2025 Day 2 Sessions

Friday, April 4

  • Disrupting Burnout

    Dr. Patrice Buckner Jackson, known as Dr. PBJ, challenges the conventional tactics of time management, resilience, and work-life balance. Deriving from personal experience and her extensive expertise as an executive coach and educator, Dr. PBJ understands the toll burnout takes on accomplished professionals. She highlights the inadequacy of surface solutions and reveals why they fall short of addressing the underlying causes of burnout. 

    Dr. PBJ will empower participants to shed the burdens of burnout and embrace their authentic brilliance. With her compassionate approach and practical wisdom, she will show them how to break free from the cycles of exhaustion and rediscover the joy and meaning in their personal and professional lives. 

  • Speaker: Kate McGowan

    With established search engines such as Google and Bing integrating AI into their algorithms, and entirely new search engines such as Open AI’s Search-GPT new on the scene, the world of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is shifting towards Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). In this session, we’ll examine how AI summaries and chat tools are changing search results and influencing how students look for schools and programs. We’ll explore tactics for adapting your institution’s website and content strategies to stay ahead of the curve and ensure your school stands out in an evolving digital landscape.

  • Speaker: Christy Moss

    Ready to level up your marketing game with generative AI? In this interactive session, we’ll walk you through seven steps to create custom GPTs that speak your brand’s language—and streamline your work. From generating social media posts to crafting web content and more, these GPTs can save you time while keeping your brand’s voice consistent and engaging. You’ll learn how to gather your best work, define your audience, and input all the right details into a custom GPT. We will walk through several different tools to choose the best one for your work. By the end of this session, you’ll have the tools to create custom generative AI that can generate spot-on content for your brand—across social media and beyond!

  • A brisk tour of risk mitigation resources for Illinois Developers and Web Admins.

  • This session will highlight 4-H’s strategy in building a statewide youth influencers team that has navigated multiple national brand content collaborations as well as consistent high-performing, youth-centered content, using their authentic voices to resonate with our audiences. Attendees will learn how to create mutually beneficial collaborations that focus on both content production and youth workforce readiness. By connecting trend-watching, hands-on content creation, and a commitment to professional development, this session will share best practices of how to build a content creation or collaboration program that not only amplifies your brand but also prepares participants for future success in the workforce.

  • Speaker: Marcus Finley

    In today’s competitive landscape, businesses need every advantage. This hands-on workshop introduces proven strategies for implementing AI and smart automations to boost efficiency and drive revenue growth, tailored for businesses’ unique needs and constraints. We’ll demystify AI and automation, demonstrating their accessibility and benefits for businesses of all sizes. Through interactive exercises and real-world case studies, you’ll learn to identify and prioritize AI and automation opportunities in your business. You’ll learn to assess your business processes and potential AI/automation applications, with a step-by-step guide for prioritizing initiatives based on ROI and implementation ease. Real-world examples will illustrate successful SMB implementations, offering practical tools and actionable strategies for your business.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

    Key areas include:

    1. Opportunity Mapping
    2. Cost-Effective Solutions
    3. Customer Experience Enhancement
    4. Data-Driven Decision Making
    5. Revenue Generation
  • Speaker: Cheryl Cline

    To reach the widest audience, user-experience writers must strive to write inclusive, accessible copy. I will critique real-world examples of UX copy, list resources that UX writers and teams can refer to when ideating and iterating, and address some of the pushback that UX writers and other stakeholders often face when advocating for an inclusive user experience. Attendees will come away with an introductory framework for evaluating website and UX copy.

  • Speaker: Bill Reynen

    The University of Illinois Foundation wanted to build a donor portal that could scale to handle the large number of donors to the University of Illinois System. It had to be scalable, secure and allow for new features to be added over time. Hear about our journey to select Azure with Microsoft Entra as our platform, React for our front end, and C# for our REST API.

  • Speaker: Sebastian Kelle

    As content creators, you might, at some point, wonder how best to use music. It can help set the mood and bring life to your content. But instead of dealing with licenses, how about creating your own? Electronic music production doesn’t have to be a mystery. With relatively inexpensive tools you can create professional results – if you know what you’re doing. In this session, we’ll take a look at a selection of some of the most popular Digital Audio Workstations (DAW’s), some basic hardware, and showcase how to create a catchy and short song from scratch! For comparison, we’ll also take a look at the status quo of generative AI in music production and how to (not) prompt-engineer a music piece.

  • Speaker: David Needham

    You don’t need expensive equipment to create impactful digital stories—sometimes, the tools you already have are enough. In this session, we’ll explore strategies for leveraging smartphones and everyday technology to produce engaging content for social media, websites, and other platforms. You’ll learn practical tips for creating high-quality videos using your phone’s camera, enhancing audio and visuals with budget-friendly accessories, and using free or low-cost apps. Throughout the presentation, you’ll learn tips and tricks for better composition, lighting, and strategies to improve the clarity of spoken dialogue. Finally, we’ll discuss key questions to ask throughout the project to define and sharpen the focus of your video. By the end, you’ll have actionable insights to create dynamic video content that delivers the impact you want—without breaking the bank.

  • Thinking about redesigning your website? This presentation is the perfect starting point! We’ll explore how tools like web analytics and project management can guide key decisions and ensure your redesign stays on track. With insights from our experience on some of the most visited websites on campus, you’ll be equipped to take your website to the next level.

  • Learn how Illinois Human Resources uses job fair materials, billboards, geofencing, QR codes, and other innovative tools to bring the Illinois Value Proposition to life. This session will highlight how these strategies enhance brand communication and offer practical tips for creating impactful content that resonates with your audience and creates a consistent image for your department/university.

  • Speaker: Allie Arp

    Now more than ever, it is essential for accurate scientific information to be shared with the public. The truth struggles to stand out against the misinformation running rampant on social media. In this workshop, we examine organizations excelling at science communication, discuss the lessons to be learned, and how we apply those lessons to our work. We’ll talk through examples and even come up with our own! We will also take a moment at the end to give ourselves grace in an ever-changing world of content creation. Attendees will leave with practical ideas for creatively improving their own science communication on social media, a few new accounts to follow and enjoy, and a reminder that your best is good enough.

  • Speaker: Matthew Luken

    Join Matthew Luken of Deque Systems for an interactive session on the intersectionality of design practices and accessibility conformance. In digital accessibility, his research has found that 67% of defects can be reduced within the design discipline. Luken will help us explore where designers can make meaningful investments in ensuring their designs are accessible and how designers can help to reduce accessibility defects through the rest of the development and testing cycles. This session will provide examples and information usable for designers at any level of their careers. There will be a question and answer period as well; please bring your questions.

  • Speaker: Cory Rylan

    How can we achieve lightning-fast websites without sacrificing rich interactivity? In this session, discover cutting-edge techniques that combine the best of server-side rendering (SSR) and client-side interaction for modern web experiences. We’ll explore how to leverage Custom Elements (Web Components) to build server-rendered UI components that work without JavaScript for the initial load, seamlessly transitioning to a fully interactive UI. Learn about powerful Web APIs like Declarative Shadow DOM to integrate your UI with popular frameworks and tools to distribute your UI across all platforms, from CMS-driven sites to single-page applications.

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