker and sector award judge. Jo is a governor for Brighton and Hove Sixth Form College as well as an award-winning business mentor.
Vicky Hayhurst is Education Cubed's Chief Strategy Officer - fully accountable for the strategy and end to end delivery of our Professional Services products: market research, creative, video, training and consultancy. Vicky is one of our lead consultants, a skilled facilitator and qualified workplace coach, with 22 years of marketing project management experience. Vicky has worked in the private and public sectors, including 18 years in both the client and supplier sides of Higher Education. Having worked with over 100 universities, Vicky is well known and trusted within the sector, with a passion for helping our clients to solve the problems that keep them awake at night.
Chris Rogers
Chris is Education Cubed's Chief Commercial Officer - he is key member of the senior team and Executive Board, contributing actively to the strategic and operational development of the business. He has over ten years' experience in HE marketing, successfully leading teams of marketing professionals for over seven years. Chris has substantial experience in delivering complex marketing projects across public sector, global non-profit professional bodies, and for-profit Education Institutions.
Vivienne Stern
Vivienne Stern took up the role of UUK Chief Executive in September 2022. She was previously the Director of Universities UK International (UUKi) which represents UK universities around the world and works to enable them to flourish internationally. Vivienne has over 20 years’ experience of working in higher education policy and politics at national and international level. Prior to her role in UUKi, Vivienne was Head of Political Affairs at Universities UK, and led the sector’s response to several major pieces of legislation relating to universities. Before that she worked for the Chair of the House of Commons Education Select Committee, and as policy specialist working on topics including quality, student experience, innovation and university-business links. Vivienne is a graduate of the University of Cambridge, where she studied English Literature.
Mark Bennett
Director (Audience & Editorial) at FindAUniversity, publishers of FindAMasters & FindAPhD, Mark is responsible for ensuring those websites and the information they contain are as useful as possible and for helping universities understand prospective postgraduates’ needs and intentions. As part of this he directs various research and insights projects and regularly presents on PG marketing, recruitment and policy topics. Mark holds a PhD in Gothic Literature from the University of Sheffield and regularly attempts to convince his 7 year-old that ghosts are not actually real.
Jennifer Parsons
Jennifer Parsons is the Director of Partners, Projects and Insights for UniQuest. Her role means ensuring that she and her team use the wealth of data and insights collected within the UniQuest platform to create strategic, actionable insights that keep our partners at the forefront of student recruitment and engagement innovations. She has over 20 years’ experience in higher education which has included roles as Director of Internationalisation, Director of Student Recruitment, Chair of the London Universities International Partnerships which brought together 12 universities from across London to work collaboratively to increase recruitment to the city.
Rich Webb
In tandem with studying Fine Art at Masters Level and holding exhibitions internationally, Rich started as a self-taught web developer, running his own software development business from the age of 29. In a professional capacity, Rich slowly worked through the ranks to run agile engineering teams in some of London's most exciting tech startups, before joining Education Cubed in March 2018, where he is Agency Director (Technical).
LJ is the Director of Marketing at Manchester Metropolitan University. With over 20 years marketing leadership experience across HE, B2B and consumer markets, LJ has driven significant change in brand, campaigns, digital and user focussed content design, putting audience and user need at the heart of marketing strategies using data and insight to inform decisions. Evaluation and measurement are at the heart of LJ's "test and learn" ethos, helping to achieve business goals and inspire teams to be innovative, creative and achieve their best.
Tom Greveson
Tom founded Revolution Viewing (RV) in 2004, with a camera, a tripod and a couple of bags of enthusiasm. Tom and his team have grown the business, to become the leading provider of virtual experiences and visual content solutions in the HE sector. RV’s flagship product is Vepple, the personalised virtual experience platform that has proven to be a true game changer. Vepple is a student recruitment tool used by universities to deliver an engaging and highly immersive experience. It captures leads and drives open day registrations. Empowering people to make life-changing decisions is both the mission and passion of Tom and the team at RV.
Paul Harvey
Paul joined the University of Surrey as Director of Marketing, Recruitment & Admissions in June 2021 for his first foray into the world of Higher Education. Previously he worked in marketing and comms roles across a range of global FMCG brands, before an eight year spell with Merlin Entertainments that saw him rise to the role of Global Marketing Director for the LEGOLAND theme park business. Swapping plastic bricks for a job on campus has given him the chance to bring his commercial experience to Surrey to help build the team in a more data-led approach, with a focus on being customer/student-centric and introducing new digital platforms to help Surrey deliver its strategic ambition. Away from work he can be found on the hockey pitch or walking his two dogs, who make regular appearances in the background on Teams calls.
John McCarthy
John was appointed Director of Marketing & Student Recruitment in May 2015, and then Executive Director of Marketing & External Relations in June 2016. He is a higher education marketing specialist with over 20 years of responsibility at a senior level in both consumer and corporate marketing, marketing strategy, student recruitment, internationalisation, institutional development & fundraising and communications roles. He has worked in five universities during his career and has responsibility for the University’s brand, branding and marketing strategy, as well as its global student recruitment activities. John is a corporate strategist and uses his statistical background to provide insight and evidence based analysis and solutions to help address the complexities of market positioning and optimising the University’s enrolment goals. .
David Penney
Dave Penney has worked in higher education for over 15 years at four different universities and is now Director of Marketing at UCAS, where he leads on communications to inspire over a million students a year to take their next step with UCAS.
Emma Bridge
Emma Bridge has worked in Higher Education over 18 years and joined Springpod as Director of Higher Education in September 2022. In her role she works closely with universities to ensure they are able to achieve their student recruitment needs with a range of opportunities from both Springpod and her years of experience. She was previously the Director of Communications and Events at the University of Leicester and before that, Associate Director of Marketing and Communications at the University of Bradford.
Dan Barcroft
Dan Barcroft currently leads the Student Recruitment, Marketing and Admissions function at The University of Sheffield. Dan’s career in Higher Education spans 18 years, five institutions and a number of roles and portfolios covering the prospective student journey for both the UK and overseas markets. Across his career Dan has been most passionate about improving the prospective student visitor experience, along with empowering and developing people to achieve their full potential through honest, real and compassionate leadership. Outside of the sector Dan has been a trustee for an LGBT charity and continues to contribute to the charity’s regular events programme. Dan has also studied at Lancaster University (Undergraduate) and Durham University (Postgraduate), is an alum of Stonewall’s flagship leadership programme, has two cats (Toby and Jasmine) and is a massive Kylie fan!
Charlotte Renwick
Charlotte has worked in marketing and communications for over 20 years and spent the first eight years of her career in PR and digital agencies, handling clients such as the BBC, the NHS and FMCG brands. Charlotte moved into HE in 2009 at the University of Bradford, first to lead communications and fundraising, and later as Head of Marketing and Communications. She joined Leeds Beckett University in 2014 as Associate Director of Customer Marketing, and in her current role as Director she heads up admissions, global student marketing, market research, UK recruitment and access & widening participation.
Sarah-Jane Spooner
Sarah-Jane Spooner, is Education Cubed's Head of Product - responsible for the end to end delivery of our Professional Services products: market research, creative, video, training and consultancy. Sarah has nine years of marketing project management experience in the client and supplier sides of Higher Education and Further Education. Before joining Education Cubed, Sarah worked for the sector’s leading rich media agency, Revolution Viewing, where she led hundreds of video projects for over 60 UK universities working with students, professional service staff and academics. Sarah is a content expert who knows exactly what prospective students need from marketing and communications at all stages of the student recruitment cycle.
Caroline Bysh
Caroline Bysh is Vice Principal for External Relations and Student Experience at SRUC - Scotland's Rural College. She has worked in further and higher education marketing and recruitment for 22 years and has a unique blend of consultancy and agency-side experience alongside working at Director level since the age of 29. She is a plain-speaking Yorkshirewoman who wields a mean tambourine and has an obsession with skincare.
Sheetal Patole
Biog to follow.
Scott Melville
Biog to follow.
Georgia Masters
Georgia is an Account Director at Education Cubed, leading on the strategy, implementation and reporting of student recruitment campaigns for universities. Georgia is a key member of the Account Management team and is the lead for all Campaign Manager projects in the company. Georgia has worked in Higher Education for seven years, collaboratively working with over 35 institutions domestically and globally. Her experience ranges from working media side at The Student Room, as well as working within recruitment teams for the University of Sussex and Clifton College school in Bristol.
Jo Redfern
Jo is the founder of Education Cubed. She began her career at The Independent and spent 15 years at the newspaper. Jo worked up from the graduate scheme to joining the board as Sales Director. In 2009, Jo moved to UCAS where she joined the Executive and was responsible for running UCAS Media. Jo moved to be Commercial Director of The Student Room in 2014 before launching an agency in late 2016. Education Cubed is based in Brighton and has been built on Jo’s foundations of a deep understanding of the student and HE marketplace. Jo is a well-known figure on the HE marketing circuit, a frequent platform speaker and sector award judge. Jo is a governor for Brighton and Hove Sixth Form College as well as an award-winning business mentor.
Tickets & Accommodation
The conference is relevant to all those working within Undergraduate, Postgraduate and International Student Recruitment, Communications and Marketing.
The ticket price for the full two day conference is £490 exc VAT per delegate, discounted to £450 per delegate if you buy more than one ticket for your university.
Please note the above prices include lunch on both days and an evening meal on day one but does not include the cost of accommodation. There are a number of hotels at Salford Quays, within walking distance of the conference venue, The Lowry:
- Holiday Inn Manchester - Media City
- Holiday Inn Express Manchester - Salford Quays
- AC Hotel by Marriott Manchester Salford Quays
- Hotel Ibis Budget Manchester Salford Quays
Any other questions? Our FAQ page covers everything you need to know about the conference, including the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.
The ticket price for the full two day conference is £490 exc VAT per delegate, discounted to £450 per delegate if you buy more than one ticket for your university.
Please note the above prices include lunch on both days and an evening meal on day one but does not include the cost of accommodation. There are a number of hotels at Salford Quays, within walking distance of the conference venue, The Lowry:
- Holiday Inn Manchester - Media City
- Holiday Inn Express Manchester - Salford Quays
- AC Hotel by Marriott Manchester Salford Quays
- Hotel Ibis Budget Manchester Salford Quays
Any other questions? Our FAQ page covers everything you need to know about the conference, including the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.
We hope you can join us