IWMW 2015: A Recap

The 19th in the annual Institutional Web Management Workshop series, IWMW 2015, will take place at Edge Hill University on 27-29 July.

The event is aimed at members of Institutional web management teams, who have responsibilities for managing large-scale institutional web services.

At last year’s event, IWMW 2014, there was a recognition that the term ‘web’ sounds somewhat dated, with institutions now focusing on their ‘digital’ strategies and having digital teams to implement such strategies.

This year’s event has the theme “Beyond Digital: Transforming the Institution” which reflects the changing environment, and how moves towards embedding digital approaches are likely to require changes in established institutional practices.

The event consists of three days of Plenary Talks, half day master classes and shorted workshop sessions.

The Plenary talks are grouped into a number of themes:

• Putting The Web Manager First: The opening session provides an opportunity to hear from two institutions about how institutional web and digital teams are responding to the challenges we are all facing.
• Supporting Our Users: Two plenary talks will explore how institutions are responding to their customer needs in the context of new operating realities and the importance of providing outstanding user experience as a key differentiator for an increasingly demanding student environment.
• Managing the Content; Developing the Services: Two plenary talks will explore approaches to managing content and developing services.
• Beyond the Institution: In light of the importance of use of third party services for supporting institutional services there will be three talks from organisations who can support institutional activities: Jisc, LinkedIn and PwC.
• What Does The Future Hold?: The IWMW 2015 event will conclude with a panel session which will address the topic “What does the future hold?“

IWMW 2015: the Final Day

Although the master classes, which were described in a previous post, are the most significant change to the format of this year’s event, it is the final day which, to me, marks a transition from previous years. A last year’s event, for example, the final morning provided institutional case studies in which web managers described their approaches to addressing mainstream web challenges, with the event closing with a panel session in which four Experienced Web Managers spoke on the topic “What is our vision for the institutional web and can we implement that vision?”

This year’s final day, however, finishes with a session entitled “Beyond the Institution“, with three speakers who work for organisations which are not directly part of the higher educational sector: Jisc’s “Cloud first/ mobile first” platform, the role of LinkedIn for higher education and how universities can leverage LinkedIn to engage future, current and past students and perspectives on the ‘Agile University’.

The final plenary talk at the event,  Beyond Digital – The Agile University will be given by Niall Lavery and Dan Babington, PwC. As can be seen from the abstract for the session this talk will be looking at approaches which go beyond making improvements and enhancements to our web services:

Leading Universities are looking beyond the short-term impact of an improved web or open-day experience, towards the delivery of simpler, faster, personalised interactions throughout the entire institution.

PwC provide insights into the workings of the world’s most innovative universities and describe the future-proof architectures that build an amazing educational experience on the three pillars of simplification, personalisation and value-focus. This session will start with the approach and mind-set required to become an Agile University, discussing how it can help balance the books within a year, and show examples of how you can transcend your competition to become a Category of One.

However since the majority of the delegates work for higher educational institutions we will ensure there is time for questions at the end of each of these plenary talks. In addition in a final panel session a number of experienced web managers will respond to the ideas given by the plenary speakers in this session and other ideas, proposals and suggestions which have emerged over the three days.

Still Opportunities to Book Your Place!

Although the official closing date for bookings has passed we have been informed that university finance departments will need additional time to process bookings. We will therefore keep the bookings open for a while longer.

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