CADM Event Feat. Howard Tullman

Today I had the pleasure of attending a CADM luncheon featuring a discussion of Flashpoint Academy's marketing and branding strategies by Howard Tullman, president and CEO. Now, I know he's my boss, and it's not exactly fashionable to be so impressed by the guy who's signing your paycheck, but I'm telling you... If you ever get the opportunity to hear him give a talk, you need to go. He's always so engaging and very well-spoken.

Howard touched on many points this afternoon, including the role of print media and social marketing in creating Flashpoint's image, and then answered a good number of audience questions. I'm sure anyone interested will have another opportunity to see his slideshow or listen to him present (and when you do, I'll be sure to post about it in advance), but I thought I'd share some of the audience questions here.

(All questions and answers are paraphrased from notes taken at the event. Please, do not consider anything below this line a quote.)

Where does Flashpoint plan to see its students go after graduation?
Flashpoint intends to forge relationships with the elite employers in all our courses of study. Pixar, Dreamworks, etc. Our target market is small and tightly focused with an emphasis on return business. That said, we expect one half of our students to go directly into corporate America, filling the growing number of positions for digital media experts at every company trying to expand its digital/online presence.

How big is enrollment, and how big is the target?
Enrollment at Flashpoint is currently at 400. Our target enrollment, which we expect to hit in 2 years, is 900.

What percentage of students go directly to Flashpoint from high school?
In Flashpoint's first year, none of the students came directly out of high school. Guidance counselors were unwilling to bet their careers on an untested college. All of the initial enrollees had varying amounts of collegiate experience, some having left their first college after just a few weeks, others with a Bachelor's degree from a 4-year institution. Our second group of enrollees is about 38% straight out of high school.

How does Flashpoint reach out to High School Students?
Flashpoint will be running a summer institute for high school students 16+ beginning this year to give them a taste of what Flashpoint has to offer. The school doesn't typically reach out to students under 16 because so few of them are truly serious about their career paths. Our focus is primarily on high school juniors and seniors.

What will the average salary be of students who graduate from Flashpoint Academy?
Between 35k and 75k per year.

How does Flashpoint measure the effectiveness of Social Media?
For one thing, we do have extensive lead tracking systems in place [utilizing Google Analytics and other means]; however, one way to be sure you're maximizing the potential of your social media is to create media that can be used in multiple places. We'll have a camera crew at events that we heost or speak at, and then load the video and disperse the content over multiple channels.