Friday, May 13, 2022

8:00 AM – 9:00 AM

Registration and Breakfast

9:00 AM – 10:00 AM

Opening Plenary: Thoughts from the Corner Office                 

Facilitator: Dr. Betsy Mennell, Vice President, University Advancement, Weber State University (WSU)

Panelists: President Brad Mortensen, WSU; Senator Ann Millner (previous WSU President); and Interim President Mindy Benson, Southern Utah University

Decisions and initiatives from the Corner Office are far-reaching and have a lasting impact on both internal and external audiences. Gain valuable insights and hear about lessons learned from current and past presidents, including how their previous experience in the advancement and alumni worlds have been an asset in their roles as president, and how our work is important to the work being done in the Corner Office.

 

10:00 AM  – 10:10 AM

Break 

10:10 AM – 11:00 AM

Second Keynote Speaker, Jeff McClellan, Director of BYU Brand & Creative

Brand Love:

In the lofty, erudite towers of academia, does something as base and mercenary as branding matter? (Yes.) What influences “brand love”? (Everything.) But what is a brand, anyway? (We’ll talk about it.) And in the traditionally independent, decentralized culture of the scholarly world, how do you create brand cohesion? (Very patiently.)

This presentation will share lessons learned from Brigham Young University’s recent brand research and articulation project, a five-year (plus) process that has involved hundreds of discussions, thousands of survey responses, three different bosses, and countless stops, starts, and negotiated redirections. We will discuss thoughts about what a brand is, who owns it, why it matters in higher ed, and how to understand it, define it, and build it. 

Annual Giving:

Wasatch Annual Giving Officers Network (WAGON) will be gathering during the CASE UT conference.  This is a great opportunity for anyone interested in discussing all things Annual Giving.  Topics will be derived from the group participants and the format will be a collaborative group discussion. 

11:00 AM  – 11:10 AM

Break

 

11:10 AM  – NOON

Workshop Breakouts #1

Alumni Relations Breakout Session:

Simple Strategies to Dramatically Increase Your Happiness, Motivation, and Satisfaction at Work

Speaker: Stuart Jones, Vice President for Advancement & Enrollment Management, Southern Utah University 

If you've ever felt overwhelmed and exhausted in your job (or in life), with no immediate signs of relief (like a boat-load of cash to hire more staff or increase your operating budget), this session is for you!  Here you will learn strategies to help you to find greater satisfaction and happiness in your work, and more resilience to bounce back from challenging times. 

Annual Giving:



WAGON group: This group will meet together throughout the entire day. 

 

Data Breakout Session:

Attracting and Maintaining Advancement Talent – From a Data and Management Perspective

Speakers: Rachel Richards, Director of Prospect Research; Justin Barton, Senior Director of Development, Utah State University

Help Wanted? We can help! An overview of how Utah State University uses data and personnel management to hire and retain employees in our tight labor market.

 

Development Breakout Session:

Planned Giving Basics - How to Make the Ask With Confidence

Speaker: Brent Parkin, Senior Development Director, Weber State University

This interactive session will discuss how each development director can ask the question of who has included their institution in their estate plans.  You don't need to be the expert on all estate planning options and there are professionals who will provide this information to your constituents.  After this session, you will understand the impact that a planned gift will have on your institution.  

 

Marketing and Communications Breakout Session:

Confronting Misinformation @ the Speed of Social Media

Speakers: Todd Hollingshead, Media Relations Manager/Information Manager, BYU; Amanda DeRito, Associate Vice President for Strategic Communications, Utah State University; John Kowalewski, Executive Director of Marketing & Communications, Weber State University; and Kathy Willets, Director of Media Relations and Content Marketing, University of Utah Health

Confronting misinformation about your institution is becoming increasingly more difficult and complicated. The ideal is to simply correct the misinformation or replace bad information with good information.  Yet what happens when this isn’t possible? What happens when an institution legally cannot comment, when any response from a school will simply inflame the situation or when a reporter refuses to make a correction? The four presenters in this session will cover each one of these scenarios and other challenges, providing helpful ways you can confront misinformation.

 

NOON – 1:10 PM

Lunch: Little Italy (Designer Buffets)

 

1:10 PM – 2:00 PM

Workshop Breakout #2

Alumni Relations Breakout Session:

Perspectives United: Cross Campus Collaborations for Alumni Engagement

Speaker: Alexx Tobeck, Executive Director of The Office of Alumni Relations, Utah Valley University

Join us for a conversation on integrating and aligning our alumni relations goals with the goals of our campus partners. We will share the assessment and identification of opportunities for maximum visibility and impact. 

 

Annual Giving:



WAGON group: This group will meet together throughout the entire day. 

Data Breakout Session:

How Prospect Research Can Help Move the Dial on Engaging Underrepresented Alumni

Speakers: Erica Marken, Executive Director of Development; and Tim Wilson, Prospect Management & Research Coordinator at Weber State University

WSU seeks to be responsive to Utah's changing demographics by announcing its intention to become an Emerging Hispanic-Serving Institution (EHSI) by 2025. This ambitious goal partners Weber State with the Latino community to achieve a 15% Latino student body. Weber State's University Advancement (UA) team is eager to participate in development-focused efforts to assist this effort. Within UA, prospect management and research (PM&R) has recently conducted a census of our alumni database to determine how many and which constituents have a record ethnicity and gender—and, as importantly, how many and which constituents do not—in our database. Being mindful of unconscious biases in data, wealth screenings, and methodologies, PM&R has populated development directors' portfolios with under-represented minority prospects to support broader and deeper engagement with our community. With a focus on greater representation at more visible levels of institutional advancement, the UA team has initiated efforts to identify alumni of color who have demonstrated an affinity for their alma mater to serve on either WSU's Alumni Board or the Young Alumni Council. There is more work to do, and we are tapping into the expertise and approaches of other higher education institutions that are also seeking to engage with their under-represented alumni.  

 

Development Breakout Session:

Promoting positive well-being in the workplace: How perceptions of support influence burnout and thriving among advancement personnel and what each of us can do about it.

Speaker: Kyle Braithwaite, Senior Development Director, Weber State University 



When an employee believes their institution and/or supervisor cares about their well-being and values their contributions, they are more likely to thrive at work and experience less burnout... even during a global pandemic. A mass exodus of professionals from the higher education workplace continues to plague our industry. Each one of us can be the change that shifts the future of our profession. Come and discover (or rediscover) a few ways you can promote, support, and maintain a positive work environment within your university advancement office. As Dr. Seuss wrote in his book, The Lorax, "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."

MarComm Breakout Session:

The Art of Repurposing Information to Get the Most from Your Communications Content

Speakers: Mike Walker, Associate Editor of BYU Magazine and the editor of BYU Today; and Matt Serrao, Senior Director of Digital Marketing, Web & Social Strategy, Utah Valley University

Content creation can be a beast. The goal of this session is to explore ways to tame this overwhelming creature, especially by feeding it existing content. Learn how to locate the best in your community space—from research to alumni to athletic news—and repackage that information in ways that benefit your audiences. The presenters will share how they have pulled existing content from internal and external sources and found ways to share it in new and exciting ways. This involves casting a wide net, organizing the best information, and creating strategies of how and when to share it. They will look at best practices, successful examples of reenergizing content, and how everyone benefits when you point readers back to original sources.

 

Bonus workshop:  

Power, Politics, and PR: Navigating Donor Relationships in Higher Education

Speaker: Danielle Collier, Development Director and Masters of Professional Communication Graduate Student at Weber State University

This workshop will allow participants to openly discuss and explore key communication issues in development work and collaborate to brainstorm strategies for fostering positive relationships with donors. Concepts to be discussed include power dynamics, political messages, public influence, people-pleasing, validating, communication justification, ethics, and boundaries.

2:00 PM

Networking and Ice Cream Social 

Famous Aggie ice cream for all participants