Webinar Highlights: Alumni Hour: Succeeding with E…

We’re back for Part 2! Over the course of the past six months, universities and alumni associations of every size have faced significant disruptions to their operations, events, and engagement strategies. Traditionally, alumni organizations have relied on a busy calendar of in-person events - like homecoming, tailgates, class reunions, and local alumni chapter meetups - to keep alumni active. Many of these in-person events are now risky and untenable for the foreseeable future. In response, alumni associations have devoted fresh energy and resources towards producing engaging virtual programs and events, with incredible results.

Join Dan Sullivan (Head of Growth and Partnerships @ Cuseum), Michael Smullen (Executive Director, Alumni Relations @ New Jersey Institute of Technology), Leslie Smith (Executive Director of Alumni Engagement @ DePauw University), Natalie Ross (Senior Director of Alumni Events & Programs @ University of Maryland Alumni Association) & Kelly Beyrer (Assistant Director for Alumni & Advancement Events @ Iona College) for PART 2 of a webinar on all things virtual events. In Part 1, we discussed utilizing digital tools, developing high impact events, reaching new audiences, and key ways to measure success. Picking up where we left off, Part 2 will explore leveraging your network to produce virtual events, working with partners on and off campus, and the long-term outlook of virtual engagement.

View the full recording here.

Read below for the main highlights.

Leverage Your Network to Produce Virtual Events

In this new world of virtual events, leveraging your network can be key to producing successful virtual events. For Kelly Beyrer at Iona College, she emphasized that it is important to interact with a diverse pool of alumni in order to understand who might be interested in being a part of a virtual event.

Natalie Ross, as part of the engagement and outreach team at University of Maryland Alumni Association, has also been reaching out to event attendees through virtual visits by geographic region. By getting to know alumni from around the country, they’ve discovered many constituents whom they can collaborate with as panelists, moderators, and speakers for virtual events.

Leslie at DePauw University echoed a similar sentiment.

“It’s also been great to really focus on and hone in on engaging alumni who may have had a challenging experience. Quick story, there’s an alum who would not come back to DePauw because she had a challenging experience. However, she is an entrepreneur and I positioned it in ‘what is in it for you.’ Now we’ll have exposure to 30,000 plus people who could utilize your business. Let’s talk about the benefits of you being heard of and utilizing your alumni network. And now she’s going to be doing a panel for us in a couple weeks.”
– Leslie Smith

Michael has also been tapping in the alumni network for more career focused programming. He has found that within the New Jersey Institute of Technology alumni base, many have been excited to serve as speakers for relevant career and networking events.

When developing content, look into your alumni network and collaborate with those with diverse backgrounds and stories. This will not only benefit your programming for your organization, but it also provides great networking and career-related opportunities for alumni!

Work with Partners On Campus

In addition to opportunities to connect with your alumni, there are also ways to connect with other partners and departments on campus to create more engaging and far-reaching virtual events.

For example, Leslie has also been partnering with the admissions office at DePauw University to create virtual programming that will appeal to prospective students. They’ve so far held an Alumni College Series, created a letter writing campaign, and developed networking opportunities between students and alumni.

“Being in this COVID-19 quarantine situation, it’s not only allowed us to extend the opportunity to alumni all across the nation and across the world in higher ed, I’ve learned that we tend to all have our own individual goals, and this has caused us to break down those silos and work more collaboratively on the different programming initiatives that we have for students and alumni.”
– Leslie Smith

Michael from New Jersey Institute of Technology has also been collaborating with his internal network of other campus departments. He saw that the university’s on campus partners were extremely engaged and were proactive in their collaboration. For example, he was able to create recordings with faculty members to send to prospective students and found that it had great viewership.

Kelly also has leveraged the contacts of professors to connect with alumni.

“For us, it’s more like one-on-one, I like to think it’s human to human contact, which we’re all lacking in the Zoom world. So leveraging our own contacts, even identified people that we didn’t know would want to be engaged. Virtual has definitely helped us reach a much further audience than previously.”
– Kelly Beyrer

For two of their panels, the professors found alumni they reached out to and invited them.

When developing new ideas and programs, alumni associations can also look toward new and unexpected partnerships to create unique content!

Consider the Long-Term Benefits of Virtual Events

Many organizations have been looking for ways to create engaging programming while maintaining a limited budget. For this reason, virtual events can be a saving grace. Although they still require a budget and resources, this is often significantly less than signature, in-person events.

For example, Natalie has been stretching what would have been single in-person events in local cities, such as Maryland, Washington D.C., and the Northern Virginia area, to a large series of events through virtual. One example was their Wellness Week: Terps Take Care, which was a 5-part webinar series led by alumni that focused on mental and physical health. In addition to listening to these webinars, alumni also received complementary items like a yoga mat and water bottle.

Because of their popularity and cost-effectiveness, many organizations are considering a permanent role for virtual events. As a result, many organizations are even beginning to reimagine how they measure alumni engagement, to account for this new era of virtual events.

We’re probably going to end up with [virtual events] never going away now. This is a part of how we’ll operate.”
– Michael Smullen

Although there may be challenges with balancing budget and engagement, every event is a learning experience. Through repurposing budgets to more widespread events, this will enable your organization to gain more involvement and reach.

As your alumni association navigates this new school year, collaborating with on campus departments and the alumni network will be essential. Through reaching out and engaging with unexpected partners, it can also create content that will build relationships in the long term. Even with limited budgets, new metrics and new partnerships will bring about long-term benefits to your organization.