Strike gold at the 2025 GEM Summit
April 23 - 26
The DD
Prospectors
are heading to San Francisco to help GEM professionals sort the fool's gold from the
real gold.
Check out our
presentations
The NAGAP GEM Summit is where higher ed marketers go to mine for
knowledge.
You'll gain more than insights; you'll
find gold
in every session.
Marketing Cost to Enroll for Grad Schools: How to Calculate and Compare Effectively



Overview:
In the history of graduate enrollment management, no organization has surveyed and benchmarked a standard for graduate schools to calculate their marketing costs to enroll a student. This year NAGAP has partnered with DD Agency to develop the industry’s first-ever Marketing-Cost-To-Enroll (MCTE) benchmark report, including a survey to graduate enrollment managers combined with a methodology for calculating and benchmark data to compare against. This session will highlight the work of this Joint Research Project to identify the core metrics, build a universal calculator tool, analyze the data, and establish various benchmarks for different sizes of graduate schools regarding MCTE. Attendees will not only learn how to calculate MCTE on their own, but will also gain deep insights into how their metrics compare against other similar institutions.
Unplugged: Getting Real About GEM Partnerships




Overview:
This session offers a comprehensive exploration of essential considerations when collaborating with GEM partners. Join our expert panel, comprised of members of NAGAP’s Strategic Partnership Council (SPC), as they delve into the key aspects of this process, including recognizing when external support is necessary, initiating the search for the ideal partner, uncovering the most crucial questions to pose during vendor discussions, and ultimately discerning when you've discovered the perfect match. Whether you're new to the world of GEM third-party partnerships or seeking to refine your vendor selection strategies, this session provides a wealth of insights to empower higher education professionals in making informed and effective decisions.
Enrollment Marketing Improv! A Panel of GEM Experts Answers Enrollment Marketing Challenges in Real Time




Overview:
Back by popular demand! This live-fire panel session has a widely experienced group of GEM leaders who will answer the top marketing challenges facing graduate enrollment professionals today. As we’ve done in the past, we will be taking questions from session attendees and providing answers improv-style. The panelists will come prepared to share from the biggest wins and lessons learned from a variety of institutions over the past several years. The panel includes two higher education leaders, Fran Reed (Neumann University) and Katie Boyle (Bard College) along with long-time graduate enrollment marketing consultant Tony Fraga (DD Agency). This improv-style session will be hosted by NAGAP Experts Bureau member and graduate enrollment marketing evangelist Marcus Hanscom (DD Agency). Join us to learn about how you can address today’s biggest enrollment challenges without striking out.
Demystifying Success: Enrollment Marketing Benchmarks that Matter


Overview:
At a time when colleges are increasingly relying on graduate enrollment to offset broader enrollment challenges, GEM professionals continue to be asked to deliver strong results with limited resources. To be good stewards of finite marketing dollars, GEM professionals must be able to not only execute on strong marketing strategies, but also effectively measure them. Like many of your colleagues, you’re likely running digital ads, optimizing your website, and sending out automated emails in your CRM. For all of those efforts, you can hopefully see related performance metrics, but how do you know if your results are strong and worth the money or effort?
This session will guide attendees through the noise, focusing on what success truly looks like across four critical marketing tactics and channels - digital advertising, search engine optimization, email campaigns, and institution websites and landing pages. Drawing on industry benchmarks and data from dozens of graduate schools, this session will help participants assess whether their marketing efforts are hitting the mark. Through real examples and consultant perspectives, we'll break down how to measure success for different marketing strategies, adapt approaches based on institutional needs and market factors, and improve your marketing outcomes.

Don’t miss our happy hour — open to all!
Direct Development is a gold mine of good information and good times. Join the team for drinks, food, and games at SPIN San Francisco. Crush our consultants in a game of ping-pong, and you'll go home with more than just gold.