ICBA ONLINE INSTITUTES
ICBA Online Institutes are our newest education program offering, designed to provide high-quality, relevant, actionable information to our Members. Our Online Institutes are a spinoff of our popular ICBA Institutes that take place each year, in-person, before our annual Conference. They are intensive courses of study that expose participants to the latest thinking and best practices in specific management disciplines.
Recognizing that some stores have limited travel capabilities or might prefer to have the curriculum delivered over several weeks, we wanted to make that same level of advanced professional development content available virtually, in a multi-part series of one-hour webinars.
SPRING 2020 ONLINE INSTITUTE
COMING SOON: ICBA Fall Online Institute! Watch your email and this space for updates. In the meantime, ICBA Members can catch up on past Online Institutes below. Due to the challenges all Members are facing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, all past ICBA Institutes are available for free. For Members who are logged in, the password for each Institute will be listed in red text below the Institute description.
PAST ICBA ONLINE INSTITUTES
VOICE: The Value of Independent College Store Excellence (Summer 2022)
The VOICE Online Institute covers the three areas of ICBA’s new initiative VOICE: Value of Independent College Store Excellence. VOICE focuses on advocacy, customizable communication resources, and education in helping ICBA Members to communicate their story. The sessions cover VOICE’s direct advocacy component where ICBA communicates directly with external administrative audiences. The VOICE Resources Library is the second component, comprised of templates and examples sourced from Members themselves that other Members can use - from annual reports, and departmental/faculty email templates to signage and more. The education component includes the comprehensive Healthy Store Checklist, which helps Members to communicate their story about operation & innovation.
The VOICE Online Institute includes the following sessions:
This video is password protected and available to ICBA Members only.
Social Media & Email Marketing: Strategies for Success Year-Round & in Times of Uncertainty (Spring 2020)
In this three-part webinar series, Marie Hale of @revenue and Sue Koch, Social Media Success Catalyst, discuss what is developing and trending in the world of social media and email marketing, as well as how to use these tools to quickly adapt to meet the needs of your customers. We'll take a closer look at social media and email separately, then bring it all together with a deep dive into how to use the analytics from both to ensure you're always in tune with your customers.
The Social Media & Email Marketing Institute includes the following sessions:
This video is password protected and available to ICBA Members only.
The Optimized Bookstore Website (Spring 2019)
We believe that the experience your customers have online is as important as the experience they have in your store. Just as you make regular adjustments to your store’s floor or displays, you need to make regular adjustments to your website to meet your customers’ needs. But how do you know that your customers are finding what they’re looking for on your website? And what can you do to make it more effective without breaking your budget? We have good news: there are small changes you can make along the way to improve your customer experience online.
Web expert Andy Crestodina of Orbit Media provides valuable insight and knowledge to enable you to be more effective selling and promoting your products online. Each session includes Andy's reviews of bookstore websites, in which he gives feedback on what to change or enhance.
The Optimized Bookstore Website is divided into three sessions:
This video is password protected and available to ICBA Members only.
Visual Merchandising Online Institute (Spring 2018)
The Visual Merchandising Online Institute (VMOI) reviews and builds on effective VM strategies and techniques with the goal of uniting VM as a signature marketing tool and key component in driving conversions and sales. Each of the webinars is valuable as a standalone session, but together, they provide a comprehensive array of tips and ideas to maximize your VM efforts. Whether you have full-time VM associates, or if VM is a part of everyone’s job, the VMOI will emphasize practical and realistic techniques that don’t require a big budget or a massive store remodel.
The VMOI will help you improve the shopping experience, beginning the moment the shopper engages and interacts with the visual environment to the moment they exit the store as a satisfied customer!
The VMOI is divided into four sessions:
This video is password protected and available to ICBA Members only.
Managing Your Most Important Resource (Fall 2017)
Managing Your Most Important Resource was developed exclusively for ICBA by Audrey Southard, former SVP or Human Resources for Follett Higher Education Group. As an integrated series, it represents a comprehensive program, from HR strategy and succession planning to the nitty gritty of interviewing and performance appraisal.
Managing Your Most Important Resource is divided into four sessions:
This video is password protected and available to ICBA Members only.