We are about six weeks out from the Engage Summit this year. Last year was my first time to attend, and it was a great few days of conversation. The team has put together another stellar few days of learning. 

The sessions offer a mix of tactical AI use cases, customer stories using Element 451, and industry best practices that can help elevate the work. 

This year’s conference will be in Charlotte, and there is still plenty of time to register. 

Registration details: 

• Register Here
• June 15-17 
• Charlotte NC 

For this blog post, I wanted to share a few of the sessions I’m most excited about and hope to attend. And I must say, picking the sessions I want to attend was tough. There are lots of strong, options in each time slot. 

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Top Ten Sessions 

State of AI

Monday 12:30 PM – 1:15 PM

Presenter: Ardis Kadiu 

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Description: Everyone's calling 2026 the year of agentic AI. But what does that actually mean, and how much of it is real? In this keynote, Ardis cuts through the noise with an honest, grounded look at where AI stands today. We'll go beyond the buzzwords into what agents actually are, what they can do right now (coding agents, personal agents, research agents, multi-agent systems) and where the hype still outpaces reality. You'll leave with a clear mental model for understanding this shift, a framework for evaluating what's ready for your institution and what needs more time, and a sense of what the next 12 months will bring. If you attend one AI session at Engage, make it this one.

Why I Like It: This level set is the perfect start to the conference. I suspect people will come to the conference with varying levels of AI familiarity, so I’m really excited to align on where we are key definitions. That will help create a few days of learning together. Then, looking forward about what is possible over the next year with AI will be really beneficial. As leaders, we should always be looking at horizon issues, and this session will help us level set and the future look at how we become better AI leaders. 

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AI Analytics

Monday 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM

Presenter: Brian Piper

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Description: Analytics is shifting from dashboards to decision engines. In this session, we explore how to build agentic analytics workflows that move from data extraction to interpretation to action using tools like Claude for advanced analysis. Learn how to connect structured and unstructured data, automate insight generation, and embed AI into recurring analytical cycles. The result is faster decision velocity, reduced manual reporting, and analytics that actively drive outcomes instead of simply describing them.

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Why I Like It: Our industry sometimes struggles to focus on outcomes. We do a great job on inputs (the thing we did) and describing outputs (what people did in response), but we don’t always talk about the outcomes or the impact made. I think this session helps showcase how, using AI, we can move our analytics reporting forward to better show the impact we make. Being able to effectively do this helps showcase the importance of  MarComm our work, which has major resource implications. 

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Presidents Leadership Panel: How Higher Ed Leaders Are Thinking About AI

Tuesday 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

Presenters: Sara Kuster 

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Description: AI is now embedded across the full student lifecycle, from first inquiry to graduation and beyond. Presidents aren't just watching this shift. They're making decisions right now that will shape the next decade of their institutions. In this keynote panel, senior leaders share how they're approaching AI as an institution-wide strategy: aligning enrollment goals with student success, managing risk alongside innovation, and making sure technology strengthens — not replaces — the human side of higher education.

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Why I Like It: 

Leaders set tone, make investment decisions, and determine priorities. Because of that, this session is one of the most important sessions of the conference. How leaders think about AI will have a ripple effect on our organizations for years, so understanding their thoughts about the tools and their thought processes around governance is critical knowledge. Additionally, knowing where leaders are embracing and struggling is insightful in approaching leadership about different use cases and opportunities within our organizations. 

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How JCC Used First- and Third-Party Data to Drive Enrollment

Tuesday 2:00 PM – 2:55 PM

Presenters: Carrie Pitts-Dennsmore and Terri Lee 

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Description: Student data loses its value when it lives in silos. In this session, Johnston Community College shares how blending first- and third-party data with AI- and human-powered communications drove a 60% enrollment increase over four years, making JCC the fastest-growing community college in the country. Learn how they centralized data, activated insights, and used timely, personalized outreach to meet students where they actually are.

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Why I Like It: You have my attention as the fastest growing community college in the country. I really like combining multiple data sources to create personalized communication for students. Students want to feel seen. I think we can all learn something from JCC about how to reduce data silos and centralize our work in a way that ensures students have a positive experience. I’m looking forward to the takeaways from this session. 

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Practical AI for Marketing Teams: Real Use Cases You Can Apply Today

Tuesday 2:00 PM – 2:55 PM

Presenters: Marah Studniski and Stacie Shelby

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Description: If you're a marketing operations professional buried under repetitive, manual tasks, this session is for you. Learn how to use AI to clean up old templates, build landing pages, troubleshoot errors, and reclaim time for work that actually matters. Through real-world marketing and email examples from Abilene Christian University, you'll leave with actionable processes and use cases you can apply immediately.

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Why I Like It: Work smarter. Not harder. I think this motto is something almost every MarComm leader has said. It’s also one of the reasons I embrace the potential of AI. It offers an opportunity to stop doing mundane tasks and focus on the larger things that make a difference. This session aligns with that approach and will give practical guidance on giving repetitive tasks to AI and allowing our teams to focus on tasks that have more impact for our students and our organizations. 

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Goodbye Admissions, Hello Retention: How Trinity Valley Rebuilt Enrollment from the Ground Up

Tuesday 3:30 PM – 4:20 PM

Presenter: Courtney Lewis

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Description: Trinity Valley Community College made a bold structural move — eliminating its standalone Admissions Office and rebuilding enrollment through a unified Enrollment Services model. By redistributing admissions functions across recruiting, onboarding, and advising, the college reduced silos, minimized melt, and reframed enrollment as a retention-centered strategy. Attendees leave with practical insight into structural change, process redesign, and what it takes to put students — not departments — at the center of the enrollment experience.

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Why I Like It: At a prior university, I mapped the enrollment function. It crossed 18 offices and 5 divisions. Not surprisingly, students were confused and overwhelmed. Trinity Valley has done the hard work of putting students at the center of the enrollment process and then working outward across the campus to make the experience as easy as possible. I’m interested in some of the structural and process shifts were required for this work. I really want to understand how they did this work and how we can all be better at it. 

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The AI Pulse of Today's Students: What Their Questions Are Actually Telling Us

Tuesday 3:30 PM – 4:20 PM

Presenters: Jaime Hunt and Allison Turcio

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Description: Millions of AI-assisted conversations have given us a real-time window into what today's students are thinking and feeling. From anxiety about cost and career outcomes to uncertainty about belonging and readiness, patterns are emerging. In this session, Jaime Hunt will analyze anonymized conversational data to uncover what students are actually asking, what they're worried about, and where institutions are missing signals. She'll show how to turn those insights into proactive engagement and better outcomes.

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Why I Like It: As a former qualitative doctoral student, I’m really curious about what themes exist from students. Having so much data from institutions across the country provides an industry- wide perspective about the issues students face when engaging with an institution. I’m excited for this session because I think every MarComm leader is always looking at ways to improve the process and provide a more on-brand experience. Seeing real challenges broadly can be a great strategy to help make things easier for students.  

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Customer Panel: Moving from AI Experimentation to Real Outcomes

Wednesday 9:10 AM – 9:55 AM

Presenter: Lisa Van Ever 

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Description: How do institutions move from running AI pilots to seeing measurable results? This panel brings together campus leaders who are doing exactly that, advancing recruitment, admissions, and student support through practical, scalable implementation. Join us for a candid conversation that sets the tone for the day ahead.

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Why I Like It: We are better together. This panel conversation provides insights of how multiple institutions have used AI in robust ways. One of the greatest ways to learn more about AI is to talk about it with others. Sharing examples and use cases fosters new ways to experiment and guidance on leaning in to long-term outcomes. This panel sounds like it’s the perfect opportunity for that, and I’m looking forward to learning from the panelists.  

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Telling Our Story, Growing Our Future: How ABAC Built Brand and Broke Enrollment Records

1:35 PM – 2:25 PM

Presenter: Ryan Hogan and Robert Thompson

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Description: ABAC's enrollment growth didn't happen by accident. It came from a deliberate commitment to storytelling powered by technology, with digital platforms, video, data, and targeted messaging working together to reach prospective students, parents, donors, and supporters. The result: the highest enrollment in ABAC history, surpassing 4,000 students in Fall 2025. Attendees will leave with a practical model for how brand investment and technology-driven outreach can work together to drive meaningful enrollment results.

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Why I Like It: As a MarComm leader, I’m always drawn to knowing who you are and being able to communicate that effectively. What I like about this session is exploring how they did that at scale using technology. It sounds like they were able to bring campus together in a unified approach, which is a takeaway that could be really valuable. Additionally, I’m curious to see how they managed the technology-driven outreach and where they invested to get their story out. 

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Your Institution's Brain Is Leaking: Agent Skills Are How You Bottle It

2:30 PM – 3:25 PM

Presenter: Ardis Kadiu

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Description: Your institution's most valuable knowledge lives in people's heads, and when they leave, it walks out with them. Agent Skills fix this. A Skill is just a folder with a markdown file that packages institutional knowledge into a format any AI platform can load on demand. It's an open standard adopted by 25+ platforms (Claude, Codex, Copilot, Antigravity, and more), governed by the Linux Foundation. In this session, Ardis builds Skills live from real institutional documents, activates them across multiple platforms, and gives you everything you need to have your first working Skill loaded within an hour.

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Why I Like It: I’m going to be honest, this sounds complex and a little scary to me. However, I thought the same thing the first time I heard about building Custom GPT, and now I do that regularly. As someone who’s been onboarding new team members after turnover, I am really intrigued about building a Skill and how it can help during transition. Part of what should be happening at a conference is exploring things that are a new or foreign. This is one for me, but I’m really excited to learn about it and understand how it might help my work. 

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I’ll be Carrying On  

I’m also really excited that I’ll be sharing two sessions at the Engage Summit. Here’s where you can find me presenting as well: 

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Agent Risk and Responsible AI

Monday 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM

Presenter: Carrie Phillips

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Description: As AI agents move from assistants to autonomous actors, the risk profile changes. Institutions must rethink governance, transparency, bias mitigation, data protection, and human oversight. This session explores the real risks emerging in 2026, from prompt injection to workflow over-automation, and outlines a practical framework for responsible AI deployment. Learn how to balance speed with safety while building trust with students, staff, and leadership.

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Why I’m Excited to Present: 

AI has become mainstream. It’s no longer the way to get ahead. Instead, it’s expected. As such, I believe this will be the year many of our organizations put official guardrails in place for the responsible use of AI. We saw this same pattern during the development of the internet and social media. As a MarComm leader, it’s important to be in the conversations about responsible use to understand the risks and help our institutions manage the risks in a way that doesn’t put our teams or our organizations behind. Some of the strategies around responsible AI deployment will be a key way to do this. 

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AI à la Mode: 31 Flavors of Smart Ideas for MarComm Leaders

2:30 PM – 3:25 PM

Presenter: Carrie Phillips 

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Description: In this rapid-fire session, you'll get real, actionable ways to put AI to work in your marketing and communications operation today. From writing sharper copy to breaking down complex decisions, we cover 31 use cases you can implement right away. You'll see how AI saves time on repetitive tasks, opens up new creative angles, and strengthens strategy without replacing the human judgment behind it.

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Why I’m Excited to Present: 

I often hear people say they know AI is important, but they’re just not sure where to start. This session helps address that. During this session, I’ll be presenting 30+ ways your team can use AI right now. They are varying skill levels, so there is something for everyone regardless of your comfort with AI. The session ideas are sourced from friends, colleagues, and other AI users to help showcase the breadth of how AI can help us in our MarComm work.  

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See you in June! 

This is a conference. You won’t want to miss, so mark your calendars now and let’s talk AI together next month!