NOON – 1:00 PM Conference Registration
Welcome to Atlanta! Stop by the registration desk to check in and pick up your conference material.
1:00–1:15 Welcome and Introduction
Join Conference Chair Josh Harraman and the conference faculty to kick off the program.
1:15–2:30 Strategic Planning for Alumni Engagement
So you signed up for a conference about alumni engagement strategies, and we’re going to kick things off with just that--strategic planning in a way you’ve never talked about it before! While it can elicit fear in many, the long-term benefit of having a strategic plan will far outweigh the initial fear of building one. So how exactly do you set priorities when it seems EVERYTHING is a priority? In this session, Josh and Kim will share lessons learned from several years of crafting plans and will place a specific focus on how you choose what NOT to include in yours. You’ll leave this session with a few different templates for planning, and attendees will be encouraged to share your own advice on building the roadmap for meaningful, measurable work.
2:45–4:00 Using Engagement Data to Inform Strategies for Cultivation
Using engagement data to inform strategies for segmentation is part of the ongoing challenge for engagement teams. Alumni who are engaged on social media can be cultivated as volunteers. Participants in volunteer programs, such as digital ambassadors for giving days or mentoring programs, can be further cultivated for participation on our alumni board thereby deepening engagement with our most active stakeholders. However, storing data on engagement activity can be challenging. In this session, attendees will gain insights into using data to further engage stakeholders and tips for executing strategies that require operational efficiencies.
4:15–5:15 Sharing and Solving: An Open Discussion on Challenges in Engagement Join conference faculty to hear how they approached specific challenges in their alumni engagement work--and how they found solutions to those challenges! This will be an opportunity for attendees to share your own conundrums and to seek advice from faculty members and fellow conference-goers.
Faculty brings their own problem/solution - Stage Setting
Invite attendees to share their problems
5:15–6:15 Networking Reception
Join conference speakers and your colleagues to network and socialize after the first day of the conference. Don't forget your business cards! Drink tickets and hors d’oeuvres will be provided.
6:15 Conference adjourns for the day
Optional dine arounds for small groups will be available for signup. Attendees will be responsible for their own meals.
8:00–9:00 AM Continental Breakfast / Round Table Discussions
9:00–10:15 Using Content to Drive Conversions: How Digital Storytelling Can Influence Engagement
From coloring books to viral videos, the content we’re creating is designed to encourage alumni to feel connected with their alma mater. Our role as alumni engagement professionals is to share stories--of traditions, philanthropy, mentoring, alumni success, and so much more. How do we turn those stories into marketing materials with measurable outcomes? In this session, Ryan and Kim will share specific examples of content creation and how that content has helped turn passive observers into active participants. Come away with tangible ideas that you can implement at your own institutions.
10:30–11:45 Elective Sessions (choose one):
Volunteers/Regional Engagement Working with alumni volunteers is critical to the success of our engagement efforts as a whole. As you consider how you manage volunteers of all types, it is necessary to identify trends in engagement that expand alumni engagement opportunities. During this session, we will share some best practices in volunteer management. Also, as alumni move further away from their alma mater, we will share examples of how to evolve your regional clubs into a regional engagement program that advances your organization’s goals further than ever before.
Building a story-based podcast to engage alumni and students Modeled after NPR’s This American Life and Snap Judgement and designed to tell stories about post-college life connected to a central theme or question, Longwood University’s Day After Graduation podcast is unique amongst others produced in higher education. Stories collected and told on the show, now in Season 3, contain themes both cheerful and dark. During this session, attendees will learn how the podcast is made, the challenges that exist in creating and producing a story-based podcast, and how to go about engaging alumni and students while integrating fundraising messages and event promotions.
11:45 AM–1:15 PM Lunch Break – Lunch on your own
1:15–2:15 Speaking a Common Language: CASE Alumni Engagement Metrics Project
Who are your Alumni? How many of them are engaged? Is that good? At its core, CASE’s inaugural Alumni Engagement Metrics (AEM) Project offers a common framework to answer these pivotal questions. Thanks to the efforts of the Alumni Engagement volunteer task force, CASE has launched a global survey gathering key inputs on alumni counts across four modes of engagement: philanthropic, volunteer, experiential and communication. The result being that that Alumni Engagement can become a commonly shared language, no matter the type or location of your institution. This session will outline the project guidelines and definitions as well as share examples of how programs are creating and modifying programs built upon the newly established framework. During this session we will also discuss how you can use this data to drive strategic change within your own institutions.
2:30–3:45 Elective Sessions (choose one):
It’s Not Just About Dollars: How Engagement Drives Giving Day Success Giving days aren’t new. You’ve likely done one--or maybe five--at your current institution. They’re also not going away. So how do you keep them fresh to ensure that you’re building on past successes with each new effort? In this session, giving day veterans Kim Infanti and Chad Warren will explain how they’ve tapped into engagement strategies to keep things innovative and exciting. Learn about using video, text campaigns, social contests, volunteer service, campus (and global!) engagement, and more to energize your audience. You’ll leave this session with renewed energy for your next giving day--and a guarantee that your donors will feel the same way!
Building Traditions Traditions play a vital role in how students and alumni form community and a connection to their alma mater. During this session, participants will learn about the components that make a tradition, how to establish traditions (or sunset traditions) on their campuses and will workshop their own ideas with peers. Leaving the session, participants will understand what they can do at their own institutions to help traditions thrive and how to engage students and alumni in an experience that will live on for generations.
4:00–5:15 Alumni Engagement Best Practices
This will be a lightening round of tips and tricks. The faculty will share with you their best strategies, tips and tricks that you can take back to your institutions. Be prepared to also share strategies that have worked at your institution!
5:15 Conference adjourns for the day
Optional dine arounds for small groups will be available for signup. Attendees will be responsible for their own meals.
8:00–9:00 AM Continental Breakfast / Round Table Discussions
9:00–10:00 Engaging Alumni in the Workplace
Reaching and activating alumni can be challenging. Time is precious and mid-career professionals can be particularly difficult to engage outside of work hours. During this session, attendees will learn unique methods to engaging alumni both within the professional setting, both online and in-person. We will share a step-by-step guide to building an alumni workplace engagement program and take a look at best practices when it comes to building web-based professional communities as well as how to utilize events to activate hard-to-engage stakeholders.
10:15–11:15 An A+ For YOU! Creating Actionable Engagement Scorecards
We talk quite a bit about ROI, but it’s time to talk about ROE--return on engagement. How do you successfully tell the narrative that engagement work is valuable and impactful? Learn the building blocks of crafting an alumni engagement scorecard from two professionals who have experience in homegrown engagement scoring. What should you be tracking? How should you be tracking it? And once you’re measuring all this data, what do you do with it? We’ll touch on how using engagement scoring can augment the future of campaign fundraising, but we’ll also focus on the day-to-day and how you take real action from the data you likely already have at your fingertips!
