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This is part 2 of 3 of What We've Learned So Far Creating Alumni Event Videos.

Ignite Boulder is an engaging evening of insightful and fun presentations on a variety of topics. Leeds hosted the pre-parties for Ignite 8 & 9 at the Boulder Drafthouse. We used Twitter and Facebook to bring people out for casual networking, for an opportunity to learn more about Leeds, and share in some awesome beers.

The Ignite 8 pre-party was my first live event use of the Flip cam and I focused on trying to get quick, interesting quotes. Since Ignite is about presenting your ideas, I asked people what they would present on if they made it on, and some interesting stuff came up! I also met actual presenters and they shared on their presentations and some Ignite history. We ended up getting some good quotes because I brainstormed questions beforehand with my teammates. The final video was very DIY and fun! Viewers told us they really liked it:  the quotes, and especially seeing themselves and their friends on camera. 



For Ignite 9, I followed a similar video strategy, but this Ignite was tied to Boulder Startup Week, so I interviewed people on their involvement with the week: what was informative, engaging, etc. At the Ignite event, I also shot b-roll (background footage) of the band, as well as the incredible throngs of people filling the Boulder Theater. This allowed us to give our viewers a deeper context and flavor; it put the event into a physical space, and give a visceral feel to the venue and the incredible crowds of people.



What I learned:
Ignite 8: While it is great to get quotes from a variety of people at an event, make sure find out who the important people are (like organizers, speakers) and get some quotes from them! For these people are very invested and will have interesting things to share! And the more people you interview and the more quotes you get, that will help round out your video and make it compelling.

Ignite 9: Make sure you actually hit the record button! I was looking to get a quote from Andrew Hyde, the main organizer of the event. But Ignite was packed, people everywhere, and then suddenly he was standing a few feet away from me. So I ran up and grabbed him for a quick word. It was great! Good quotes, he's a very nice person and very excited about how much the event had grown. I walked back to my seat euphoric! I got Andrew Hyde! We had rounded out our story with his great quotes. Well, on my way out I checked the camera, and what I got was me walking up the stairs toward Andrew, and he getting ready for me to turn the camera on. Then it cuts to the camera coming away from Andrew, sliding down the wall and me thanking him for his time. What? Where was the interview? Turns out I hit record accidentally on the way up, turned it off when I interviewed him, and turned it back on after we were done. Ouch!

Lesson? Ignite is pretty rowdy and action-packed event. People are everywhere, it is dimly lit and loud. This can be true for many events. So if you see something you want to record, you really need to slow down and double, double check that your little red record light is going! Cause the brutal truth about video is always the same (just like the old saw supposedly asked at weddings): Get it now, or forever hold your peace.

I've done a lot of events in the course of my career, all types and size of events from small and simple gatherings to very large and complex events involving high-profile individuals and lots of moving parts. Experience has taught me there are elements you can control and there are those you cannot. Pick the one thing that, if it fails, the event fails and manage around that one thing. Knowing and planning around these elements are key to event planning sanity and, for the most part, success.

Take our two most alumni gatherings in Los Angeles and Chicago as example. We had a great turn out in L.A., granted we have a very large concentration of alumni there, and we have an absolutely fabulous venue provided to us by one of our loyal and successful alumni Evan Greene. In addition, we provided the food and beverages which even sweetened the event draw for attendees. In the "elements you cannot control" category, we were also very fortunate to have our event fall on an evening in between the playoff nights as the L.A. Lakers were battling the Boston Celtics in the NBA finals. Several members of our alumni community did mention to me that there would be no way they would have attended should the event have fallen on a playoff night. If it had fallen on game night, I would have moved the informal welcome and presentation to earlier in the event and made sure all of the televisions in the venue were tuned to the game.

Chicago presented a different challenge in that the weather became a player in the evening event. And, I have also learned, weather trumps all in event planning. For our October building dedication, the wind blew incessantly up until just before the event. Then, it stopped.This was good because culmination of the dedication involved the unveiling of two 50 foot banners off of the side of the building. Wind would definitely have put the cabash on that. As it turned out, the 700 attendees never knew that the unfurling was ever in question.

Homecoming, generally held under a giant tent outside for 300 plus alumni in was driven inside by a series of snow storms last year. We were fortunate to, 1. be forewarned, 2. have adequate space inside and a flexible caterer and, 3. have an active Social Media program that let us notify folks that the show was still on.

Chicago, however, was a different story in that the inclement weather (wind, rain and tornado warnings) came on suddenly and coincided with the beginning of our alumni reception at the Union League Club of Chicago. To their credit, many of our alumni still braved the elements to show up, but we also did have a good deal of attrition. And who can blame them? In this instance, there was absolutely nothing that we could do to adjust to the weather other than again, use Social Media to notify folks it was still a go. All in all, we still had a very nice event with good conversation and interaction with our loyal grads.

We've gotten a lot of mileage with our Flip cams. No surprise there. They are small, super-easy to use (one red button) and HD quality. What's not to love? I've taken a Flip and shot video at:

 • A Taste of Leeds, an event here at the school featuring alumni in the food business.
• Two Boulder Ignite events and pre-parties.
• Alumni events in Los Angeles and Chicago.

For each event I planned to hit that red button, get some quotes, some atmosphere, and move on. We would then string it together into a slice-of-life video. That worked to a certain degree but each event turned out demanding different strategies to capturing video, and then in the editing as well. Below is what we did, followed with what we learned and might do different next time. This would be a LONG single blog post, so we are breaking it up into three, starting with...

A Taste of Leeds
For A Taste of Leeds, I wanted to capture the event set up, our team carting materials around, students mapping table set up, etc. I got that and then I grabbed some on-the-fly impression interviews during the event: How people liked it, their favorite food, and general feelings and reactions. At the same time our communications director, Sarah Behunek, with a TV production background, systematically shot a variety of B-roll (context footage), and then interviewed each participating business person on the key areas of their business. She got great quotes, and tons of useful product footage; which when matched with my footage, allowed us to knit together a compelling slice-of-life video.



What I Learned
Sarah and my shooting styles complemented each other, but only "organically", i.e. didn't come out of a master plan. It worked out fine, but why chance it next time and miss some potentially important footage? Moving forward we are going to have a basic storyboard for larger events. At the very least, a shot list: What are the key shots/interviews, who will grab what, and what's our overall concept for the final piece? And, always keep in mind that the Flip is way portable, so grab stuff on the fly as well. You have to have at least a sketch of a plan but stay flexible and creative as you go. 

Next: Boulder Ignite 8 & 9: Recording a fun party full of smart people!

Leeds Social Media Panel July, 2009

I came across an online discussion about the threats and challenges to Alumni Relations in the new media world sparked by a post by social media pioneer Jeremiah Owyang and with corresponding excellent points by Alumni Relations professional and social media pioneer in higher education, Andy Shandlin.  The upshot: absent some strategic response by Alumni Relations programs, social media platforms could soon render these institutions obsolete. The concern is that alumni are being lured away by Social Media platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn where they can connect without having to rely on us.  When I launched the Leeds alumni relations effort seven years ago, necessity was the mother of invention. I had no money, no staff, and limited time; these factors amongst others led me to rely on email as a main form communication. Then as now, I also supplemented my communications with limited print pieces promoting large events such as Homecoming. However, recently I have come to the conclusion that:

• Print communications in alumni relations communications are circling the drain;
• Social media and strategic online communications platforms will rule the day.

Several years ago (in part because of Andy Shandlin), I recognized the landscape was changing for communicating with and engaging alumni, especially since the launch of Facebook. More recently, when we combined our alumni relations and communications offices, once again, limited time and financial resources convinced me to eliminate high-maintenance, low-impact print projects for the school as a whole. Concurrently, I was able to create a position dedicated to creating a robust online presence. Since that time, we have established a social media presence in Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and blogs (side note: get your institution's SM real estate before someone else does. We were fortunate that an alumnus had already established LinkedIn for Leeds, but was more than happy to hand over management to us when we reached out to them). Subsequently, we are seeing our numbers grow in each of these platforms and more importantly, in increase in the quality of engagement in these platforms.

Media Channel 
Since we combined our programs, we are now operating more like a media channel in that we create all of our content and distribute it across our various platforms. For example, we put a lot of time and effort into our alumni magazine (yes, I said print was dying, but we are currently transitioning our magazine from its historic online PDF to include more dynamic content). Our YouTube postings are a staple now as we have posted over 100 videos of faculty research, faculty and student awards, and students and alumni since we established the account several years ago. Our videos also aid our public relations efforts as we embed the them into the press releases we send to our media contacts. We are also pleased that our faculty now request videos related to their research and ask that they be posted prominently on our website homepage.  

Social Media Engagement
Rather than threatening our existence, we see SM as collapsing geography.True, we don't have to rely on annual membership dues for our funding, though a significant part of our mission is alumni engagement and cultivation with the hope that they will see fit to support the school financially. It's notable that recently the University of Colorado Alumni Association eliminated its dues-based membership and launched its Forever Buffs program. They charge incoming freshman a one time fee and offer an online community to engage students and alumni. For us, we use our social media platforms to extend our brand and reach to our current students and alumni. As I say to my colleagues, we have to meet them where they are and then create interesting, educational and relevant content to enforce our value proposition. How do we measure our reach in these areas? We do an annual brand and alumni communications survey and we also track our metrics in all SM platforms, website analytics and press release data as well. See my colleague's Metric Messiah post for more detail. Across the board, all of our metrics are increasing dramatically. But are we engaging? Recently, an alumna asked to blog for us; which we consider a new wave of engagement. Subsequently, we've had many more alumni asking to participate as well. I consider these developments as signs of much more online alumni engagement to come.

During a moment of elation came a brief moment of disappointment. And then ... opportunity.

A few months ago, we had submitted our nomination of Nick Sowden ('07 management, entrepreneurship) for the Kalpana Chawla Outstanding Recent Alumni Award given by the Alumni Association of the University of Colorado at Boulder. You can read our Portfolio alumni magazine feature about Nick and his work with the social enterprise ToughStuff by clicking here. 

ToughStuff provides affordable solar energy products to people in developing countries. Doing good while doing business. We're all for that, and so too was the Alumni Association, which ultimately selected Nick as the winner. Which was awesome (there may have been some jumping up and down and #squeeeeing! by yours truly when we heard the news) ... until we realized Nick, who is out saving the world one solar panel at a time, probably wouldn't be able to fly from East Africa to Colorado for the awards ceremony on May 5.

Dang.

That is .... until I sat down at my desk and started thinking about award ceremonies in general. Heck, if actors and musicians can accept awards on location via live stream or pre-recorded video clips, why couldn't a deserving alumnus? After a flurry of quick emails, we got the OK that Nick could videotape his thank you speech in East Africa, and the video clip would play at the awards ceremony here in Boulder (Patty Graff of the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship accepted the award on Nick's behalf).

 

Our fearless leader Sarah B, who attended the event last Wednesday, said the video clip of a young promising alumnus (proudly sporting his CU Buffs t-shirt) was well-received by the audience. Also, now we have content of an award-winning alumnus who's one to watch which we can share via social media. This experience, one in which we celebrated a young alumnus and made an impression on other alumni and supporters of the Leeds School, just further demonstrates the ever collapsing barriers of time and distance thanks to the digital world. 

There's a lot of discussion about how to make alumni magazines more relevant and viable against a rising tide of online content, not to mention dynamic competing media in a variety of formats; the blog Alumni Futures recently covered this topic in a post titled "Be Read or Don't Bother."

 

We've had an exciting time with our latest issue of Portfolio, the alumni magazine of the Leeds School. For example:

- A Taste of Leeds: We held a food fair event here on April 30 which highlighted this issue's theme, our alumni working in the food and beverage industry. We had 16 booths featuring food and drinks and approximately 200 visitors in our atrium on a Friday afternoon. Faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends of the Leeds School attended. Current students chatted it up with alumni. Alumni caught up with their former instructors. In a word: Connection. In a phrase: Living our brand.  

This delicious event (to see photos, visit our Facebook Page by clicking here) was born out of a brainstorming session as the magazine was pieced together a few months ago. Writing about the smorgasbord of alumni got us in the Alumni Relations and Communications staff thinking about (read: salivating over) all the variety of products. Wa-lah: An event is born! We're now considering a magazine-related event to kick off every new issue of Portfolio. (Pssst .... The theme for Fall 2010: Technology. Email us if you have any ideas we should check out.)    

- Speaking of technology, our alumni magazine uses Zmags, a page-turning media-rich format that allows embedding of links to, for example, the blogs, Twitter and Facebook accounts, video clips, etc., of the featured alumni in the print publication. Zmags allows us to highlight the multimedia dimensions of our alumni in a way that is both engaging and immediate with a simple click right then and there if the reader/viewer so chooses (instead of hoping readers/viewers head online once they are done reading the print version).

- Web extras: This section (you can see our latest offerings for the Spring 2010 Portfolio by clicking here) is a great way to add even more storytelling opportunities to the alumni magazine. In this issue, our web extras included lavender recipes, an audio slideshow of a tea shop with live music and tea ceremony, a video segment on how strawberry sorbet is made, podcasts on LBOs and Revaluing the Food Chain, as well as Q&As (text, podcasts, and videos) with our featured alumni. Traditional publications, while still valuable, are no longer limited by the cost and space of the printed page when universities utilize their web space and embrace online content if that content is complementary and symbiotic. And sometimes the extras, if executed well, instead of being the final piece can be the gateway by introducing outsiders to the print publication, and to what the Leeds School is for and about.  

Case in point: Our audio slideshow web extra of the Ku Cha House of Tea (which is featured on the cover of this issue of Portfolio) was picked up by the main campus communications staff (their photographers worked on the piece for us and their shared it with their colleagues) and placed prominently on the homepage which you can see by clicking here. In the reporting of the print story, I saw the shop was a gorgeous locale (meaning GREAT photography) and learned they had live music every Sunday (meaning a chance for GREAT audio beyond just an interview). 

Simply put, this was a storytelling opportunity that could engage the senses and provide context to a story about two of our MBA alums (and in their own words). And it's bringing traffic to our YouTube channel, as the video has more than 200 unique views as of today (typically one of our videos gets 10-15 unique views).

As we begin to think about the next issue, we continue to seek these opportunities for a multimedia and multi-dimensional story and take these creative risks

By Sarah Grace Martens

Last Thursday I participated in a free Alumni Attitude Study webinar titled "What is an event and how do we measure its success?" I was intrigued by the topic because my job requires that I put on many events for the school and I was interested to learn more about how to quantify event success and how it is measured by other institutions.

The success of an event, like many facets of alumni relations, is difficult to measure. Sure, there are a lot of intangible ways such as:

• How many people came to the event?
• Did the guests appear to enjoy themselves?
• Was the speaker engaging?
• Did the event flow smoothly without any A/V problems or interruptions?

These questions are important but they certainly don't allow you to quantify anything, much less a ROI. So, 50 people came to your event - is that a success?

I was surprised when the webinar changed gears from discussing 'brick-and-mortar' events (like the questions above apply to) and began talking about 'events' in the realm of social media. For instance at typical brick-and-mortar events, like a career-enhancement seminar or a faculty presentation, valuable information is shared only once. Expert presenters, vivid slideshows, engaging question and answer sessions exist and are experienced only by the individuals in the room that day, at that time.  

However, with social media, these events can be broadcast live on the internet and watched from a desk at work; they can be recorded and shared via YouTube or your institution's website or even uploaded to your school's Facebook Fan Page. The options are truly limitless.

Suddenly it's a lot easier to quantify the reach of the content you created, or the virtual 'event' that you just hosted (see The Metric Messiah). How many people clicked on that particular link from the alumni e-newsletter? How many people have watched the YouTube clip of the faculty member discussing her research? How many people read the Dean's Blog last month? These numbers are big and they are getting bigger.

With dwindling higher education budgets, and growing alumni bases it's extremely rewarding to know that you can still engage alumni in places that you'll never be able to host a physical alumni event. In fact, an event featuring a popular faculty member presenting on a 'hot' topic might draw 50 individuals (like the one we hosted in Chicago last summer), or the same faculty member presenting on the same issue can draw 400+ views on YouTube. That's incredible stuff and it's worthy to note that it has and will forever change the field of alumni relations.

Some may say that nothing can replace a good handshake and face-to-face networking - and they would be right. But it's nice to know that there are vibrant alternatives when time, money and resources make 'brick-and-mortar' events unfeasible or at least few and far between. As the webinar presenter mentioned last week, we certainly want our alumni reading our e-newsletters, joining our LinkedIn groups, and watching our YouTube videos - and if they come out and attend an actual event, that is just icing on the cake!

Last week, Leeds sponsored Ignite Boulder 8 (or Igneight as some dubbed it) at the Boulder Theater, Boulder, Colorado. Ignite, for the uninitiated, brings together techies, geeks, artists, and hipsters to hear select speakers address often zany, crazy topics and hilarity ensues (for more, see Melanie's earlier post). Ignite 7 was the first  I attended, though I did watch part of Ignite 6 online. I7 was the reason I decided Leeds should sponsor I8. Not only did one of our professors, Peter McGraw present, but also Leeds MBA Joel Gratz as well, plus the crowd of over 800 attendees included many alumni and current students.

What is amazing about the event is how fun it is; the presentations range but can include techy clever, borderline insane, marginally uncomfortable and downright touching. What sets the event apart is how consistently authentic it is. Though I have only been to two now, they both exhibited the same great level of excitement and energy.

During our pre-party, photo above, at the Boulder Draft House, we had a chance to talk with presenters and attendees about what makes Ignite Boulder special. So, don't just take my word for it, check out what they had to say. Many thanks to Andrew Hyde and the other Ignite volunteers for such a great event!

We are happily sponsoring tonight's Ignite Boulder, AND it is sold-out! Looking forward to a fun and informative show. For those, like me, who have never been before, Ignite is:

"...a night of presentations with a twist. Presenting on a subject of their choice, speakers have exactly five minutes to teach something, enlighten us, or simply inspire--backed by twenty slides auto-advancing every fifteen seconds."

From the videos I have seen of previous presentations, the slides advancing every fifteen seconds really puts the pressure on and quickly separates a greenhorn PowerPoint newbie from a hardened corporate/start-up seeker of V.C. funding PowerPoint jockey. But the fun part is you never know who's going to to flail and who will shine under the bright lights of the Ignite stage.

So, from the Ignite blog, tonight's presentations are:

Ryan Wanger: Topic: (Almost) Nothing is Irreversible: A Guide to Decision Making
Kate Brown: MacGyver your way through dangerous situations: Lifesaving hacks from the sport of triathlon
David Mejias: A baby, a bird and an Afro: How to plan for and make conceptual photographs.
Ali Schultz: Game (ig)Night: The shortest distance between two people is a good laugh.
Tara Anderson: Pain & the Art of Long-Distance Backpacking
Cris Silva: Brazilian Portuguese for Foreigners

Josh Mishell: Minimize Your Hangover & Maximize Your Awesomeness: How to Thrive at a Beer Festival
Lisa Seaman: Clap Happy!
Leela Turnage How Drug Smuggling and A Run-In With the Mexican Army Helped Me Ace Spanish Clas
Matthew Lenda: There IS such a thing as bad music, and it will be the end of us all.
Nick Armstrong: Nerd-gasm AKA The Life Lessons of Geek Heroes
Julie Wallace: Working with SCIs
Gina Bugiada: Drugs, Sex, Love and Environmentalism: 20 things I've Learned During My Move From NEW YORK to Boulder

Learn more about Ignite and join us beforehand for free food and beer from 5-6pm at the Boulder Brew House, or on Twitter @bldrdrafthouse.

Last night I attended the Leeds School's December Recognition Ceremony in the beautiful Macky Auditorium on CU-Boulder's campus. I always find myself enjoying graduation ceremonies more than I expect to. Even though I'm not graduating, it's still a great feeling to be in a room filled with optimistic young adults, and overly-proud parents (a few with airhorns - seriously), and to hear inspirational speeches from those who taught these individuals, and others that have been successful in their lives. It's the ultimate 'feel-good' event.

However, as an alumni relations and communications staff member, I can't help but hope that these graduates' whole experience at Leeds was a 'feel-good' event. It's the students that loved their time at Leeds that will be more likely to keep in touch after graduation and let us know that they moved out-of-state or switched jobs. It's the students that participated in clubs and received scholarships that will care about the student experience of future Leeds students. And it's the individuals that got to know their professors or received assistance from our undergraduate advising or career offices that are most likely to come back and speak in classrooms or help future Leeds graduates find jobs.

There are some in the audience last night that may never return to campus nor be heard from again. However, on the other end of the spectrum are those that will remember Leeds and the education and the experience they had here. We'll see them in the future celebrating Homecoming, reviewing undergraduate resumes, serving as mentors and making donations to the school.

And of course there is everybody in between. 

The good news is, nowadays, with social media and instantaneous communication, we have a much better opportunity to stay in touch with the "everybody in between". And perhaps, just maybe, more of these in-betweens will appreciate the continued Leeds connection and find themselves being active and engaged alumni afterall. Well, that is our hope - and our job!