I love my job. There are plenty of things to love about working at Converge: smart and savvy clients, interesting and challenging projects, Ann is promising to bring in a mini keg fridge for the summer… it’s a fantastic place to work. However, my favorite part of my job lately is something even more exciting – and something that I get to share with all of you: the speaker line up for Converge 2015.

Our focus is to bring in the best of the best in digital marketing. That means we’ve lined up amazing speakers from companies that are defining the space in inbound marketing, web analytics, search engine optimization, digital advertising and content strategy. These are the folks that experts across the globe are looking to hone their skills and stay up-to-date.

We also know that higher education has some very unique situations and challenges. So we’ve taken care also include real life examples of how schools are finding success with these same big ideas. Personally, I could not be more excited about the line up and cannot wait to see what these folks have to say. Here’s why.

Sarah Bedrick, Hubspot

Hubspot has basically defined inbound marketing (go ahead and Google “what is inbound marketing” and see who comes up first). And while their platform designed to make it easier to earn the attention of prospective students is revolutionary, it’s their dedication to education and evangelism of inbound that sets them apart. An inbound marketing conference without Hubspot would feel like a final four without Duke.

Sarah Bedrick is currently heading up the charge for all of Hubspot’s introductory training at Hubspot Academy. She’s a pro teacher and a student of how to make their trainings more effective. She’s the perfect person to frame up our conference and guide us on how to attract, convert and delight prospective students and alumni. Keep up with Hubspot at blog.hubspot.com and follow Sara at @sbedrick.

Krista Seiden, Google

So there’s this company out there called Google… of course you know Google! If you’re like me, you’re in touch with Google more than your own mother (sorry Mom, love you). As Converge’s resident Google Analytics nerd, Krista Seiden’s presentation is at the very top of my list.

Krista is an analytics advocate for Google, which means she focuses on using her vast practitioner experience and knowledge to help educate analytics users around the world. We’re okay with trying new things and taking calculated marketing risks, right? She’ll help us learn to measure those risks and learn what’s working and where to pull the plug. Krista was recently awarded the Digital Analytics Association’s Practitioner of the Year award and you can follow her at www.bloggerchica.com and@kristaseiden.

Matthew Brown, Moz

If you’ve ever heard me present, you’ll know that I rip off at least one Moz example per presentation. These are the guys and gals that spend lots of time reverse engineering the search engine algorithms to find out how they’re working so that marketers like us, who are juggling about 1000 other priorities, can make smart SEO decisions. Like Hubspot for inbound, Moz has developed fantastic SEO tools and platforms to make site optimization a breeze, but also like Hubspot, they really shine with their true devotion to education in the space. Their active learning communityis full of experts to help (free of charge), The Moz Blog is an incredible resource, and their Whiteboard Fridays inspired our own Friday After Class video series.

Matthew Brown is Head of Special Projects at Moz. That means he’ll share some of the latest ideas and strategies at Moz and what you can expect in the future of SEO. You can follow Matthew at @MatthewJBrown.

Margot Bloomstein, Appropriate, Inc.

Have you ever been to a website, read through a few pages and just felt completely connected? Whether it’s a shopping website that has the best lifestyle articles, a news site that delivers a certain snark or (hopefully) a higher education website that connects across departments and silos, all of those amazing web experiences start with content strategy.

I first read Margot’s book, Content Strategy at Work, when I was working in the corporate world and in need of some organized, quality content. Margot guides readers through the content strategy framework, looks at some great tools and strategies and shows how it really works with case studies. As someone who was once in the somewhat hopeless position of looking at a mound of messy webpages, I cannot wait to hear Margot give Converge 2015 a map to successful content. You can follow Margot at @mbloomstein.

Rob Ousbey, Distilled

When you’re looking for the best conferences on digital marketing, you cannot overlook the SearchLove series. That was my first introduction to Distilled, a fantastic digital marketing group founded in London. Their blog and conference are dedicated to what’s new and next in digital marketing and they’re especially known for their expertise in search engine optimization and digital advertising.

We could not be more excited to have Rob, VP of their Seattle office, joining us at Converge 2015. He’ll talk about the ins and outs of SEO, current trends and predictions for the future. While implanting best search engine optimization practices on your huge higher education website might seem daunting, Rob will help you walk away with confidence. You can follow Rob at @RobOusbey.

Higher Education Experts

How do we get this done? How did you build buy-in? How did you deal with limited resources? We’ll also have plenty of presentations from higher education professionals, just like you, who are implementing these strategies right now in their institutions. They’ll show you how they got it done, show you results and most importantly, field your questions.

I know a lot of conferences will tell you that they’ve got great speakers, but guys, these speakers are going to be great! They’re hand selected from leaders in not just higher education, but across digital marketing. They’re known for their passion and expertise in teaching these strategies and tactics. They’re authors, award winners, innovators, educators and actually in the trenches.

We are tremendously lucky to have each and every one at Converge 2015.