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Digital marketing certificate helps hospitality professionals drive customer engagement

Two men and a woman lean over a desk covered in papers. The three people are marking up the papers with a pen and sticky notes.

As consumers increasingly rely on online resources to make travel and hospitality decisions, businesses must adapt their marketing strategies to meet customers where they are. But what constitutes a successful strategy in an increasingly saturated market?

In the Hospitality Digital Marketing certificate program, associate professor Rob Kwortnik and former clinical professor Bill Carroll — both from the Cornell Nolan School of Hotel Administration — present an approach based on foundational hospitality marketing concepts and principles designed to integrate a company’s brand communications across media channels.

“Today’s hospitality consumers make decisions across multiple digital touchpoints before they ever walk through your door. This program teaches professionals how to create and execute marketing strategies that reach guests with messaging that resonates,” Kwortnik said.

Through a detailed case study of a fictional Baltimore hotel, participants learn to develop comprehensive integrated marketing communications (IMC) strategies that create consistent cross-channel brand experiences. Courses include Marketing Hospitality Brands Through Digital Media, Implementing Brand Strategy Through Digital Media, Communicating the Brand Across Marketing Media and Success Metrics for Hospitality Digital Marketing.

“We guide participants through building a complete IMC strategy for a hotel,” Kwortnik said. “They learn to identify their target market, develop creative strategies and optimize their online presence. These are skills they can immediately apply to their own properties.”

The coursework covers shaping consumers’ brand beliefs, developing website and search engine marketing strategies and content creation for social media and online communities. Participants also explore the full suite of traditional media, including print, radio, television and public relations. Working with real-world scenarios, professionals learn to adapt to shifting market conditions and evolving media landscapes — and they understand how to measure the success of their IMC activities.

“The hospitality industry’s future belongs to professionals who understand how to connect with guests in meaningful ways through digital marketing,” Kwortnik said. “This program prepares leaders to shape that future while staying true to the fundamentals of hospitality excellence.”

Year-long, free access to the Hospitality and Marketing Symposia are available as part of the program. The sessions enable learners to engage in real-time conversations on essential hospitality industry topics and trends with professional peers and experts from the Cornell community and beyond.

Learn to lead digital evolution in hospitality marketing. Enroll in Cornell’s Hospitality Digital Marketing certificate program.

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Navigate Change with eCornell

We know the saying — the only constant in life is change.

Are you prepared to thrive in an ever-changing professional landscape? Being able to navigate change plays a pivotal role in shaping successful careers and organizations. That’s why we’ve designed a diverse range of online certificates and courses, all authored by faculty experts at Cornell University, to equip you with key skills and knowledge needed to pursue change and excel amidst change. 

Here’s a curated list of our programs that support change:

 

1. Change Management Certificate

Learn to anticipate change as a leader and sustain the momentum of your change management initiatives.

  • School: Cornell SC Johnson College of Business
  • Courses: 4 core, 2 elective, plus access to a Live Leadership Symposium
  • Time Commitment: 3 months
  • Faculty Authors: 
    • Cathy Enz, Professor Emeritus, Cornell Nolan School of Hotel Administration
    • Samuel Bacharach, Professor, Cornell ILR School
    • Glen Dowell, Professor, Cornell SC Johnson College of Business
    • Kate Walsh, Dean, Cornell Nolan School of Hotel Administration
    • Jan Katz, Senior Lecturer, Cornell Nolan School of Hotel Administration
    • Risa Mish, Professor, Cornell SC Johnson College of Business
    • Rohit Verma, Professor, Cornell Nolan School of Hotel Administration
    • Angela Noble-Grange, Senior Lecturer, Cornell SC Johnson College of Business
    • Tony Simons, Professor, Cornell SC Johnson College of Business
    • Robert Bloomfield, Professor of Management, Cornell SC Johnson College of Business
    • Christopher Collins, Associate Professor, Cornell ILR School

 

2. Change, Disruption, and Growth Course 

Assess industry disruptions, evaluate organizational responses, and devise strategies for successful adaptation and growth.

  • School: Cornell SC Johnson College of Business
  • Course Length: 2 weeks
  • Faculty Author: Justin Johnson, Professor, Cornell SC Johnson College of Business

 

3. Communication Planning for Change Course 

Analyze audiences affected by anticipated organizational changes and develop a communication plan.

  • School: Cornell SC Johnson College of Business
  • Course Length: 2 weeks
  • Faculty Author: Amy Newman, Senior Lecturer, Cornell SC Johnson College of Business

 

4. DEI: Dialogue for Change Certificate

Gain essential skills and insights for driving diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives within your organization and community.

  • School: Cornell ILR School
  • Courses: 3 courses plus access to a Live DEI Symposium
  • Time Commitment: 2.5 months
  • Faculty Authors: 
    • Lisa Nishii, Professor and Vice Provost, Cornell ILR School
    • Adi Grabiner-Keinan, Executive Director for Academic DEI Education and Director of the Intergroup Dialogue Project, Cornell ILR School

 

5. Equitable Community Change Certificate 

Learn to manage development and changes across all sectors of society to build more equitable, just, and sustainable communities.

  • School: Cornell ILR School
  • Courses: 6
  • Time Commitment: 3 months
  • Faculty Authors: 
    • Sam Magavern, Senior Policy Fellow, Partnership for the Public Good
    • Russell Weaver, Director of Research, Cornell ILR Buffalo Co-Lab

 

6. Healthcare Change Management Certificate 

Understand, measure, implement, and lead successful change management initiatives in the healthcare sector.

  • School: Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
  • Courses: 4 courses plus access to a Live Leadership Symposium
  • Time Commitment: 2 months
  • Faculty Author: Nick A. Fabrizio, Senior Lecturer, Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy

7. Leading Organizational Change Course

Explore your own leadership style and practice skills to translate transformative ideas into organizational results.

  • School: Cornell ILR School
  • Course Length: 2 weeks
  • Faculty Author: Samuel Bacharach, Professor, Cornell ILR School

 

8. Leading Strategic Change Initiatives Course

Cultivate your ability to assess the need for strategic change within your organization.

  • School: Cornell Nolan School of Hotel Administration
  • Course Length: 2 weeks
  • Faculty Author: Cathy Enz, Professor Emeritus, Cornell Nolan School of Hotel Administration

 

9. Making Strategic Change Happen Course 

Assess organizational readiness to effectively carry out change initiatives that drive growth and success.

  • Course Length: 2 weeks
  • Faculty Author: Cathy Enz, Professor Emeritus, Cornell Nolan School of Hotel Administration

 

Whether you’re looking to advance your career, drive organizational transformation, or make a positive impact in your community, we’re here to support your journey.

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New Cornell certificate emphasizes dialogue in DEI

Photo of group dialogue with one young woman facing camera.

In 2020, hiring for diversity, equity and inclusion roles surged. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, three years later – amid recession fears – companies are cutting DEI leadership positions at a rapid and disproportionate rate, leaving practitioners to seek new ways of continuing efforts to create welcoming work environments.

Dialogue for Change, a new online certificate program from Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations and the Intergroup Dialogue Project (IDP) delivered through eCornell, provides a fresh approach to DEI for team managers and supervisors, executives and all employees interested in building equitable cultures.

“The certificate focuses on four key development areas: human connection, social identity, intergroup communication and strategic change,” said Adi Grabiner-Keinan, executive director for academic DEI education and director of the IDP. “Our goals are to develop participants’ awareness around the four development areas and to strengthen their capacity to make meaningful change at personal, interpersonal and institutional levels.”

Together with Lisa Nishii, vice provost for undergraduate education and professor in the Cornell ILR School, Grabiner-Keinan is co-author of the Dialogue for Change certificate. The duo intends for the program to help professionals promote sustainable institutional change no matter their position on the organizational chart.

In three courses – Counteracting Unconscious Bias, Dialogue Across Difference and Strategic Influence – participants learn and practice skills for intentional connection and communication, and examine ways to impact change in different spheres of influence, including within their teams and organizations. These skills, according to Grabiner-Keinan, are crucial well beyond the field of DEI.

“Skills such as active and generative listening, strategic questioning, purposeful sharing, perspective-taking, withholding judgment and questioning assumptions allow us to lead, communicate and collaborate effectively,” Grabiner-Keinan said. “They enable us to broaden our perspective, learn from a variety of people and situations, bring people together, think creatively and create meaning and vision. Unfortunately, such skills are seldom taught in schools or colleges.”

Dialogue for Change engages students in weekly live sessions. Trained IDP facilitators guide participants through practice conversations within small groups of experts and peers. Each dialogue builds on earlier coursework, enabling the cohort to use new knowledge in real time. Students who complete the program earn professional development credit hours toward human resources and project management certifications.

Each student who earns the Dialogue for Change certificate, Grabiner-Keinan says, will recognize their power to foster inclusion, connection and equity in any role. “An integral part of this program is to identify the agency and responsibility that each of us has. It’s true that leaders and supervisors have more power in institutions, but this program helps people understand that they all have power to make change interpersonally and institutionally within their workplaces.”

The Dialogue for Change certificate program is now enrolling students. Visit the program website to learn more.