Supporter journeys are the key to unlocking purpose, impact, and focus on your engagement programme.

This session will inspire strategic thinking to build supporter journeys, to advance engagement and fundraising - coupled with practical tips and case studies. We will share global experiences from across the sector, and colleagues at Manchester will reflect (in person or virtually) on their experiences of designing journeys across their alumni population of 533,000, and the impact of this on the institution.

We will invite contributions and share templates to apply the learning in your own context. Senior leaders will gain insights into how their teams can use supporter journeys to drive strategic work across advancement. Join us for this journey of inspiration and learning.

Just as Kris Jenner is the mastermind behind the Kardashian-Jenner success, effective and strategic online community managers are the ones keeping online communities booming. Fair enough, that was maybe a bit much, but what is important to realise is that a team of any size or resource can be successful in launching and maintaining an online community if executed with intention, management strategy and overarching framework. In this session, we will present key pillars to achieving success in launching and maintaining an online community by providing specific examples from clients who have been in your shoes. 

Social media is essential for reaching our alumni. In 2022, 58% of the planet is active on social media. Younger alumni have always been prolific users, whilst COVID prompted a generational boom across the platforms. As a result, the number of people following our alumni social media channels has grown enormously since the pandemic. But who are these followers? How do they engage? What do they want?

This talk will help answer these questions. It will cover:

• How to find demographic information using in-platform analytics
• The value of qualitative research for investigating content wants and needs
• Understanding how alumni interact with our content
• Creating personas to represent our followers

These insights will provide a valuable foundation for building stronger alumni relations.
 

As we enter post-pandemic life, how do we ensure that we retain the digital skills we've learnt to support our Alumni community online? In this session we outline the steps every Alumni department should be applying to their strategy in order to fully optimise their hybrid and virtual events. Using learnings from Cornell University’s Leadership Week, coupled with key takeaways from virtual educational events that Forumm has hosted, you will leave this session with tangible knowledge and a host of ideas you can apply to your future strategy.

Every event needs flawless execution but also it needs clear objectives and targets in order to be effective. How so set these and how to collect feedback and act upon it with the right follow-up?

How do you put alumni services on the radar of current students and why should you?

This session will explore the value of developing an on-campus calendar of activity to engage and build relationships with future alumni stakeholders while still students.

Taking our international academic and sports scholars as a case study, find out how to identify a key group of high-achieving students who are particularly warm towards the university and focus on offering them exclusive content, not only to enhance their student experience but also to make them more likely to engage with your alumni team post-graduation.

Hear the story of how we made good on our international student recruitment promises and transitioned student scholars to enthused and engaged alumni, maximising their volunteering contributions.

“You can’t do that, because we’re doing it” or “We’ve already contacted that alumnus about a different project”.

How often as engagement professionals have, we felt in competition with different services and Advancement teams from within the same institution? And how does this impact on the experience of our graduate community?

At Newcastle University Business School we have devised a model which looks to add value and compliment existing activity, by working in conjunction with and not against central advancement services. This ultimately enhances the graduate and student experience and allows both teams try much more ambitious projects. In this session, we will touch on the why and how we are working in collaboration and some of the approaches we have tested.

Covid, lockdown and the war in Ukraine have tested alumni and volunteer communities like never before. Now, join me and explore ways that we can capitalize on the new reality to continue inspiring unique and meaningful alumni engagement. We’ll examine how over the past two years Central European University's Alumni Relations office met these challenges by creating meaningful programming and volunteer opportunities, allowing it to engage its alumni and student communities in new and powerful ways. Through this we’ll see how by using its strategic position, ARO not only created new engagement opportunities for alumni, but increased fundraising and affinity building as well. We’ll close with key takeaways plus potential ramifications for the future of alumni engagement.

The pandemic sent alumni professionals hurtling into a world of digital engagement - for KAUST, in Saudi Arabia, this world was one we wanted to be part of, so we decided to use the 'opportunity' of lockdown to increase targeted engagement with the global alumni community. From checking-in to see how alumni were, to a digital campaign with the message ‘share the view from your window’ and receiving the University’s first philanthropic gift from the Chinese alumni chapter, the first nine months of pandemic resulted in 17% increased engagement.

In this session, we’ll speak about KAUST’s experiences of engaging alumni in Saudi Arabia and internationally pre, during-and post-pandemic; our successes and learnings; as well as considering what’s next for connecting with the COVID-community and beyond.

Faced with an ongoing global pandemic and a zoom-fatigued audience, the CERN Alumni Relations team was tasked with designing an engaging, three-day, virtual reunion event. Our mission was to showcase the impact of CERN alumni on society, build networks between alumni and stakeholders, whilst renewing their deep connection with the Organization, adding a sprinkling of gamification. The foundation for 'CERN Alumni Second Collisions' was a bespoke, virtual CERN environment, which enabled guest to roam freely around iconic CERN buildings and grounds, to visit our underground experimental facilities, network with other participants and be inspired by our alumni speakers. Join me to find out if it was 'Mission accomplished' or 'Game over'.