Homecoming is one of the most cherished and well-attended university traditions at college campuses across the country. This year our Homecoming celebration was scheduled for Saturday, October 31 on a big beautiful quad just west of our building. The tent was to be set up on Wednesday, October 28 for some other school events that week with Homecoming being the grand finale before the football game on Saturday.
Well, the Colorado weather gods had another thing planned altogether. On the Wednesday the tent was to go up it snowed, oh I don't know, over 18 inches! What!?! See photo proof below. It was so bad that they closed the campus and sent us home at 2:00 p.m.
We returned to work Thursday (though it was still actively snowing) to be informed by CU's groundskeeper that due to the snow on the ground and the inherent wetness should it miraculously melt in the next 36 hours, all Homecoming events scheduled for grassy areas on campus would be cancelled.
That would include our event. Ugh. Though many other campus entities had no choice but to cancel their events completely, we are blessed with a beautiful new building that has the perfect space for large receptions and gatherings. After confirming the availability and feasibility with our building manager - we were good to go.
Homecoming shall go on - but we've got to let people know about it! As many other outdoor CU Homecoming activities had been cancelled, we had to spread the word that 1. Our event was still taking place and 2. That we had moved indoors. And here's how we did it:
1. We updated the home page of the Leeds School of Business website
2. We updated the Homecoming page on the Leeds School website
3. We sent one email to our e-newsletter distribution list and asked for help spreading the word (it's worthy to note that we usually only send one email a month but that we made a special exception in this situation)
4. We used our Facebook fan page to post status messages about the change for multiple days leading up to the event
5. We used our Twitter account to announce the change and asked people to retweet for multiple days leading up to the event
6. We emailed our internal faculty and staff and asked them to share the news with their friends and colleagues that normally attend the event
Yay for technology! The event was a true success. We probably didn't have the sheer numbers we would have had being outdoors on a beautiful game day, however, we had 200-250 people come out to enjoy the food and activities (face painting!) before the football game. Photos and video from the event can be seen here!
We learned some other valuable lessons as well including be very careful about the vendors and their cancellation policies for such events. Not all are as forgiving of the weather.
The other lesson? Check way ahead for dates when planning Homecoming. The later in the season, the more likely the possibility of a significant weather event like we had this year.
You are right Sarah! It wasn't quite as stress free and easy as the post made it sound. Specific questions in regards to the weather cancellation policy with the tent vendor next year are in order as the Homecoming date is once again later in October.
I am in awe of my colleagues event management prowess. No joke, great job!