As the CASE Asia-Pacific Advancement Conference kicks off this week in Hong Kong, attendees will make new connections, learn from each other, be inspired and find new ideas to take back to their schools or universities. More than 440 advancement professionals from more than 22 countries will attend the conference.

The conference began with a two-day program for international schools, as well as a "Road Map to Advancement" program for practitioners starting their advancement careers. On Tuesday, 17 April, the Leadership Forum began with a five-hour deep dive into negotiation and relationship building. The main conference starts on Wednesday, 18 April, and will focus on various tracks for every level in advancement, including alumni relations, fundraising and marketing and communications.

While the conference is ongoing, here are some early takeaways from the schools program:

1. We need to future-proof our schools. According to opening plenary speaker Simon Noakes, founder and CEO of Interactive Schools, "[T]he children we teach will be doing jobs that don't exist today." 
2. Schools should be thinking about what content to deliver, rather than investing in technology for technology's sake. Noakes went on to share that communications professionals need to focus on the behaviors of people first before they decide what technology might work.
3. There is not one playbook. Matt Ruffle, director of institutional advancement at the American School of Bombay in India, shared that working across cultures in fundraising can be a trial-and-error process. "The only thing we all have in common is that we are all different," he said.
4. Annual giving delivers on a school's vision. That's how Julia Martinez, director of advancement at the American School of Dubai, answers the tough question from parents, "Why do I need to give if I pay tuition?" Martinez's answer is that tuition helps the school deliver on its mission or promise, while annual giving dollars help achieve a future-thinking vision.
5. Set your own success. How do advancement professionals in new cultures of giving set realistic expectations with internal stakeholders? Ruffle says that stories can paint a brighter picture: although efforts this year may not yield dollars, every meeting and every interaction plantsacorns for future giving. He says to "tell those stories, and make sure you bring it back to what it means for the students."

For more from the conference, follow #CASEAPAC on Twitter or @caseasiapacific on Instagram.

This article is from the April 2018 BriefCASE issue.