Transcription from the session

Travis Bondy [00:00:14]:
Welcome, welcome, everyone. We're gonna wait just a little bit longer to give some people some more time, but we're excited to see you dropping in. We're really excited to be diving into the idea of enhancing student conversations with personalization AI. But as more people come in, feel free to drop in the chat a bit about yourself, including your school or your role or where you're from. We'll have another opportunity to engage in the chat, but this is going to be an engagement encouraged session. We love to hear questions, thoughts, comments. So make sure your chat is set to send to everyone versus just the host so we can have an amazing conversation, but we're excited to have you all here. Perfect.

Travis Bondy [00:01:22]:
We have some more people rolling in. Thank you for who's sending chats already. We're excited to meet you. Alright. We've got some more people rolling in. So as you're jumping in, feel free to throw where you're from, your role, you know, in the chat. We'd love to keep on engaging with you guys, and we're gonna be encouraging as much engagement as possible through this whole session because AI and personalization is a fun conversation that there's gonna be a lot to unpack. And as much as you guys have thoughts, opinions, questions, please keep them coming because we're excited to be talking about this deep with y'all.

Travis Bondy [00:02:17]:
Alright. We'll give it one more minute, and then we'll jump into the conversation. Welcome, Irma, Jim, Rod, Scott, Chris, Jerrick, Will. Welcome, everyone. We're really excited to have you all with us. Glad you're loving the conference, Will. It has been really fantastic to get to bring so many people together. Alright.

Travis Bondy [00:02:53]:
Well, let's jump into it. We'll have people filing in as we go forward too. Welcome, Sherry, also. But this is the last day of our concept three d summit and the last session. All sessions have been recorded except for high and low tides. If you made it to them, thank you so much. But feel free to check out the recordings after two if you missed them or would like another chance to hear them. I'm gonna drop that link in the chat so then you guys can all go in there and watch some of those amazing recordings if you missed them, or again, check out this one later.

Travis Bondy [00:03:29]:
We created this summit under the theme of creating a connected campus to help your teams make the vision of a truly connected campus, reality through leadership, digital accessibility, and our conversation today of helping find mission fit students to make a more connected campus. It really revolves around how do we engage with students and show them kind of the why behind them being a great fit for your school so they can feel more connected in their college journey. Now this is something admissions teams and marketing teams like yourself are constantly trying to figure out how to do, and that's why we're diving into personalization and how AI is helping. Important note for anybody who needs more accessibility, there is an option to add closed captioning for the whole session. Just go down to your Zoom bar, hit more, and then closed captions. But this is the last one. It's been a great week, so let's dive into it. As Christopher and myself make introductions, please send to the chat where you're from and then how often you use AI.

Travis Bondy [00:04:35]:
I know some of you guys already sent to your locations and where you're from, but we'd love to hear how often you guys are using AI. My name is Travis Bondi, and I lead the partnerships for Flipped App. It's a product under Concept three d. My journey into higher education started when I ran the social media at my college for a couple years, but I've transitioned through some EdTech companies supporting thousands of students and hundreds of colleges in admissions, content, testing, and AI. Before joining Concept3D, I worked for a company which was the leading detector of AI in the world, and And so I'm excited to keep on learning alongside all of you about AI and personalization and helping enrollments and marketing teams in higher education. I say keep learning because AI is ever changing, ever evolving, and it is really exciting to have the opportunity to, enable some growth in higher education thanks to positive use of AI. So I'm gonna pass it over to Christopher.

Chris Jester [00:05:31]:
Thanks, Travis. Afternoon, everybody. Chris Jester, director of enrollment communications at Holy Family University, in Northeast Philly. I am based in Delaware. So, if you're familiar with our little tiny state, at all, I have been, in enrollment, almost twenty years. May ninth of this year will be my twentieth year. I don't keep that on my calendar at all, so don't worry about that. But, I started as admissions counselor.

Chris Jester [00:05:58]:
I worked through all of the different roles you can in in in enrollment management, all the way up through, an admissions director. I did that for a while, and then I was, working in international affairs for a year, after that. And, then this opportunity came up to do probably my favorite thing that I did, in in in my my time in enrollment, from counseling on is is talking to students and being engaged with them and and and and that that sort of thing. So, really excited to kinda talk about this, today, as it's as Travis said, it's a it's an evolving, world in this and and and ever changing, not just AI, but communications with students in general. So, really excited to to to jump in.

Travis Bondy [00:06:49]:
Thanks, Christopher. Yeah. We're really living in a world where if you're not using AI every day, you honestly might be falling behind. It started as a tool to help us sort information, you know, fast, efficient, helpful, but we're really moving into a new phase where AI is not just supporting your work, but actually doing parts of it for you. Writing, planning, analyzing, responding, freeing you up for the tasks that really need you, you know, that that human touch. And so the question really for me isn't anymore should I use AI? It's what's the smartest way to make AI work for me. I'm a really strong believer in not giving up the human in us, but really allowing AI to free more time up so we can spend more time doing those relational and more intentional actions. But let's, jump into our first question.

Travis Bondy [00:07:36]:
And, again, feel free to comment in the chat. We love to hear from all of you guys as much as possible. But the first question I'd love to hear from, and then we'll have Christopher share a little bit about, is what's the biggest challenge you face when engaging students? So jump into it, Christopher.

Chris Jester [00:07:51]:
In I mean, to not not to use a word that that was in the question, but getting them to engage. I think it's it's it has become more and more difficult to get students to to respond because they get so much. Right? I I, you know, I I I I remember after I took the PSAT the first time back in in '19 and then the first time I started getting brochures from schools. Right? And we used to get that stuff in the mail all the time and and and, you know, and and being able to to, kinda sift through all that stuff. But that's you know, your your mailbox gets full and you'd say you throw this stuff away. Now it's all digital. Right? So we're we're we're getting it via email. We're getting it via social media on the ad side.

Chris Jester [00:08:38]:
We're getting it via all the different vendors that do different stuff and and and those kinds of things. So, getting through the noise of that, has is is is tough because you have to say you have to you have to to to look different. You can't have the same kind of standard email stuff that you send out. You can't have the same kind of social media strategy that everybody else does. And and so you always have to be very agile, in order to to to do that. And we know that sometimes higher ed is glacial when it comes to stuff like that. So, so that's been kind of our our biggest challenge is is is finding the right spot, to to engage students beyond the normal the normal stuff.

Travis Bondy [00:09:19]:
Yeah. No. Absolutely. And we got some more chats in there too talking about not inserting your perspective or, you know, cutting through the noise, making sure the message is the correct one for the correct student. And and the

Chris Jester [00:09:30]:
and the perspective thing is is is really interesting, Rebecca. Thank you. The, you know, it's it's because we think we know what students want. Right? Because because we know how this works. And so, well, I'm gonna make sure you tell you about this, make sure they tell you about that, make sure they tell you about that. Well, you know, that's our idea of what students wanna know. I think that that that students, you know, students wanna know what they wanna know, not what we tell them, if that makes sense.

Travis Bondy [00:09:59]:
Yeah. Absolutely. And that's a that's a big piece of it, and that's that's a lot of what we're gonna be talking about today. But I'm gonna jump to the next slide. So I've been hearing a lot of the same things from so many schools in my conversations that I've been having had a chance to talk with. A lot of enrollment schools across the country and we're just hearing the same thing across the board, you know, the enrollment cliff is really meaning less students and more schools going for the same students. You know, you think of struggling outreach and engagement, students are overwhelmed by distractions. Social media, AI, emails, texts, friends, sports, school, and in between all these thousands of distractions, you know, your team's outreach might not be hitting the same.

Travis Bondy [00:10:37]:
And then you think of limited admissions bandwidth, you do not have the time. Like, so many admissions teams, like, I hear it. There's piece by piece. It's like, we're now in, you know, we're leading we're reading applications. And this time, we're really trying to get outreach to students, and we're traveling. You know? You don't have the time to give the same attention to every student while keeping up with those who might be the most likely to attend your school. But you need to keep building new relationships, but there's just not enough time. But then on top of that, there's still the pressure to hit enrollment targets.

Travis Bondy [00:11:06]:
I always joke with schools, when you hit your highest year ever of enrollment, the goal still goes up next year. There's always a need for the next class. And when the retention is an issue, fewer resources happening, it's a hard to keep up year over year. I was just talking to a school the other day, and they're like, we've had the last four years have been our best four years we've had in a while. Our school is growing, but they're like, our budgets have still been cut. You know, we we honestly have lost resources, and I thought I'd have it freed up for, you know, fun spending and doing some cool things. But we literally they're saying to us, you need to cut your costs even though we're doing great things. But, Christopher, anything to add to this too?

Chris Jester [00:11:44]:
No. I mean, I think, I'm just I'm just thinking about this, before we before we came on just to something that that that, again, I remember doing from from before. You know, it's it's it used to be that travel was enough. Right? Or it used to be that going to college fairs or was was enough or it used to be that that that building relationships with school counselors was enough because then you had an ally in the building that you could use, and connect with and and and and and and all that. None of that is enough now. And, again, you have to be agile, and that's that's tough for people because of how often things work. We used to, you know, we used to go on the road for three months in the fall, and they go on the road three month you know, two or three months in the spring, mail out information package to school counseling offices. Right? And then go to the school counseling offices and meet with counselors.

Chris Jester [00:12:31]:
They don't have time either to be able to do to to be able to sit down and really build a relationship the same way. So it's it's connection, meaningful connection is is probably the biggest challenge, because it's it's it's just it's just difficult to do because everybody's trying to do it at the same time. Right?

Travis Bondy [00:12:50]:
Exactly. So Exactly. And Jim's comment of everyone has different needs, communication needs to be relevant to that particular student really leads us into our next question of what are the ways you've seen students change over the years today? Christopher, of course, you have an amazing years of experience. Some so you've seen some amazing shifts, especially, you know, in recent years with COVID and all this. I don't wanna steal your thunder too much, but what are some

Chris Jester [00:13:14]:
How much.

Travis Bondy [00:13:15]:
You've seen students change over the years to today?

Chris Jester [00:13:18]:
I mean, funny, I studied this for my master's. Right? Like, my my my master's degree my master's in education, my thesis was, what our faculty and staff, professional staff and and, professional faculty, academic faculty, have had to do over the last and this was a couple three years ago now, but, over the last ten years with regards to how they've had to change working with students. And and and a lot of it was things we've talked about with regards to they're seeking real connection. They want to dig deeper than than than than what they have. But COVID did a lot of disruption. You know? We we we, you know, we spent, what, two years behind screens mostly. The the the I've I've had conversations with with, with student affairs, my my my friends in in in student in in student affairs, about how they had to reignite student life on campus because students had had two years where they didn't know. You know, we we had we had our our you know, you have your you have your juniors and seniors, which, you know, they took part in it when they be for for first year and second year students.

Chris Jester [00:14:28]:
But now as third and fourth year students, they're busy doing academic things, internships, and and grad school stuff, and all that kind of stuff. So they are less likely to be involved in campus life because they're busy. So then you had to train your first year students and your second year students on how student life works. So Yeah. You know, for for for, you know, us as far as being able to, change how we work with students, again, like I said, you can't just go to college fairs and visit high schools anymore. Right? You can't expect school counselors to have the bandwidth. We've used that word before. Bandwidth to be able to build a connection, that you can that you can can go back to.

Chris Jester [00:15:03]:
You know, I I have, you know, several, you know, school counselors, here in Delaware that I've worked with for for for for many years, and we still connect, but it's it's hard to spend the time like we used to be able to do. So you have to to to look outwardly. You have to to to to look at, you know, at at different places. At at Holy Family, we we work with several different, engagement platforms to be able to to to connect. We have, a couple that we work with that are, I don't wanna say standard email programs, but, you know, they allow us to to do searches with students based on really specific criteria. You know, I'm looking for students that play this sport from this state that have this major. You know, I'm able able to really do that, and then I can send them information that they can review. That's been helpful with regards to some kind of the kind of the outward outbound stuff that we work with.

Chris Jester [00:15:56]:
But we're working, with FlippedApp has been really helpful for us. It's a platform that that concept three d approaches with. It's been a very not not to pitch, but it's been a very good, conversation, app. We've really been able to to to to kinda go back and forth with students. One thing that that that that, you know, I think that we run into sometimes, with students is they are not always sure what they wanna tell us. Right? They're really interested in in you know, I wanna tell you about my academics. I wanna tell you maybe about a sport I play, but, you know, I don't really wanna I don't wanna volunteer, you know, anything out, you know, interest in things that I might have or or what what have you. The Flipdap platform gives them a list, and then I can look at that list and go, tell me about why you like Key Club.

Chris Jester [00:16:54]:
Tell me about you're in Color Guard. Tell me about what that is because I was in band, and so I just you know, that that sort of thing. So giving them opportunities to to to talk about things other than the standard college stuff, if that makes sense, has been has been, really, really beneficial for us, because then they feel heard. You know, students Yeah. Students wanna feel heard. And and again, I hate to keep going back to COVID, but we're still within that generation. They're still they're still in school. Right? They haven't graduated out.

Chris Jester [00:17:25]:
So they weren't able to maybe express themselves in the way that they wanted to for the first couple years. And so now they wanna talk about it, and and I something I said to somebody else is if they write it down somewhere and let you see it, they wanna talk about it. Yeah. They they they they they want you to ask them. Like, it's it's it's because it gets they're guarded. Right? Because they don't wanna you know, because, again, they're getting inundated and overwhelmed, so they don't wanna volunteer everything. But if they're gonna tell you that they like art, then talk to them about the art. Talk to them about you're you're into graphic design? Great.

Chris Jester [00:17:59]:
What do you make? You like gaming? What do you play? You know? That that sort of thing has been has been really beneficial for us,

Travis Bondy [00:18:07]:
in

Chris Jester [00:18:08]:
in that anyway too. Because it kinda breaks down a barrier, makes you makes it a little more relaxed, because it can be stressful to talk to a college rep. Right? Right? So if you can if you can give them an opportunity to go, alright. I'm not they're they're not gonna ask me their grades. They wanna know why I like Halo. Cool.

Travis Bondy [00:18:23]:
Yeah. About that. I love that. I love that. It's really about connecting students in in that kinda way and Mhmm. Just learning more and and being willing to not always just pitch your school, you know, just just have the real conversations. That's what students are craving nowadays, especially.

Chris Jester [00:18:37]:
Well, it's it's like when they go to when they go to college visits, you know, and and any of my other, you know, folks folks on here that that that, you know, meet with students on campus. We know that part of the visit when they come to campus, yeah, I wanna talk about academics. Yeah. I wanna talk about, you know, financially, that kind of thing. Is this place cool? Like, are these people relatable? Right? So if you can do that earlier up front through a through a a a a a relaxed, you know, no pressure, just sort of conversation, then that can kinda break down some barriers and build some bridges for you to be able to to move on to other

Travis Bondy [00:19:14]:
things. Exactly. Exactly. That leads us to the next idea, because we interviewed actually 500 high schools, juniors, and seniors, you know, who are gonna be attending college after high school. And I just wanna read off some of my favorite statistics. Some 85% are more likely to engage if they get personalized messages. 90% say recommendations help simplify decision making. 79% would consider a new college if they got a personalized message.

Travis Bondy [00:19:40]:
And 89% want an easier way to match interests with colleges. You know, their results are overwhelming. Like, students want everything to be personalized to them. Their interests, their values, their academic wants and needs. I mean, you think of social media feeds, There's an algorithm that takes every single action that a student has ever taken on that platform and presents them with the most personalized feed to them to keep them on there longer. You know, students are expecting something like this in their admissions journey because this is what they've experienced everywhere else. You know, you go shopping somewhere and then on social media, you get a directed ad. You know, it's just kinda the same thing where it's like, oh, you know I like pants? Let's let's make sure you you get pants on my screen.

Travis Bondy [00:20:20]:
Like, it might be kind of Sure. Annoying, but, like, it's one of those things where students are expecting this. And this is, like, the big focus of, you know, what the session is breaking down, exactly what you've been talking about. Students are expecting nowadays a really relational, a really personalized, and a really direct way of being like, this is what I want, and I want you to know this is what I want. But, you know, anything to add to that, Christopher?

Chris Jester [00:20:43]:
No. I mean, I think you you've you've you've you've you've you've said a lot. One thing that that I think speaks to this sort of person you know, personalizing those is those kinds of things is that and I and I I I fuss at my my school counselor friends about this, is that so often when you have conversations with students and I've I've had a couple conversations with students this week in this regard that the college search is scary and that we're and that we are we are we are out to to to find the things wrong. No. You know? So that that's why doing the personalized messaging and and and really taking an interest in in in in things beyond kinda what they think we wanna know, can break that can can can break that barrier down. So often, for so many years, higher ed was about creating barriers for students and parents even to climb over so that they earn their way in. That's not how you do it. You gotta build bridges to get people across and and personalization is a gigantic bridge, to to, I think, to to to remove the fear.

Chris Jester [00:21:52]:
And hate they don't use that word fear. It's strong, but it's it's it's one of those things that that can can really hinder a student from from exploring options because, oh, I don't college is scary. Well, sure. But let's have a conversation. Right? So you know?

Travis Bondy [00:22:05]:
Exactly. Yeah. That's a good point of it too, which our next question again and everyone, send this in the chat. We'd love to hear what you guys are all doing for student engagement strategies. This is a good opportunity for you to share what's been going well for your school, what should you recommend other schools, like, we'd love to hear from you guys. So but what are some student engagement strategies, Christopher, that your school has been doing recently to stand out?

Chris Jester [00:22:28]:
I mean, I I I I mentioned, FlippedApp just a second ago. So, literally, right before I I I got on the and I saw start there, but we have other things, obviously, that we that we do. But, you know, one thing I I I I jumped on to our platform just to kinda check a couple things, and I've been having a conversation with a student. He'd expressed interest in in in going to in in going to law school. So, you know, and and and and so, you know, I I I mentioned, you know, what kind of law do you wanna do that? We we had a whole conversation about what led him to law school, but we never talked about our criminal justice major. We never talked about we we we talked about why you wanted to do that, and and if you're an athlete, does that play into it at all and and and and those kinds of things. So, you know, the Flip app Flip app has been really good for us there. We also use, a couple other platforms, that again allow us to do really granular searches for for, you know, prospective students.

Chris Jester [00:23:30]:
But also with an earned CRM, we're doing a lot of of of really granular work with regards to, interests. One thing that we are, rolling out, starting, you know, we started doing it earlier in the month and we're gonna continue to roll it out. We do a lot of student profiles. Yeah. A lot of storytelling. I I've I've I'm always a big believer that the stories of your students do a whole lot more than the stats you can provide. Right? Like, oh, we have we have psych. Well, let me tell you what a psych student did.

Chris Jester [00:24:02]:
Right? Like, we have education. Let me let me let a student who got hired at her student teaching job two weeks into her student teaching job, Let me let you tell let me let her tell you her story about how to do it. So, you know, so often people again are are a little intimidated and then they and then they hear a story from somebody and go, well, they came from my neighborhood or they came from a similar area to me, or they look like me, or they whatever. Right? So, you know, it's it's it's again, it's another bridge is is, you know, just being as personalized as you can, but providing as many stories as you possibly can to be able to do that. So, and so it's it's it's important, I think, that you that you go beyond just the normal, well, we have this major, and here are some of the internships we've done. Well, tell a story about a student in that major and what that internship was. Right? Yes. Why it's important, you know, and and and or or what they're, you know, what fun things that that that that that they do, you know, beyond beyond that.

Chris Jester [00:25:02]:
Like, okay. You you this is your major, and this is this is what you did, but what was your most fun memory here? Yeah. Tell me about it. So it's you know, we we we've been really turning it outward and saying Yeah. You know, it's it's it's let's talk about our our our outcomes. Let's talk about who our students are. It's another one of those those those college visit things. Like, you've seen somebody and what their story is now.

Chris Jester [00:25:26]:
Does that help? Is that is it you know? So so that that that that works really well. I love the video thing. Well, I think it's great. You know, it's it's it's it's an opportunity to, again, provide a different perspective. Right? Because now you're you you've seen students and students talk about how great things are. Well, let's put a fact let's let a faculty member tell that story too because that's who's going to be, that's who's going to be the, you know, in front of those students for for four years. Right? So is there an approachability there that you wanna provide as well too? Yeah. So that you can you can see that.

Travis Bondy [00:26:00]:
Yeah. I love that. And I also love, well, the idea of the admissions q and a with having faculty there too. My wife is a professor, and it's one of those things whenever she has an opportunity to talk with prospective students, I just it makes me so excited because she actually attended the school that she's now teaching at, and so she has such a unique perspective. And if if you have an ability to get your faculty in conversations and add a couple students in the conversation too, like, that is so unpackful. So they can kinda see both sides of it. Because that's, like, one of the hardest parts in so many schools is, like, faculty just seem like, oh, I can't have conversations with them. I can't really talk with them.

Travis Bondy [00:26:33]:
And if you can really show it that faculty are ready to engage, because they're busy too just like admissions team members and everyone else, but if they're willing to engage in those conversations, I think that's super beneficial. But then the videos too, you think of how almost all content that students are consuming nowadays on, you know, TikTok, Instagram Reels, all these different areas are video related. So if you can get video in there, it breaks down a barrier a lot even more than sending a text, even more than just, you know, sending a voice chat. Like, if you can they can see your face, they can see your real human being. Mean, again, and that's where where we're talking about a little about AI. But again, we we care about the human aspect of it. You wanna still see that too. Perfect.

Travis Bondy [00:27:15]:
Alright. So this is more maybe a rhetorical question. But feel free to drop in the chat and just think about the last time you reach out to a prospective student. If you remove their name from the email, would they still know that it was written just for them? Why or why not? Just be thinking about that as you look at this. So the question for you is which one of these is better? I'll give you a a minute or two to read this, but answer number one or number two in the chat. Which one do you think is better? Thank you, Rod. Thank you. So this honestly is a trick question.

Travis Bondy [00:28:07]:
Obviously, number two is better if there is a student who loves writing and psychology, but make sure, first off, you don't send this message to a student who doesn't write writing psychology. But how can you really be this personalized without that level of data? And that's the hard part that so many admissions teams are trying to overcome is, you know, I would love to really relate about them and talk about how they love stories and all these pieces. But personalization is hard. It's time intensive and requires a lot of data on students. And so you can't send a personalized message unless you know that personal date details. An important note, I always like to say people, hello, first name is not personalized. I do this all the time I'm sending emails to people and I think while I put their first name they must know that it's being personalized. You know that's that's not the truth.

Travis Bondy [00:28:51]:
Anybody can insert hello first name nowadays but I would definitely if you have the ability to number two I think it's gonna be a lot better. Christopher, you know, you you've had a lot of experience of being able to relate with students in that way. And that leads to this question. What are some recommendations for being personalizing your student engagement? It's a hard hard thing, but

Chris Jester [00:29:11]:
Use the data you have and gather as much of it as you can. Yeah. You know, it's it's difficult sometimes depending upon where you get the information to be able to get kind of stuff. Right? Like, if if if you're you know, name buys are gigantic. Right? So it's hard to to sort of to sort of do that. So so, you know, so however you get that, you know, use all of that. You know, if you're if you're I I I love this list. You know, I I I mentioned before having a conversation with a student, and I had a I had a whole list of things in front of me, that weren't academics.

Chris Jester [00:29:51]:
So I was like, alright. So rather than ask what you wanna major in because I know it because you've given that to me already, and talking about that in a very general sense, I'll say something like, look. I wanna I wanna dig into psych. I do because I wanna I wanna talk about that. But tell me about tennis. Talk to me about that kind of thing. Right? And and, you know, it's it's been it it it it it it's been helpful because they go, oh, you just you you you wanna have a conversation. You just don't wanna give things to me and hope that I take it and come back to you.

Chris Jester [00:30:23]:
And and it took a minute to figure that out, right, when you're when you're working on a couple different things, and and and you learn that through conversation and that sort of stuff. But but, you know, so often it when when when you speak to a student or when you're talking to a student, just even just randomly and and if if you're at an event, not even a admissions event or anything, you're just out somewhere. And so as I'm looking at colleges, the first question is, what do you wanna study? Okay. Cool. We'll figure it out. But what what else you know, you're involved in this sport or you're involved in this club or what have you. Tell me about that. Because again, you've you've told me about it out here, so you obviously want me to ask you.

Chris Jester [00:30:56]:
So it's it's it's good to be able to do that.

Travis Bondy [00:30:59]:
Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's a good piece. And it's really about the real questions. And I I keep on seeing this in a lot of the the outreach we've talked about on how you're asking those real questions. Because if you don't have that data, if you don't have that information, the only way you're gonna get more information, again, what they're wanting to talk about is asking those real questions, you know, being conversational. But, you know, it's it's slowing down is key, because that's that's a hard part. And again, this is where we'll talk a little bit about deeper about AI, but, like, you need to slow down and be personalized.

Travis Bondy [00:31:27]:
Yeah. I can try and create a message in two two minutes. That's gonna be really good for a student, but I might miss a couple pieces. And so it does take that that time of it.

Chris Jester [00:31:35]:
Yep.

Travis Bondy [00:31:38]:
Perfect. Alright. This is, exciting question for me. What are some concern or hesitations you have about incorporating AI or automation into your outreach? Because there there might be a lot of concerns about it because AI is a big scary thing if you think about it. You know, hopefully, we're not gonna get to the the part where AI takes over the world in the scary movies, but it's one of those things where there there's a lot of fears that people are having. But, Christopher, what's some concerns you had early on with, AI and automation?

Chris Jester [00:32:08]:
That the data we were getting was right, essentially, is is is what that is. And that's and and right in the sense of of, you know, that it was providing you with the information that that that you needed if you were if you were using it for for one thing or another. You know, and and and that's we know that that that these AIs are are, you know, learn language models. Right? So it it it they're not gonna be perfect immediately. So you have to work with them in order to get them to to to to, let's say, do what you want them to do. But do what you want them to do. Right? And and and, you know, just have that trust that that that what you're getting from them is is is accurate, and it's it's a machine like anything else. So it's it's it's making sure that that that was my biggest concern at at start.

Chris Jester [00:32:53]:
You know, it didn't last very long as a concern because you you you teach it what you wanted to do, and then you're able to work through it. Right? But it's it's you just have to take, you know, again, slowing down for personalization, slowing down for the AI stuff. Don't think you're gonna push one button and you're gonna give you all everything that you want because it's not gonna work that way. Yeah. To be patient to to to get it to to to where, you know, you honestly, you wanted to go, but where you wanted to go.

Travis Bondy [00:33:19]:
Yeah. Yeah. And that's a big piece of it. And there's really, like, three takeaways for, you know, in in the idea of AI and personalization is, you know, first off, leveraging AI does not always equal being data driven. You know, AI is nothing with data. And you'll hear me talk about this because I'm a huge data nerd. But, you know, collecting student data is just the first step. AI only adds value when it, transforms that data into meaningful, actionable engagement.

Travis Bondy [00:33:43]:
So that's that's a big piece. We need a data to fuel AI and vice versa. When you think of it, a list of student interests is just data, but, you know, AI can help admissions teams to automate outreach based on those interests in a personalized way. And that's that's how we can kind of get into that AI plus personalization helping your team, because an important thing for me too is that AI enhances, not replaces human connection. AI streamlines outreach. We can help it by automating, you know, repetitive tasks, but really meaningful relationships to me still require human touch. AI can suggest conversation starters based on students' interests, but admissions teams are the ones who are really building that trust and engagement through those personal responses. And I think that's a big piece of it and what is so exciting to me with AI, because it kind of help admissions teams to focus on the right students at the right time.

Travis Bondy [00:34:33]:
You know, AI doesn't just have to be about sending more messages, it makes our outreach smarter by prioritizing students who are more engaged. Instead of sending five follow ups to a student who never replies hopefully AI can help us to identify the students who show real interest and ensure they get more meaningful engagement at the right time so then Christopher you can spend that time of actually making those good conversations and having that. I want you to at least the next question of kind of where do you see the biggest opportunity for AI and automation to free up your team's time?

Chris Jester [00:35:04]:
Exactly what you said. Being able to to to let AI do some of the the front end work, so that so that, you know, we can engage, on a more personal level. One thing that that example I've used before isn't admission specific, but it's enrollment specific is the financial aid process. Right? Is is, you know, being able to provide, you know, families with, as much financial aid information as we can doing the math for them on their offer or whatever it is. Right? So that when they walk in the door to financial aid or jump on a meeting with them or call them or what have you, they've already got all that done. So the financial aid can say, alright. Let's talk about what you really want. I don't need to have to go through all here are the opportunities yet because you've gotten that already.

Chris Jester [00:35:55]:
So so the counselor can sit with the person and talk specifically about their thing rather than having to spend ten or fifteen minutes going over big broad general strokes for emails. So, you know, the the one thing that that I I I have found beneficial about AI is is I mean, I'm a writer. Right? So being able to to sort of, you know, do some do some prewriting in there and Yeah. And do some fine tuning of some stuff as I work through it. Because there are times where you write something, you guys, that doesn't make as much sense as I thought it did when I said it. So you you you can you can go to your AI and say, does this make sense? Right? And and and, you know, sometimes it'll say, no. It doesn't make sense to me. Figure this out.

Chris Jester [00:36:36]:
Sometimes it say, here's here's what you were trying was this what you were trying to say? This might be a better way to sort of phrase that or or or portray that. So, you know, but that that saves you know, it can save me, you know, ten, fifteen minutes every hour on something like that. Right? Because I'm not I'm not sitting there like, okay, how do I start this? Or how do I you know, it's it's it's, you know, here here here's all the points I need to hit for this specific thing, so I can do that. And then how do I personalize it to that specific student too? So Yeah. I can do all that in my head because I've gotten the big picture stuff done.

Travis Bondy [00:37:09]:
Exactly. Yep. And then we talked about a little bit before, how you like to how yeah. I can kind of prequalify for you a little bit, so then you can find those hand raisers and then start engaging with them on that side of it.

Chris Jester [00:37:22]:
Well, then it it it it it again, that saves me having to put together a search thing. Right? I don't have to I don't have to put it together myself and say, I once now I don't I don't mind doing that sometimes because it's fun to sort of make put a puzzle together that way. But if something can do that for me, then I can dig right in to whatever group of students that is that we know we like, and they've worked for us. They've they've retained for us. They've attended all those things. So then I can engage with that specific student. You know, so, okay. You're you're the AI says, you know, this is this is kind of what we've told the AI we're looking for.

Chris Jester [00:37:53]:
We've gotten those, so now I can talk to them specifically.

Travis Bondy [00:37:56]:
Exactly. Exactly. And I think that's really one of the biggest benefits of AI is, hopefully, it's gonna give your team ability to focus. I'm gonna say it again, the the biggest opportunity is not to replace humans. Like, that's not what we're trying to do with AI, but to enable them to focus and spend more time on the areas that matter the most and do without getting burnt out. You know? You think of those top of funnel students for many schools. I talked with a school the other week who has, like, a team of 10 people, and they purchased 250,000 students to engage with. Even if they spent every minute of their day engaging, like, they wouldn't be able to hit all those 250,000 students, even probably in an effective way if it was just them trying to be personalized in their messaging and all that.

Travis Bondy [00:38:38]:
So you could just keep on sending them generic emails or telling your team to try and focus on a set of students to be super personalized to each of of them each week. What what if we could use AI to engage and qualify students? You know, we have the goal of automating outreach to discover students who are most likely to engage. You know, use AI to send relevant messages based on the hobbies, the location, academic interest, you know, at scale like you're talking about, Christopher, being able to do that. Because your team probably has limited time, limited resources, so you can maybe travel in state and have a good pram presence there, but, you know, we need to allow AI to keep on working on behalf past where you can reach our ID, and outside.

Chris Jester [00:39:20]:
That's, you know, the the the students I've been speaking with on a couple of other platforms are students that we're not seeing on the road. Yeah. Folks in Texas, folks in California, folks in in in, in Maine even, which is, you know, and and and so that that it it's folks we wouldn't we wouldn't be reaching, tradition by traditional means or even, like, traditional email outreach means. Right? It's it's it's been there's been opportunities there to to to touch people that way too.

Travis Bondy [00:39:47]:
Exactly. I mean, and again, keep on filtering down. Find the most qualified leads, you know, the ones who are most likely to engage so then your team can spend time being personalized. Because again, I'm I'm not saying when when we talk about and that's where with that message of of what's better, one or two, like, there's no way that someone could be personalized to 250,000 students by themselves. Like, that's just it's not possible. You know, even if you had a team of 50, a hundred people, like, you probably buy this list with, like, your name and email, their major interests, and that's kind of what you have about them. So it's it's just not a lot to engage on. But hopefully, AI can help with being personalized, start getting those engagements going, getting the the details to help them to be personalized so then your team can spend more time actually working with them too.

Chris Jester [00:40:30]:
Well and and and in addition to the 250,000 names that you purchase, you then also have the applicants that come to you

Travis Bondy [00:40:38]:
Yeah.

Chris Jester [00:40:38]:
Without connection. Right? And and, you know, that that so so how are you contacting them? How are you personalizing with them? How are you so so how do you how do you take that group, right, and figure out how to how to how to prioritize them as well. So, an AI can be helpful with that because of the data you give it.

Travis Bondy [00:40:58]:
Yeah. Exactly. That's goes into, you know, the deepening of the relationship, you know, with the goal of, again, using automation to save time and to stay personal as students move through that funnel. Again like I hear so many admissions team members being like I'm burnt out, you know, I just have been working and it's never not crazy for us. You know, I a lot of schools in the past would be like, you know, May 1, like we're done with our last class. But a lot of schools are like, no. We literally work up into the day that students are there. And even after a little bit to keep on trying to get students into that class just because there's a constant expectation, a constant worry of, like, students not showing up on of day one of campus.

Travis Bondy [00:41:35]:
Like, so how can we use AI to help with that melt? You know? And how can we have AI help with the the touch points to allow again for more of those human conversations and your team to not feel overwhelmed and overworked too?

Chris Jester [00:41:48]:
Yeah.

Travis Bondy [00:41:50]:
Yep. So AI is really here to help your team focus, to be more intentional and feel okay spending more time when they they probably doing the things they love the most, talking with students. And that's what we we really want. That's that's the goal of all of this. So, again, if your school is not utilizing AI in any way, look at something very simple at least. At least get, you know, an l m l m in there, like, chat to visually and just see if it can help your team to feel more confident in their messaging. You can build out a whole chat area for your team to be basically experts of it and to help you with that. Because especially as you're bringing out new team members and you bring on new new new people who are trying to communicate with students, like, it's a lot for them to know about a school.

Travis Bondy [00:42:28]:
If you can help free up some of that, help them feel confident in those expertise, like, it's going to enable them to be a lot more effective. So there's small ways that you can implement AI. It doesn't have to be a huge piece, but try and find ways to leverage it, because I promise you every other school out there is trying to figure out ways of how they can be more effective utilizing AI. I'd like all of you guys on this and everybody else to be as effective as possible too. But anything else else to add, Christopher?

Chris Jester [00:42:57]:
No. I mean, I think, you know, we've we've we've talked a lot about kinda how how this is how how, you know, important it is to to to be very personal. And and, you know, talk you you mentioned kind of the favorite thing that that that counselors and and and admission staff like to do is is talking to students. And and, you know, I used to call that fuel for our fire. Right? Because it can be a grind as we know. And so, you know, but so so you're grinding away and doing all these things, and then you meet a student at accepted student day. Right? Or you meet or you see a student at check-in day and how happy and excited they are, and you're back. Right? Yeah.

Chris Jester [00:43:34]:
So, you know, it it and and so it's it it it it that's the you know, those days are my favorite days. Right? And so, you know, if you can can can take some of the the the the burnout stuff off of your plate, the stuff that causes you the most angst, and focus on why we do the stuff we do. You know, it's it's, it's really important, not to quote a guy that people probably heard, but Simon Sinek. I love all of his talks, and it's people buy what you do. People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it. Right? So if you're able to to take some of the stuff that you don't like off your plate and really focus on the stuff you do, then that why comes through a lot better. Exactly. And and the passion you have for what you do and and and and all of that, which which which can help you get that enrollment goal that they keep talking about and also retain the students that you that you that you get to.

Chris Jester [00:44:28]:
That's the other part of that too. Right? So, so it's important, I think.

Travis Bondy [00:44:32]:
I love that. I love the idea of helping students to see that why, finding that why, you know, helping your team to express that, because that's a it's a big piece you led perfect for this, because we're getting to the end of this. But you know all these ideas of AI and personalization is really what is pushing Flipdap. Again one of the platforms under the concept three d hood. This is really enabling students to share about themselves past their GPA, you know, getting to showcase their interests, their values, and what they want in a college experience, you know, that data that I keep on talking about, to enable your team to use AI and personalization in an effective way. This level of data enables the use of AI so that your team and our team can recommend colleges that are really mission fit for students. You know places where students will thrive both academically and culturally, and then when students respond to our AI personalized messages your team has ability to continue and and have those human conversations. Because we really utilize AI to enable the human component of it.

Travis Bondy [00:45:32]:
So then you can focus on students that are most engaged, most ready, and are actually ready right then and there to have conversations. Because that's what we care about, helping admissions team to reach those mission fit students and enable them to tell the that why Christopher, behind being a fit for your school. And I'm going to drop in the chat two resources for you guys. One is an amazing case study that Christopher and the Holy Family team did with us just talking about how they've been utilizing Flipdap. Then other is an opportunity to claim you guys a school on Flipdap for free to engage with any students who have marked interest in your school on FlippedApp again for free. And then the final piece I'm going to put in there before we get into our Q and A piece is, do you want to hear more about FlippedApp? Yes, please reach out, no thank you. And if you'd like to hear about any other products of Concept three d, feel free to put yes too. We'd just love to hear from you guys on that.

Travis Bondy [00:46:27]:
All right, questions feel free to drop them in that Q and A or go into the webinar chat, we would love to open it up in our last little bit here for any questions, thoughts you have, because AI and personalization is an exciting area. I bet you guys have some questions. So Perfect. Thank you for those filling out that poll too. But any other questions? Well, before we get any, in there, Christopher, I really just wanna say thank you thank you for your time on this. It's been really fun to work on this with you for the last little bit. But question, how to combat implicit bias in AI like toward non English names? That is a really good question. And I think this is really about, training your AI and working with AI to, to not have those biases.

Travis Bondy [00:47:24]:
And this is gonna be the hard part and and the hope is as, our large LLMs work on it that they keep on finding ways to get out of it. That is the why, again, I say day data is so important because we find so much that the AI is trained on, you know, the Internet. And when there's biases in the Internet, it's really sad, but their biases happen in it. And so that's where a lot of the AI that we're trying to utilize is, just very simple, talking about the student, talking about their interests and enabling, like, the good conversations and and not even getting into the point where we will introduce, you know, those biases into it. But that's an important piece of why I tell people even when you're utilizing AI, it's not like if you're using it every day that you can just have trust in it forever. Make sure you're reading those messages, make sure you're you're going back and double checking because that's a big piece. So we want to make sure that if there are any issues that we correct it the next time. And then you know own up to it and apologize and those pieces of it because there's a sad component of it.

Travis Bondy [00:48:19]:
But, I've I've had a lot of success of of being able to train AI to be a little more successful. But it does take time and it takes patience and and it takes, you know, doing it the right way. But, Christopher, any anything to add to that too?

Chris Jester [00:48:31]:
I mean, that's yeah. You're you're you're saying that exactly right is that, you know, these LLMs are only as good as the data they get, and you have to be prepared. And and, Will, I'm gonna segue into your question, with this too. You have to be prepared for wrong things to pop up, and you have to be prepared to not use that wrong information. You know, try multiple different. There are so many different AI models out there. Right? So many different l one things out there. Some are gonna work better for you than others.

Travis Bondy [00:49:03]:
Mhmm.

Chris Jester [00:49:04]:
So, you know, it's it's it's try multiple ones and come and and ask the same questions to the different ones and see which what what you get because you'll you'll you'll notice one that's trained better than the other on a specific thing. Yeah. You know, there are some, LLMs that will provide you the source they got the information from. I love that because then it it I I can look at that and go, I know where you got that because it's on that site. Great. Cool. Okay. That that's a trusted place you're getting it from.

Chris Jester [00:49:30]:
You're not just pulling it pulling it out. But, but that was the biggest challenge I ran to when I when I when I first got into it was, how good is this data? Like like, if I and and because I wasn't using it necessarily to write entire things. I was doing a lot of that prewriting stuff. Right? I was doing a lot of that that, the the the editing. Because I I'd write it and go that does again, I guess, I'm bored. That I'm not saying that the way I wanna say it. How do I do that better? Right? So, so it's what I what I used to do was I would I would I would go to somebody in my office and read it to them and say, why does this not sound good? And then they would tell me. I you go to I go to my AI bot now and go, why isn't this why why am I not saying this correctly? And and and they read through and do that.

Chris Jester [00:50:15]:
But but it took time. It wasn't something that, like, if I if if I I wasn't using AI live for any of the work I was doing probably for the first several weeks of of of working on it. Right? I would I would I would try something and go, it doesn't work exactly the way I wanted to, but I'll come back to it again and ask again, and I'll come back to it and ask again. And after a while, it figures out what you want. And so then you can go, okay. This is now now I can use it more. So, that's why you can't replace people because it's it's only gonna be, you know, it's it's it's it's only gonna be as good as as the data it's getting. So, trust but verify is something that people say a lot.

Chris Jester [00:50:52]:
Right? And so that was that that that's that's been my experience with with with kinda AI in in in comms is is is say, okay. This sounds good. Where are you getting it from?

Travis Bondy [00:51:04]:
Yeah.

Chris Jester [00:51:04]:
So it's you know? And and, Travis, you and I have talked about that a ton about how the AI stuff is good, but I wanna see it before it goes. Right? And I wanna be I wanna be sure that it's that that that that it's saying what I wanted to say and making the connections I wanted to make.

Travis Bondy [00:51:17]:
Exactly. I think that's a good answer to Will's, question in there, which was, Christopher, can you talk about one of the challenges you've encountered when first embracing AI in the communication process for student recruitment? I would think it really does go down to, you know, the challenge of trust, you know, trusting that AI that I have by a certain, you know, not have issues and such like that. But, again, that's where it's, important on that. But

Chris Jester [00:51:38]:
Well, I think that that, you know, just back to the bias question, that that's part of how you you know, it's it's learning you, but you're learning it too. Right? So you're able to kinda go, alright. That doesn't I don't really know if I like that. Or or on the other hand, sometimes something pops out and go, that's that's really good. I like that a lot. Okay. Cool. So it's it's it's it's it's been been been an interesting sort of experiment.

Chris Jester [00:52:00]:
It's don't again, don't don't make it your number one. It's a tool in your toolbox. So so and that's what it's there for.

Travis Bondy [00:52:09]:
Exactly. Again, just enable that human part of you. Like, like, have it take care of those boring, not fun parts, and then jump in.

Chris Jester [00:52:18]:
We we are the creatives, and that's where we need to remember is that we are the creative piece of this. Yeah. They can help us with with with a lot of the the rudimentary stuff. You know, so just just think think about it in that kind of way.

Travis Bondy [00:52:34]:
Yeah. I love that. There's a reason why we need admissions teams, marketing teams out there, especially we need people who know schools that know that school. Because, like you said, if you're passionate about it, like, it's gonna show through, hopefully, through the AI, but more importantly, it's gonna show through those conversations you're having with students. And especially in the world of AI, like, let's not give up on those human connections. Let's not give up on those those pieces of showing that passion and trading creating as much connection as we can to them. That's a big piece of it, and that's where personalization becomes easy because after a little bit if you're asking those questions engaging with students, they're gonna experience, they're gonna feel it and and it's gonna make your your whole admissions experience and their exhibitions experience a lot better. But alright.

Travis Bondy [00:53:12]:
Any last questions, thoughts? Otherwise, we will be jumping off here, and, hope everyone has an amazing relaxing weekend.

Chris Jester [00:53:23]:
I I have one final thing

Travis Bondy [00:53:26]:
Oh, great.

Chris Jester [00:53:26]:
Travis. Just thinking about thinking about data as we've kind of gotten to the end of this, and and I'm I'm a a gigantic baseball guy. I think it's it's, it's it's I I just love I've always compared the enrollment cycle to nine innings of nine innings of a baseball game. Right? Fall is your first three. Your your winner into spring is your middle innings, and then and then all the way to August is is is is your your your final stuff. But, one thing baseball has learned over the last probably twenty years since the Moneyball book came out and and, you know, data analytics and say, our metrics became a thing was that it's not the only thing you have to lean on. Right? And you've, Travis, you've already said this. But, data is helpful because it can put you situationally where you wanna go, but sometimes you gotta rely on human human connection, human grit, human spirit to kind of kind of push through that, to to to to to get to that.

Chris Jester [00:54:18]:
Because I can look at a a group of data and say, alright. This this group of students has all the academic stuff I want, all the regional stuff, all the financial stuff, and the interests. That's great stuff, but I still need somebody to help tell that story and and work with them and make them feel seen and make them feel heard, which is what students want. So you have to be able to to to to to I don't wanna even say have a balance because I think it's more human than tech, but the tech is so helpful in that. Yeah. Yeah.

Travis Bondy [00:54:48]:
Yeah. I think that is the perfect way to end it. So we appreciate everyone who jumped on and stayed on till the end and, everyone before that. But thank you, thank you, Chris, for for your time.

Chris Jester [00:54:59]:
And

Travis Bondy [00:55:00]:
again, I hope everyone has a great end to the year. We'd love to chat with any of you and share a little bit more. But it was really great to interact and get to know all of you over the last hour. So thank you all.