13:00 – 13:25 | Attending an ICEF event: A guide for agents, educators and service providers
🎤 Speakers
Stephanie Zimmermann - Director Agent Development, ICEF
Brittany Goodman - Associate Director USA, ICEF
📝 Description
This session will provide you with a step-by-step guide on how to make the most out of your participation at ICEF events in general and ICEF San Diego in particular.
The session will cover the following topics:
- Preparation prior to the event
- How to maximise your time during the event
- Post-event follow-up and agent contracts
- How to maximise the working relationship between agents and providers
13:30 – 14:25 | Promoting the USA as a study destination: How agencies make the difference
🎤 Speakers
Cheryl Delk-Le Good - Executive Director, EnglishUSA
Amy Ryan - Senior International Trade Specialist, U.S. Department of Commerce
Dr. Daniel Lincoln - Associate Provost for Strategy & Planning, The State University of New York
Sara Sato - Assistant VP, Enrollment Management, Hawai‘i Pacific University
Moderator: Martijn van de Veen - VP, Business Development, ICEF
📝 Description
The promotion of any study destination requires all relevant stakeholders to be involved: destination marketing organisations, education institutions, local and regional governments, tourism bodies, industry associations, and travel providers. Cooperation between these stakeholders is crucial, yet can be complex.
In this session where we focus on the promotion of the USA as a study destination, we will discuss
- the roles and responsibilities of the different stakeholders
- funding: who foots the bill?
- the value of international students for the destination’s economy
and especially:
- the crucial role that overseas student recruitment agencies play in the successful promotion of, in this case, the USA
14:30 – 15:15 | The Future of Homestay
🎤 Speakers
Adam Lee - CEO/Co-Founder, StudentRoomStay
Krista Hestehauge - Account Executive, StudentRoomStay
📝 Description
Will homestay ever fully bounce back from the pandemic? StudentRoomStay’s Adam Lee & Krista Hestehauge will be discussing the impact of COVID-19 on international homestay and the various, ever-changing shifts in perception that continue to affect companies, students and host families across the world.
Other homestay leaders from Canada and Australia will also share their biggest challenges from the past few years and the areas that provide the most hope.
Join us as we examine the role of modern technology in a traditional homestay industry and its cruciality in our quest to recover the pre-pandemic cultural connection we all crave.
15:20 – 16:10 | Tomorrow’s financial solutions for international students
🎤 Speakers
Maryam Moshiri - Executive Director, CIBC | Simplii
Kin Chung - Head of Credit, Zolve
Liz Nutting - Executive Relationship Manager, Discover
Moderator: Martijn van de Veen - VP Business Development, ICEF
📝 Description
New fintech solutions are making international education increasingly accessible, affordable and manageable.
Think of student loans where eligibility is now determined by AI powered assessments or that require an ‘income share agreement’ (ISA) rather than a co-signer. In parallel, initiatives that lead to substantial cost reductions include digital banking services, personalised and automated budget management tools and Fintech-powered international payment solutions.
In this session, we will lead a discussion where the panelists are invited to provide their insights on some of the latest, and upcoming, financial services and solutions for the international education industry in general and international students in particular.
16:15 – 17:00 | Using AIRC’s new standards for international enrollment management to advance institutional goals
🎤 Speakers
Dr. Brian Whalen - Executive Director, American International Recruitment Council (AIRC)
Beck Lamb - Associate Director of Onshore International Admissions, St. George's University
📝 Description
The American International Recruitment Council (AIRC) is recognized by the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission as the Standards Development Organization (SDO) for the international student enrollment and recruitment field. In fulfilment of this role, AIRC has spent the past year developing new International Enrollment Management (IEM) standards to help guide institutions as they develop and improve their IEM operations. This session will demonstrate through actual case studies, how the standards can be used by institutions to advance strategies and improve IEM operations. Areas of the standards include:
1. Mission and goals
2. Institutional effectiveness
3. Marketing and recruitment
4. Admissions and enrollment, and
5. Student wellbeing and services
These comprehensive standards provide guidance to institutions in serving the best interests of students, the institution, and its partners. The standards present a benchmarking tool for institutions of all types and sizes to understand IEM best practices and how to meet the requirements set out by the standards.
Link to the Standards.
By attending this session, attendees will:
- Be able to identify strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities for IEM by assessing their own institution's mission and goals; institutional effectiveness; marketing and recruitment; admissions and enrollment; and student wellbeing and services as part of the overall international enrollment process.
- Be able to define how to meet the standards through consideration of a series of related questions that assist institutions to conduct a self-assessment that will help institutions to improve their practices.
- Learn how the standards can be used as a tool for developing, implementing, assessing and improving international enrollment strategies to meet institutional goals.
- Learn how to use the standards to collaborate across the institution.
17:30 – 19:00 | Digital recruitment platforms: A valid alternative for your B2B relationships?
🎤 Speakers
Eddie West - Assistant Dean, International Strategy and Programs, San Diego State University
Dr. Gautham Kolluri - Founder/Managing Director, CIP Study Abroad
Sadiq Basha - CEO, Edvoy
Soni Khanna - Head, Brand and Global Engagement, UniSearch
Ben Waxman - CEO, Intead
Tony Lee - CVO, ICEF
Moderator: Martijn van de Veen - VP Business Development, ICEF
📝 Description
In this multi-panel discussion, we will take a closer look at the rapid rise of digital agent aggregator platforms and the position they are claiming in international student recruitment, from 4 different perspectives.
1. Recruitment professional perspective:
- How do recruitment professionals - educators and agents - look at the rise of aggregator platforms? What are their expectations, experiences, views and estimations?
2. Aggregator perspective:
Aggregator? Master-Agent? AI-powered agent platform? Digital recruitment provider? Tomáto, Tomàto?
In this section we will ask two prominent agent aggregators, who may even challenge this denomination, to provide their definitions and views on the role, position of their recruitment platforms in international education, now and in the future.
Questions may include, but are not limited to:
- What do they think about the term “agent aggregator”, do they identify as one?
- How do they operate, and which technologies are used?
- What is the current business model and is it subject to change in the future?
- How does their platform affect the role of the conventional recruitment agency?
- What is their role and responsibility vis-a-vis the end customer: the student and their family?
3. Marketing professionals perspective:
Interesting to understand are the views of industry professionals who are neither educators nor agents: the view of experienced marketeers on the position of agent aggregators in today’s and tomorrow’s international education industry.
4. Industry perspective:
Live Q&A with an audience of industry professionals