This three day institute combines sessions for those new to alumni relations and higher education at any level and for mid-level professionals. You will also get to interact and network with fellow alumni relations professionals from across the education sector and global community, providing you with plenty of fresh ideas and new ways of achieving your objectives.

You will leave the institute with the tools needed to successfully manage alumni relations programmes and with expert advice on how to maximise your impact with limited resources.

The format of the institute allows you to:

• Choose from numerous elective sessions on offer

• Gain insight into the key issues affecting alumni relations in education

• Meet your peers and network with others from across the sector and facing similar issues to you

10:00 – 10:30 Registration and Refreshments                

10:30 – 11:30 Ice Breaker, Welcome From CASE and Introduction to the Faculty

This interactive session will get the Institute rolling! Following a welcome from CASE, we’ll get a better understanding of who you are and your faculty will share their careers paths (the highs, the lows and everything in between) and how these experiences have helped to shape their careers. 
Bruce Bernstein, Executive Director of Global Engagement (Europe), CASE
Christine Fairchild, Director of Alumni Relations, University of Oxford 
David Williams, Director, Alumni Relations and Annual Giving, University College Cork 
Anita Irving, Associate Director of Alumni Engagement & Regular Giving, University of Liverpool 
Aba Quartey, Alumni Relations Manager, Chevening Secretariat 
Molly Southwood, Deputy Director and Head of Alumni Engagement, University of Bath 
Mehrnoosh Rayner, Head of Alumni Relations, EMBL                    

11:30 – 12:30 Tutorial 1: Aims and Objectives for the Institute and Getting to Know Each Other
Before arriving for the Institute, delegates will be divided into tutorial groups, each led by a faculty member. These small group meetings are sprinkled throughout the Institute and will serve as touch points to ensure you’re getting what you need out of each of the sessions and the Institute as a whole.  

12:30 – 13:30 Lunch

13:30 – 14:30 Fundamentals Session - Why Strategy Matters in Alumni Relations
Creating and communicating a strategy for your alumni relations activity is more important than ever. A successful Alumni Relations operation should be tied into the institution's larger goals, and be tangible, measurable, collaborative and ultimately, worth investing in. We'll demystify strategy and show how it can link to institutional goals. This session will explore how best to arrive at a strategy: what the components might be, how it lives alongside other institutional partners, how it is communicated and ultimately how it is measured. Participants are encouraged to bring copies of their institution's wider strategic plans as well as their Alumni Relations strategic plans (if they have them).
Christine Fairchild, Director of Alumni Relations, University of Oxford
David Williams, Director, Alumni Relations and Annual Giving, University College Cork

14:35 – 15:20 Fundamentals Session - Creating a Communications Plan
The traditional mainstay of alumni relations communications, the print magazine, has now been joined – and, in some cases, replaced – by a range of other communications, particularly digital channels. More immediate, more up to date, more relevant, more interactive, more bespoke and just plain ‘more’ communications.

In this session we will explore what the new norms in the world of communications to (and with) alumni are and what you might expect to see in a successful communications plan.
Anita Irving, Associate Director of Alumni Engagement & Regular Giving, University of Liverpool
Christine Fairchild, Director of Alumni Relations, University of Oxford

15:20 - 15:50 Refreshment and Networking Break

15:50 - 16:35 Fundamentals Session - Managing Volunteers: Good Practice and Programmes                   
Volunteers can make all the difference to an organisation: they can provide support for areas where your budget can’t reach and allow you to accomplish more than you can with the staffing constraints you no doubt have. Volunteers also bring challenges. They must be chosen carefully, managed thoughtfully, have clear goals and be held accountable. Sometimes they even need to be fired! This session will look at how to develop and support a dedicated and productive cadre of volunteers and share some best practice from around the sector.
Aba Quartey, Alumni Relations Manager, Chevening Secretariat
Molly Southwood, Deputy Director and Head of Alumni Engagement, University of Bath

16:35 – 17:20 Fundamentals Session - Getting to the Point of Events: Ensuring your Events Help Achieve your Goals 
Do you know why you are running an event and how it links to your strategic goals? Your alumni might enjoy it, but do you know if they value it? We’ll work through how you manage and assess the impact of your events, particularly:

- Developing goals and outcomes for events

- Objective setting and measurement

- Quantifying evaluation
Anita Irving, Associate Director of Alumni Engagement & Regular Giving, University of Liverpool
Mehrnoosh Rayner, Head of Alumni Relations, EMBL

17:20 - 19:00 Free time 

19:00 – 19:30 Drinks reception

19:30  Conference Dinner 

07:30 – 09:00 Breakfast

09:00 – 10:00What if you could better understand and positively influence your audience’s behaviours during your next big campaign? 
Shayoni Lynn FCIPR CMPRCA is one of the UK’s leading behaviour change experts in public sector communications and formerly led Cardiff University's award-winning, sector-leading alumni relations and fundraising communications programme. Shayoni will represent her new strategic communications consultancy, Lynn PR, and provide an overview of human behaviour and the unconscious motivations that exist in us. She will discuss behavioural economics, behavioural science, nudge theory and decision theory to demonstrate how a behavioural approach can significantly boost communications programmes and campaigns. 

Find out how you can boost your communications programme with creative solutions that work, based on real models of human behaviour and decision making. 
Shayoni Lynn, Director and Principal Consultant at Lynn PR (Guest speaker)

10:10 – 11:00 Tutorial 2: Making Sure you are on Track and Delving Deeper Into What You are Learning              

11:00 – 11:30 Refreshments and networking

11:30 – 12:20 Elective Session  – Please choose one

1. Increase your Global Footprint Through Alumni Groups, Chapters and Volunteers
For most institutions, our alumni communities span the globe and creating connections from a distance can be a challenge.  In this session, the faculty will present alternative models of how to build engaged alumni communities.  Topics will include creating and managing formal groups, the joys and challenges associated with volunteer management and how to incentivise, reward and hold these groups accountable.  If you’re looking for less structure, or a blend of formal and informal groups, or you’ve inherited a disparate groups network, the session will address other options to deliver meaningful engagement.  Please bring along your challenges along with any examples of building engagement from a distance.
Mehrnoosh Rayner, Head of Alumni Relations, EMBL
Aba Quartey, Alumni Relations Manager, Chevening Secretariat

2. Making an Impact: The Power of the Printed Word
As we watch more and more printed newspapers migrate to a digital format, is there still room for print in Alumni Relations? Is it as simple as a generational preference for one over the other? Is it a valuable channel or an outdated and expensive vanity communication? This session will explore the value of print communications, in particular the ways in which alumni magazines and newsletters have been reformatted to accommodate changing objectives in alumni relations. Please bring samples of your own magazine or other printed communications, or others you feel are a really good example of best practice.
Molly Southwood, Deputy Director and Head of Alumni Engagement, University of Bath

3. Engaging Students to Create Loyal Alumni
Students are the alumni of the future and engaging them during their studies and facilitating their transition into the alumni community should lead to an engaged alumni body. In this session we will talk about what students need from alumni and how we can deliver this. We will also look at how this work can support institutional priorities and we will share examples of best practice - please bring yours!
Christine Fairchild, Director of Alumni Relations, University of Oxford
Anita Irving, Associate Director of Alumni Engagement & Regular Giving, University of Liverpool

12:20 – 13:20 Lunch

13:20 – 14:30 Elective sessions – please choose one

1. Building Your Database: Strategies for Finding Lost Alumni
So you need to build up your contactable alumni database from a low base, or get a more complete data picture of your alumni to take your activity to the next level. Where do you start and what do you prioritise? This session will highlight the tools you have at your disposal, showcase and share ideas - from the straightforward to the more creative - for finding lost alumni and updating your database. We’ll talk through the challenges and opportunities of growing your database in a post-GDPR world. And we’ll ask just how ‘lost’ are our ‘lost alumni’ anyway?
Aba Quartey, Alumni Relations Manager, Chevening Secretariat
David Williams, Director, Alumni Relations and Annual Giving, University College Cork

2. Raising the Profile of Alumni Relations Across your Institution               
We all appreciate the importance of an engaged alumni community to help reach institutional objectives but not everyone does! To some of our colleagues our work feels like a frivolous waste of time. This session will look at how we can take practical steps to address some of the common misperceptions of an Alumni Relations Office and create more buy-in and appreciation for the work we do. We will discuss sharing the impact of alumni engagement across your institutions, create obvious synergies and identify friendly champions who can help to embed our efforts within other departments.
Mehrnoosh Rayner, Head of Alumni Relations, EMBL
Molly Southwood, Deputy Director and Head of Alumni Engagement, University of Bath

14:40 – 15:30 Elective sessions – please choose one

1. Alumni as Brand Ambassadors
This discussion will cover how to mobilise your alumni to be ambassadors and strategic influencers for your institution. In this session, we’ll tease out the strategies and programmes that recognise the uniqueness of your institution and of your alumni community in support of the institution as a whole. By creating authentic and institution-specific engagements, you can unlock the real power of alumni relations to the strategic benefit of your institution.
Mehrnoosh Rayner, Head of Alumni Relations, EMBL
Christine Fairchild, Director of Alumni Relations, University of Oxford

2. The First 5 Years: Building Momentum Amongst Young Alumni
The first few years after graduation are a crucial time for your institution to lay the foundation for a fruitful, lifelong relationship with its alumni. Recent graduates, however, have just entered a new phase of their lives away from the university, and are very busy building their careers. Building a strong and engaged community of young stakeholders implies offering value first and focusing on resources and content that are perceived as useful in their particular situations. This session will focus on concrete strategies to make young alumni feel their Alma Mater never stops caring for them.
Anita Irving, Associate Director of Alumni Engagement & Regular Giving, University of Liverpool
David Williams, Director, Alumni Relations and Annual Giving, University College Cork

15:30 – 16:00 Refreshment and Networking Break

16:00 – 17:05 Toolkits sessions - 
Sharing experiences and suggested approaches from the faculty.  30 minute round table discussions, ran twice. Please choose two to attend.

1. Managing complaints – What happens when you’re in the press, for all the wrong reasons? How do you respond to your alumni community? What about concerns from alumni who aren’t sure why you have their data? What do you say and how do you say it? In this session we can consider some common complaints, and some perhaps not so common, discuss the responses we can give and look at strategies for dealing with difficult individuals. 
   Molly Southwood, Deputy Director and Head of Alumni Engagement, University of Bath 
2. Managing academic colleagues - One of our greatest assets when it comes to engaging alumni is our community of academics. But they are often unprepared (or untrained) when it comes to dealing with alumni. In this session, the group will share some examples of how we’ve deployed academics and how we’ve prepared them for their interactions with alumni. 
   Christine Fairchild, Director of Alumni Relations, University of Oxford 
3. Working with Fundraisers - Occasionally there can be conflicts between fundraising and volunteering goals and activity. In this session I will share examples of best practise as well as offer the opportunity to discuss how to manage challenges that you may face along the way. 
   Anita Irving, Associate Director of Alumni Engagement & Regular Giving, University of Liverpool 
4. Doing more with less – Working in a ‘team’ of one, or even two or three it can be challenging to know what to focus on. Or to deliver all that’s expected of you. We’ll use this roundtable to share tips and hacks to help you maximise your outputs while avoiding overwhelm.
   Aba Quartey, Alumni Relations Manager, Chevening Secretariat 
5. Segmentation - The key to great comms is making it personal and relevant. What are the ways you can segment your segment your database to make this happen?
   David Williams, Director, Alumni Relations and Annual Giving, University College Cork 
6. Alumni brochure - with a difference – Looking for something tangible to hand over to alumni in order to convince them of the value of remaining connected with your university or institute?
   You don’t have to focus only on alumni benefits, the network, your website and magazine.
   We created a brochure based on alumni FAQs and told them what they wanted to know about access for them and their extended non-alumni networks to institutional resources (outside of alumni relations).
   Learn about this hybrid approach (may not work in this exact way for you - but could lead to a new and refreshing approach), and the concept of an alumni toolkit and all its dependencies.
   Mehrnoosh Rayner, Head of Alumni Relations, EMBL 

17:05 – 18:00 Case study briefing

18:00 – 19:30 Free time

19:30 Dinner in case study groups

07:30 – 08:30 Breakfast

08:30 – 10:00 Meet in groups, decide on strategy, develop presentation

10:00 – 11:00 Present to faculty

11:00 – 11:30 Final tutorial group

11:30 - 12:30 Four finalists present to panel of:

Claire O’Sullivan, Associate Director (Global Engagement), University of Birmingham
Kerrie Holland, Director of Supporter Engagement and Operations, Aston University
Bruce Bernstein, Executive Director of Global Engagement (Europe), CASE

12:30 – 13:30 Lunch                                                  

"So well organized, highly relevant, lots of learning and great possibility of networking with peers."
Signe Rasch, Alumni Relations Manager, Copenhagen School of Design and Technology

"It was extremely beneficial to talk to such a wide group of delegates from a variety of countries with such different universities, Alumni Relations is tackled in such diverse ways and it was really useful to exchange ideas and action plans. The Institute provided a challenging conference and encouraged me to think more creatively."
Amanda Wares, Alumni Relations Assistant, University of St Andrews

"I think it was a great opportunity for me to meet others who also work in a team of 1 and see how they engage with their alumni, and also to get ideas of how to set up chapters, and just really consider the overall university strategy and ensure you know it inside out to be able to know your strategy and where you're headed.

It was a good opportunity to network with others, and hear successes and challenges, and just learn about what other institutions could do which we could benefit from."
Kim Cordell, Alumni Officer, Anglia Ruskin University

"Very relevant to the role in AR - have already suggested my colleague attends next year."
Lesley Brown, Senior International Alumni Officer, Brunel University London

"Very useful 3 days and the format (especially tutorial sessions) helped me to drill down into areas I needed more help on."
Stephen O'Reilly, Alumni Officer, Queen's University Belfast

£1095, CASE member

£1430, Non-Member / Educational Partner

£1140, School Non-Member

Spaces are limited. Please email Olivia Davis if you would like to attend the Alumni Relations Institute.