At Widen, we understand the importance of a connected user community. When our customers are able to learn from each other they increase the impact of the Widen Collective^® at their organization, they advance their skills and confidence, and they even find greater satisfaction in their jobs. 

That’s why we nurture our community of Collective customers in many ways — through our annual Widen Summit, Widen User Groups (WUGs), and the Widen Advocate leadership program. And now, we are thrilled to announce the launch of Widen Connect, the place where Collective administrators can connect and grow, online. 

In the final installment of our four-part 2018 Best DAM Contest series, we meet Melinda Lee from Kerry.

Her approach to digital asset management (DAM) and the Best DAM Contest is global adoption and growth, with continual improvements to meet the needs of users across continents. Learn more about Melinda and her DAM story.

In the third installment of our four-part 2018 Best DAM Contest series, we meet Barb Mitrovic, from the American Society for Quality (ASQ).

Her approach to digital asset management (DAM) and the Best DAM Contest is really all about her users, and making their work-life better. Learn more about Barb and her DAM story.

In the second installment of our four-part 2018 Best DAM Contest series, we meet Caroline Gardner, formerly of New Balance.

Her approach to digital asset management (DAM) and the Best DAM Contest is hard work and continued optimization, not striving for perfection. Learn more about Caroline and her DAM story.

In this four-part series we’ll get to know the admins who took center stage at the Best DAM Contest during the 2018 Widen Summit. This contest gives contestants eight minutes to highlight the best parts of their Widen Collective^® site and share their biggest accomplishments with all Summit attendees. The Summit audience then votes for the most inspirational, engaging, and aspirational DAM story.

No two stories are alike as each contestant faces different challenges in their role as an admin and each offers a unique perspective about what they gained through their participation in the contest.

Read more about the admins, their accomplishments, and their DAM stories starting with our 2018 winner, Leah Hammes from McCormick & Company.

A DAM administrator maintains and promotes the global digital asset management (DAM) solution. They lead in areas of technical system maintenance, marketing global processes and procedures, communications, metadata creation and consistency, training, and user support.

A month ago at the Widen Summit, we revealed how your feedback and aspirations have shaped the future of DAM. We also showed how the most important trends in content, creative operations, and data have informed our product roadmap. If you missed the Summit, don’t worry: below, you can find out how we’re evolving Widen’s Software-as-a-Service experience to help your brand reach its highest potential.

Editor’s note: Deb Berard has moved to a new organization but her experience with DAM is still relevant to other DAMsters. Enjoy!

We caught up with Deb Berard, Senior Business Analyst and DAM admin at New Teacher Center, which is headquartered in Santa Cruz, CA. Here’s her take on the value digital asset management (DAM) brings to their team and business.

Sheridan has grown from a local college of 400 students in 1967 to one of Ontario’s leading postsecondary institutions, educating approximately 38,000 students every year on four campuses. They help shape the future of our society in the fields of arts, business, community service, health, technology, and the skilled trades. Class was recently in session and we had a chance to sit down with Stewart Dick, senior graphic designer and Britta Charbonneau, eMarketing Technologist with Sheridan College to talk about Digital Asset Management (DAM) in higher ed.

Metadata: Do or do not. There is no try. 

Tim Goodman’s DAM administrator (admin) role came out of necessity. Managing assets for CNH Industrial once meant keeping boxes of old CDs and film in places that were not always known or accessible. A rudimentary process was created lacked remote access, lacked any type of automation and had no associated metadata with the assets. So CNH Industrial needed a better way to organize, find and distribute their vast library of logos, photos, videos, catalogs and marketing assets.