OpenApply at the Enrollment Management Association 2018 Conference

On September 12-15, OpenApply was delighted to be a part of the Enrollment Management Association’s 2018 annual conference in San Diego. The growing cohort of international school admission leaders made this event a fantastic experience for all involved.

On Wednesday, OpenApply sponsored a pre-conference workshop for all the international schools in attendance. We were able to have four top experts in the field join us during this pre-conference to share best practices and innovative insights within the field of admissions.

MacKenzie Hovermale

MacKenzie is the Director of OpenApply and presented on The Future of International School Admissions. This thought-provoking session challenged participants to imagine the state of our industry ten years from now. Drawing on Faria Education Group’s experience working with over 10,000 schools in 130 countries, MacKenzie shared a few predictions of where school admissions might find itself in the future based on known trends like increasing demands for an international education, the relentless pace of globalization and the critical challenges of data safety and security.

Mark Orchison

Mark is the Managing Director at 9ine Consulting, independent technology specialists in education providing strategic, operational, project management, technical and digital coaching consultancy services to schools. Mark focused on the popular topic of GDPR and data security, typical issues schools may face when ensuring their data security and helpful tips on how to better manage your school’s data.

Dr. David Willows

Dr. David Willows is Director of Advancement at the International School of Brussels, Belgium. David presented on Telling the story of my school: The most important idea I ever had.  Sometimes an idea ends up influencing an entire career. In this interactive workshop, David pulled together some of the highlights of this journey and discussed why storytelling is so important in our lives, including for the jobs we do. His goal for his presentation was to make sure all attendees left with a box of principles to get them thinking about admissions as never before.

Matthias Krusch

Matthias Krusch from International School Stuttgart presented on The International School Challenge – how to differentiate in admissions. In this session, he focused on the admissions process and enrolment data from ISS – a fairly typical international school (IB World School) with a very mixed student population, about 75% international and 25% host country. By looking at the student numbers and the enrolment data some of the specific challenges of international school admissions were highlighted. Matthias focused on the challenge of ongoing enrolment all through the year and how to bring in students and families mid-year. He also discussed the different approaches in how to market the school internationally and locally.

OpenApply looks forward to continuing to collaborate with The Enrollment Management Association in an effort to fulfill our mission of increasing professional development, networking, and spreading best practices for the international admissions community.