Report from the 2008 Ontario College Fair

Alex Mazurewicz, a Senior Social Media Consultant at Academica Group, attended the 2008 Ontario College Information Fair at the CNE grounds in Toronto, and summarizes the highlights in this guest blog...

The weather outside was cold last Monday morning, but the excitement inside Exhibition Place was brimming with ambition and wonder. Upper-year high school students eagerly went from booth to booth in an attempt to alleviate some of the stress they felt, put on not only by themselves but by parents and teachers, about choosing the best post-secondary education possible. The OCIF boasts an attendance of 8,000 to 9,000 visitors in a single day. This is only 20% of the attendance of the OUF, but still an impressive number, providing colleges with good exposure. The key here is if just one extra student chooses your school, then the booth is paid for, depending of course on the size of the booth.

In the Exhibit Hall

As I entered the hall I couldn’t help but feel the energy in the room. The room was filled with reps from over 20 of Ontario’s top colleges. Many of the exhibits were unchanged from last year's OCIF. The majority of schools were set up side-by-side around the room like a border with a few reps stationed at each. The middle of the hall was filled with larger exhibits from the larger GTA colleges -- Humber, Centennial, George Brown, and Seneca, who actually brought a wrapped bus into the hall to help differentiate themselves.

The Presentations

My day started with a presentation by Centennial College. They took a different approach to the usual presentation of campus offerings and course options. They have a new campaign titled www.Humanracebook.com. Their main message is that the world is approaching a chaotic state and we need to take action now to prevent massive problems in the future. It’s a good view of the world climate, but what’s more refreshing is that they are actually trying to make things better -- by making a world issues class mandatory for all students. It is the hope that this will inspire students to go out and fix social and economic issues in their lifetime. The only problem I found was that some of the images were a bit graphic and heavy, especially at 10 o’clock in the morning.

Other notable presentations included George Brown College, whose main focus was on the employment rates of past students. At the end of their presentation, they were applauded -- I have never seen that before.

Another noteworthy presentation was by Fanshawe College. What was especially pleasant about their presentation was the fact that they did not merely go through the motions of explaining the courses and figures, info that is easily accessible online or in the viewbook. Fanshawe's reps worked hard to communicate the student experience at their college and really sell the brand.

Other schools took a different approach and chose to forego the presentation altogether, if they had a small enough group. They took that time to survey the room and speak with the visitors one-on-one. It may well be that the approach is more effective for recruiting individual students, but as a third-party observer there was no reason to stay.

The main thrust of the presentations and marketing messages from every participating college was to encourage prospective students to come for a campus visit. Many schools boasted multimillion-dollar expansions and improvements to their campuses.

Overall it was a fun and exciting day. I felt like I was at that young age again of post secondary applications. Then as I remembered how stressed I was during that time, I was happy to have completed that chapter in my life!

What was your experience of the OCIF, whether as an exhibitor or a student attending? Please share your thoughts in a comment below!