School managers and teachers gathered at the “Digital Marketing Crash Course for School Managers: Maximizing Online Technology to Your School’s Advantage,” a Leadership Strategies for School Managers (LESSM) conference aimed at helping schools and universities establish a strong online presence which would enable them to effectively communicate with students, parents, and partners.

Held last July 19 and 20, 2012 at the Ateneo de Manila University, the two-day conference featured the country’s top experts in Internet and mobile marketing.

On the first day, Duston Barto, managing director of Infinicom U.S.A., gave the conference participants a peek into the current landscape of the digital world, zeroing in on its impact on education. Multi-awarded educator and marketer Rossana Llenado of AHEAD Learning Systems shared how to use different digital and non-digital marketing channels to raise funds as well as how to identify marketing channels that work best to promote causes and events. Carlo Ople of TV5’s New Media, who is also the former digital marketing manager of Friendster Philippines, talked about making effective social media campaigns while Jake Estrada of Qwerty Works Company enlightened teachers and principals about search engine optimization techniques.

Day two was equally exciting with Professor Adolf Aran, Association of Marketing Educators of the Philippines National President, pressing the importance of social media training for school employees. Next up was Karen Galarpe, GMA News Online city editor, who shared online media resources for schools. Engr. Florante F. Cruz, BCNet chief executive officer, gave pointers on how schools can choose the right connection and technology infrastructure for their digital marketing programs while Brad Geiser, managing director of GeiserMaclang Communications, discussed such issues as privacy and security as well as plagiarism and intellectual property.