The annual web content-themed conference for higher education professionals is happening in Manchester this year, from 16 to 17 October. Lauren and I are contributing sessions, and the team are looking forward to a couple of days of learning and networking with colleagues across the sector.

Last month I attended a one-day UK EduCamp unconference at the University of Sheffield. The relaxed format provided lots of opportunity to discuss and learn about burning topics for digital teams in the sector, and to connect with colleagues old and new.

Listening to a podcast by journalist and author Jon Ronson, I was struck by what he had to say about social media echo chambers and feedback loops. It made me think about the parallels between his observations and findings, and how we run user-centred projects. In particular, the importance of working in the open.

We have concluded that it’s not going to be feasible to release our new service for prospective students as planned next year, due to our dependency on the Web Publishing Platform which is not yet ready to roll out.

We’ll use an extended slot at this week’s Web Publishers Community to update on our progress so far this year, covering: timelines, content design and collaboration, user research and usability testing.

We ran an online session for marketing and student recruitment colleagues on Thursday 1 December, to share an update on our work, invite questions and comments and promote an opportunity for collaboration and co-design in the new year.

We’re running an online event on Thursday 1 December to share our latest work, give you the chance to feedback and register interest in collaborating on a preview beta release early in 2023. If you’re a contributor to the current online degree finders, or just interested in the prospective student experience, book a place.

We’ve had a fabulous couple of days at this year’s Content Ed conference, with three members of the team contributing sessions and our user-centred approach winning top prize in this category.

We’re currently recruiting for a senior content designer who will lead our content operations function and play a key role in shaping our future service as we build a new content management system.

At a recent awayday, I had the opportunity to share some thoughts on services, what that means for how our team does its work and how it might have wider impact.