How do you identify and engage with your target audience on digital platforms? How do you decide on which channels to utilize in the marketing mix? How does content matter? What does it cost?

Stories are like a magic lamp. They have the power to make our wishes come true. A strong narrative can inspire our alumni to do anything: engage, attend, volunteer, mentor, donate. We need compelling stories. But where do we start? Why not start with the basics? Every memorable story is structured around one of the 7 basic plots of storytelling: • overcoming the monster • rags to riches • voyage and return • the quest • comedy • tragedy • redemption By understanding and embracing these 7 plots, we can craft stories that will excite, engage, and educate our alumni.

In March 2020 the AU Business Committee approved the initiation of a process towards a comprehensive strategy to unify and augment the diverse and fragmented alumni relations efforts of the university’s five faculties. Five months later the Committee approved the proposal of the cross-faculty working group. Prior to 2020, AU Alumni had become very limited in content – consisting essentially of part-time administration of membership and database. In early 2023 AU Alumni has been revitalized. Ambitions are high, common content is being created, cross-faculty cooperation is taking shape and systems support is strengthening and opening opportunities for further development. In this interactive session with emphasis on time for Q&A, we will give you a hands-on presentation of the ends and means – and challenges – of the different stages of our journey – from “no common denominator” to “co-creating a common strategy” to “implementation and the centralized/decentralized balancing act”.

How can you bring your entire institution together to work with your donors and alumni for maximum impact? What if the interests of your Dean are in conflict with that of your President? What if your alumni board wants one thing but the university leadership points in another direction? Might your academics be secretly fundraising and not sharing their projects and donors? Where do you even start if your institution is only beginning systematic alumni relations and fundraising – or do you have an advantage precisely because of that? Navigating the internal waters is a skill as important as your external alumni and donor voyages. We will present successful and not-so-successful cases to start the discussion – join us in this interactive plenary where you can share your own frustrations and discoveries!

In 2023, BI Norwegian Business School celebrates its 80th anniversary since its founding in 1943. Throughout 2023, BI’s ambition is to celebrate the school’s proud heritage and provide an abiding legacy for decades to come. The campaign BI80 will deliver significant societal impact, through engaging events, increased scholarship provision, and strengthened partnerships with alumni and the business community. This is a case study of the BI80 campaign. BI is a leading European business school at the forefront of global research, with excellent faculty in finance, economics, accounting, logistics, law, leadership, data science, marketing, communication and strategy. With more than 245 000 alumni, BI is among the most important forces shaping business and society in Norway.

Join Divya Krishnaswamy (CASE) to learn more about CASE Insights, using CASE benchmarking to your advantage, and delve into the results from the CASE Insights on Alumni Engagement.

During this session, we will see all the best practices we have observed among the 300+ members of the AlumnForce community. We will cover a wide range of topics including: - community facilitation - event organisation - career services & lifelong learnings - international community management - communications and fundraising campaigns... Come with your questions! We'll try to give you the best answers.

From Good Intentions to Business as Usual: Designing a Culture of Collaboration In most teams and organisations, we typically set out with the greatest intentions for collaboration. We know why we should do it. As social creatures, we (usually) want to do it. We even know how to do it. So, why do we start… and then stop? Many teams and projects start out with excellent collaboration efforts. And yet it’s predictable for many that once we get busy, individualism and silos creep back in. And so we start back over again, declaring that we ought to collaborate more. The cycle repeats. In this talk, CEO and coach, Tracy Playle explores what it really takes to create a culture of collaboration in your teams and organisations that will actually transform the way that you work, and last. We’ll explore why successful collaborations have nothing to do with another new technology, more meetings, or frequent brainstorming sessions. Instead, we’ll look at what it takes to design a shared purpose and lay the foundations of trust, psychological safety, openness, creativity, connection, accountability and conflict resolution needed to make collaborations last and thrive.

Over the past years, we have seen an increase in legacy gifts and legacy pledges. Join Niina to discuss how to build a legacy programme and best engage donors and alumni.

In the world of higher education, stakeholders play a vital role in an institution's success. Therefore, it is crucial to develop an effective stakeholder segmentation and engagement strategy that can help build positive relationships and drive long-term success. In this presentation, Anna Månsson from the Stockholm School of Economics, will share some best practices from their work with stakeholder segmentation and mapping out a customer journey process which has been used to effectively engage stakeholders.