Bright and early tomorrow morning, I hop on a plane with my colleagues, bound for Seattle, WA. I’m excited about this trip for two reasons: (1) attending NACAC since I had to miss it last year while preparing for maternity leave and (2) visiting Seattle for the first time. My career has provided me with the chance to travel extensively throughout the United States, yet until now, I haven’t stepped foot in the Pacific Northwest.

NACAC is always a great experience. It’s a chance to catch up with folks we only get to see a few times throughout the year – our wonderful clients, friends at institutions we may not work with but always enjoy seeing, and friendly competitors who share the same mission we do – to help our clients in the education market achieve their goals, engage and inspire prospective students, articulate their brand to their many constituents…

As NACAC progresses, we’re going to keep our colleagues back in Atlanta in-the-know as well as our contacts on the institution side who maybe didn’t make the trip to Seattle for NACAC this year or work outside of the admissions area. Last year, grounded in Atlanta, I had to make do with living vicariously through the photos our team posted to Flickr. This year, the ante has been raised and you can stay abreast of NACAC activity in a number of ways. In addition to our blog posts, you can follow us on Twitter or if you’re a Facebook member, check us out there! If you’ll be in Seattle, please visit us in the exhibit area — booth #712.

Signing off. Back to packing…

My colleague, Jennifer Bagley, brought a  New York Times article to my attention this morning about Unigo.com. Learning about Unigo.com reminded me of a quote by Marcus Aurelius I’ve always liked: “Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are, and to make new things like them.”

Unigo.com is a brand new web site geared toward prospective college students and their families. Unigo is a free site with student-generated content and, in theory, serves the same purpose as the comprehensive college guidebooks published each year. The difference is, of course, the fact that the content is 100% student generated and completely free for the user. The good, the bad and the ugly are reported — along with all the positive, glowing impressions a student might have. The site is populated with content through a student-focused grass roots movement rather than enlisting the help of admissions and marketing professionals at colleges and universities it reviews.

Although the concept of student-generated content is not new, the approach and scope of Unigo could be ground-breaking. Unigo’s momentum is building, so if you haven’t encountered it yet, don’t be surprised if your current and prospective students begin talking about it soon…

We’ve given The Scoop a makeover. This new look is not just about some fresh paint and window treatments. It signals a change in how we’ll be using The Scoop as well.

In addition to our special contributor articles, you’ll be hearing more often from Stein staffers, who’ll be posting to The Scoop regularly. We want to hear from you too. Commenting is now enabled for our posts. Let us know what you’re thinking.

For quick updates and links to interesting things we find around the web, we’ll be using our Twitter feed. Our latest tweets will appear in the right sidebar, and you can also elect to follow us on Twitter. With the Twitter link in the sidebar, you’ll also find a link to our new Facebook page.

We’ll be using all these tools to better communicate with our readers and to discuss our work and projects. 

Welcome to The Scoop 2.0.