Francis,
I believe one of the key elements to planning an alumni event is asking the right questions - Why would a graduate want to come to my event? What will draw them? How can I make them feel appreciated? How can I communicate what's in it for them?
Good luck on your next event!
June Gudeman
We had an event last year that was not as well attended as hoped. I now know that my lack of understanding of how to put the association together may have contributed to the low attendance. My next event will be after the entire structure is in place and will again hold the event at school as a way to show our ever expanding school.
Chris,
That sounds like a good start. As you plan details, remember to think like an alumni. Why would your grads 'want' to come? What would draw them in? What would make them leave feeling valued by your institution? How can you involve our alumni in the planning to help them begin to take ownership and assist in getting the word out? How will you evaluate the effectiveness of the event?
June Gudeman
Our first event will definitely be an alumni mixer. Currently, we are planning on holding one for all previous graduates (our campus has only been open for about 6 years, and is a small school, so this is feasible). It will be held in correlation with a major industry event happening in the beginning of next year, and we will invite many manufacturers and employers, allowing grads to interface and networking with possible employers and providers of materials used in the field.
Anna,
Certainly, one of the main 'draws' for bringing graduates back into a connection with their school is career services. I think this would be a good first event.
June
The first social event we will hold would be a career fair. We will invite past and present students all dressed with resumes on hand ready for interviews on the site. We will also invite a variety of companies that are looking to hire now or in the near future.
Ginny,
I like the 'order' that you have for your priorities. So often schools want to start with a party. I believe getting your advisory board in place to provide direction and support needs to be first. Your website IS your connection with graduates and needs to be available to 'continue' your relationship with the alumni who attend your events.
Good thoughts!
June
First setting up the advisory board, get in put from each instructor and director and have all come on board to promote the Alumni Association...setting up the website with newsletter and interacting that with job placement board as a free service for employers and for past and present students, and then setting up quarterly meetings to start with a prominent speaker....if food doesn't start in the beginning then it would not be expected....since this is suppose to be FREE and since we are a small school opting not to be a Title lV....the funding for this project has to be considered cause it would take time to set this up correctly....someone with a strong backround in marketing, websites, newsletter, party planning!
Jeff,
This sounds like a great event - drawing in both graduates and employers and giving them an opportunity to connect.
Do you have a way to get feedback after the event from both alumni and employers? This will be important in helping you organize future events. They may give you good ideas you hadn't considered.
June
This is actually a perfect question for me because I am preparing my first social event currently. It will be a Meet and Greet with graduates and employers. A bulletin board and tables will be available to post resumes, job descriptions, business opportunities, and new products. Each employer will also be introduced and given a tour of the school. It is my hope that we are able to reconnect with graduates who may have been out of touch, to build relationships with the employers, and to hopefully get some people jobs. I feel as though we have everything in place that we need to make the event successful.
Casey,
It sounds like you have some good ideas for getting the word out. As you plan your alumni event be sure to ask the questions - "Why would our graduates want to come to this event? What's in it for them?" Think like an alumni and then plan accordingly. Sometimes we may think something is a good idea, but we haven't thought about it from the grads perspective.
Good luck!
June
I think that we should have an Alumni Mixer in which we will heavily advertise. For example, the first thing we would do would be to send a letter to ALL graduates about the creation of the Alumni Association. Next would be a creation of an Alumni Newsletter, which would run 3x a year. We would send that out with the event listed. Closer to the time a personalized invitation and RSVP's will be tracked to ensure that we are getting a response to all the work we're doing. It also might be helpful to invited employers who have worked with us in the past and have them collect resumes.
Hi Amanda,
When hosting an alumni event, it's important to think from their perspective. Why would they want to come to my event? What's in it for them? Promoting updated information on new legislation would certainly be of interest to them - I like it!
June
I envision our first social event to be held in conjunction with one of our schools inviting all alumni to come out. Currently, there is new legislation being voted on that may have passed by this fall that would require a new national licensing exam. It would be good to have a meeting to see and update everyone with their possible concerns and how it impact our school.
Good thoughts Fiona,
The key is thinking about your event from the graduate's perspective. Why would they want to come? What will they get out of it? What would be the most effective way to gather the information we want from them?
June
Great ideas Gerry!
I would agree that having your website and newsletter in place will help you already have a method of communication and help you "get the word out".
I like the idea of an industry guest speaker. It's important to think through what would be a draw to your grads.
June
The first social event I envision would be an alumni mixer inviting alumni from the past five years. It is something we've discussed this year about holding quarterly alumni mixers where we can get information on where our alumni are working, job leads and HR contact. An ideal time would be before the end of this year. I would like to see our Advisory board in place and buy-in's from the various departments.
For our first social event, we would like to have a networking mixer where we can even have an industry guest speaker that can talk to our graduates about their industry and what employers are looking for. We could also have a graduate that is successfully working talk about their experience, etc. We would like to have that event soon after the association has been set up. Before we have that event though, we would like to have our website and newsletter in place to help with marketing and promotions.
