CU Boulder Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Senior Marketing & Communications Specialist, Research & Innovation Office | Nov. 2018 - Sept. 2021
I&E Campus Kickoff event postcard
Welcome to I&E “Hype” Video
I&E Signature Events landing page
Brand Strategy | Communications & PR | Event Planning & Marketing | Website Management
About CU Boulder Innovation & Entrepreneurship
CU Boulder’s Innovation & Entrepreneurship (I&E) initiative was established to connect students, faculty and staff with campus resources and the local Front Range innovation ecosystem to build entrepreneurial mindsets and make an impact. Entrepreneurship is weaved into the fabric of the university, as evidenced by the CU Boulder’s three strategic imperatives: Lead. Innovate. Impact.
Industry: Higher Education / University Innovation
Problem
CU Boulder’s innovation ecosystem is vast and can be difficult to understand. I&E not only serves to aggregate CU Boulder’s entrepreneurial activity across units, colleges, departments and centers, but it also plans and hosts events and programs of its own for campus as a whole. To our stakeholders, I&E’s suite of events and programs were very siloed and disjointed, when in reality, students, faculty and staff participated in them as they progressed throughout their innovation journey. We needed to tell this “innovation journey” story better to 1) increase brand understanding for internal and external stakeholders and 2) increase participation in I&E events and programs themselves.
Solution
I developed branding, communications and event marketing strategies for I&E’s events and programs to explain the connectedness and impact of our innovation ecosystem, which included:
Branding our five main I&E events and programs into “Signature I&E Events & Programs”: Destination Startup®, New Venture Challenge, Catalyze CU, I&E Campus Kickoff, and Lab Venture Challenge
Creating an internal I&E brand strategy deck that was rolled out to campus units and colleges
A complete website redesign of the entire I&E site, as well as redesigns of dedicated landing pages or sub-sites for every I&E event and program
Rebranding email communications from one general newsletter to three audience-specific newsletters (students/faculty/staff, community, mentors) and event- and program-specific marketing campaigns
Integrating more I&E-related content into Research and Innovation Office (RIO) and CU Boulder communications channels, which paints a larger picture of campus’ dedication to fostering entrepreneurship and innovation
Sharing I&E events and programs with internal stakeholders, campus communicators, media and local/national partners for broader reach and awareness
Writing pre- and post-event coverage to encourage event registrations and program participation (our key metrics)
Tracking event and program participation among students, faculty and staff to see how they move through the innovation journey
Results
Pre-COVID-19, New Venture Challenge (NVC)’s registered teams increased from 100 to almost 150 from 2018 to 2019. While the amount of registered teams decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic, going virtual for our Championships event proved more effective, as we had the most event attendees ever from 350 in-person in 2019 to 1,000+ online in 2020.
Lab Venture Challenge, hosted by Venture Partners at CU Boulder, went from 20-30 attendees at the first event in a classroom in 2018 to 75 at Galvanize in downtown Boulder in 2019 to 150+ virtually during COVID-19 in 2020.
In tandem with increased marketing efforts, our office also increased fundraising for these events and programs. This has led to more buy-in and support with internal campus partners, external/community partners and investors.
Writing & Content Examples
My news articles ranged from announcements of awards, student and alumni startup success stories, recaps of events and programs, and more.
What role does a university play in building startups? Find out at Boulder Startup Week
$30,000 awarded to CU’s top startups at New Venture Challenge Specialty Prize Nights
From Boulder to the Bay: Alumni investors connect with university startups at Silicon Valley summit
Farm Eats Direct (FED) connects community with local farmers to reduce food waste
I wrote, storyboarded, directed and produced a video to provide a short summary of what innovation and entrepreneurship means at CU Boulder, using our Innovation Action Team as the “stars”. Our Innovation Action Team is a group student entrepreneurial advocates across the CU Boulder campus. We wanted the video to be fun, inspiring, and shareable for social media, and we wanted an “intro” video featured on our website’s homepage.