AUTM Marketing Course

Sunday, February 18
7:30 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

Marketing Course, AUTM 2024, San Diego, California 
The success of your program depends upon how well you engage your audiences. What kinds of on-campus programs engage researchers and innovators, and how can we help them see themselves as inventors? What tools and methods can we put to work to engage external audiences, from potential licensees to community advocates, in our mission of impact? How can we use the toolbox at our disposal – from outreach to events to platforms to partners – to develop targeted, effective, measurable communications plans?   

Through this 1-day course, you’ll get answers to these questions and by the end of the last session, you’ll have the basics of a strategic marketing plan that you can begin implementing right away.    

Topics Covered  

• Branding and Marketing Your TTO: What is a brand, anyway? Along with gaining a clear concept of meaning and strength of a good brand, you’ll learn how to apply this understanding to strengthen the image of your office, and the tools and tactics available to you to make it happen. This session covers concepts such as understanding audiences, creating compelling brand messaging, and communications and outreach tools and tactics.   

• Marketing and Planning Impactful Events: Why is it important to create impactful events? Impactful events can change the way attendees think or act. By creating impactful events you have the opportunity to educate and engage your internal and external stakeholders. This session will provide ways to market and plan impactful events, discuss resources for and partnerships with innovators, elevate your organization’s visibility and build your reputation.  

• Storytelling and Making Use of News: Who doesn’t love a good story? Storytelling is the ultimate tool you can use to catch the attention of your intended audience. But we can’t do it alone. This session discusses storytelling strategies leading to results and suggests ways to ramp up your public relations skills to get local media to share your story for you.  

• Market Research and Invention Marketing: Defining the technology and users so you can correctly address the market, using nuts and bolts specifics along with examples to find the audiences you need to reach, and developing the materials with which to reach them.  

• Making Use of Social: What role should social media play in your marketing plan? You might look at social media as an add-on tool for sharing technologies and spreading the word about successes or events. But what if you had to depend on it to reach your audience? This session shares a university’s path to a social media strategy and tips for making social work for your office without breaking the bank.  

• Tools to Measure Your Impact: If metrics are the “what” and analytics are the “so what” measuring the impact of your marketing, what tools should you use to collect both? What should you be measuring? This session seeks to answer both of those elusive questions and provides an insider’s guide to marketing everywhere – content recycling.  

• Creating Your Strategic Plan: Now that you understand all the concepts, it’s time to bring it all together. Working alongside your colleagues and instructors, you’ll build your own marketing plan that will take you and your organization forward for the next 6 to 12 months. (Instructors: All) 

Through presentations, case studies and hands-on group work, you will return to your office with new skills, tools, and ideas to help accomplish your organization’s goals. 

Sunday, February 18

7:30 – 7:50 a.m.	Welcome and Introductions
7:45 – 8:00 a.m.	Welcome to BDU
8:00 – 8:45 a.m.	Strategic Branding For Your TTO
8:45 – 9:30 a.m.	Creating An NCS Group Activity
9:30 – 9:45 a.m.	Break
9:45 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.	Executing Your Tech Campaign
10:15 – 11:00 a.m.	Marketing and Planning Impactful Events
11:00  – 11:30 p.m.	Storytelling Strategies/The Power of Stories
11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.	Lunch
12:30 – 1:15 p.m.	PR: Using the Press
1:15 - 2:00 p.m.	Making Use of Social Media
2:00 - 2:45 p.m.	Tools to Measure Impact
2:45 - 3:15 p.m.	Break
3:15 - 4 p.m.	Parking Lot/Panel Discussion and Conclusion