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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.

Until my young colleague Kelly Dodds started in our office, she really didn't think much about her Digital Native status. She and her friends had always been online in some form or fashion through their Facebook pages, texting and on cell phones. She and her generation are truly wired in how they think and interact. But what of those of us who didn't come out of the womb with a cell phone and Facebook account? Is it absolutely necessary for one to have on online presence, an online "brand" as it were? There are those who would answer absolutely and emphatically, "yes."

I don't want to sound preachy or condescending, but, like it or not, we live in a wired world. If you are not a Digital Native, you had better be strongly considering upgrading your status to Digital Immigrant if you haven't done so already.

Which brings me to the point of this blog and that is our upcoming workshop "Professional Presence in a Social Media World." This will be a full-day interactive workshop designed to teach the unwritten rules of today's digital world. We hope that attendees will learn the new online tools and techniques to successfully conduct a job search and manage one's career online. The workshop presenters Carol Ross and Walter Akana are certified career coaches and Digital Immigrants as well having developed their professional presence online some years ago.  Carol describes the ideal candidate to attend the workshop and the importance of having a "public" life and an online presence.  Walter elaborates on the workshops features and benefits. You can get more information and register on our website.

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

As you would gather reading the previous posts on the Leeds 2.0 blog, we have worked to strategically integrate Social Media and current technology into our alumni relations and communications plan. So, when I recently posted a new position for my area, I had the occasion to see a number of resumes.  Clearly, many of the applicants had not bothered to read the job posting and tailor their application to the position. Even more clearly, those that had attempted to do so had not bothered to review our website and SM channels to understand our communications needs.  This, to me, makes absolutely no sense, especially in this economy.  So, along with the usual guidelines such as address to the correct hiring authority, and no typos, let me add this:

• Match your skills and experience to the position--if they don't match, don't apply,
• If your are confident that your skills will transfer, make that crystal clear to the hiring authority-there's a lot of competition, so be clear on what makes you stand out,
• With all the online information available do your homework and understand the organization,
• The professional world is evolving and technology is a large part of the change, adjust or fail,
• Also, just because you applied for something, don't expect to hear back (that is unless they contact you for a screening or interview)

Finally, hiring decisions take on even greater weight as we are all under pressure to do more with less.  I am not writing this to be snarky, I just want those in the job hunt to understand what influences those of us who seek to fill positions with the best talent.  Here's another take on ways to make your resume really reflect you. Also this colleague offers advice on creating your elevator pitch. After all, once you get the interview, you're going to have to tell them about yourself and you want to be prepared.

Comic by Graela

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!

Browsing Google Reader at the blogs that I follow, I noticed a new post from Andy Shaindlin's Alumni Futures blog titled: 2010 Alumni Relations Issues for the Year Ahead.  As alumni relations is what I do here for the Leeds School of Business, I figured it would be beneficial to see what Mr. Shaindlin had to say. His main points asked how alumni relations professionals can continue to be relevant and useful and meaningful to our alumni in the face of changing times and advanced technology. With the proliferation of social media and peoples' ability to organize into groups through online tools - do they still need and want us to do that for them? With the extensive reach of Google, Facebook and the white pages online, do alumni still need our help finding and connecting with other alumni?

Andy suggests the answers are yes, and I tend to agree. In this day and age, our alumni EXPECT that we have a presence in these new online spaces and they WANT to be a part of the School's official fan page, group, etc. on Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.

And we are happy to have them.

But this major shift in how we communicate with our alumni was not obvious or immediate. Many universities and schools had and still have online communities exclusively for their alumni (including CU's Forever Buffs Network and Leeds' LeedsLink). However, as the space of social media has developed, we've come to learn that exclusivity is not always where it's at. For instance, we have been posting job openings to LeedsLink thinking our alumni would find this as an exclusive benefit and visit the site in order to see what jobs were listed. However, my director and I met yesterday with our Career Connections staff to discuss using LinkedIn instead of LeedsLink to post jobs. The group consensus was to find alumni where they already are and to make our LinkedIn group more relevant and dynamic by giving people what they want - opportunities for jobs. Instead of assuming alumni would want to take the extra step to look for jobs on LeedLink, we recognize that we should provide value to them in the space that they already inhabit, LinkedIn.

As this is a brand new change to how we operate, we don't yet know how it'll go, however, I'm optimistic that it will be well received. Exclusivity is sacrificed as alumni could easily forward and share the job posting with whomever they please in their various networks, however, that is the way the world works these days and who are we, alumni relations staff, to stop them!

For a complete list of how you can connect to the Leeds School using social media, including Linkedin, please visit: www.leeds.colorado.edu/socialnetworking

 

If you are like me, you could enter a room and not say a word to one person the entire time, unless someone approached you. Now, some may consider this to be a bit snobbish, but I simply believe that it's a fear of public speaking that takes over.

My whole life I have tried to stand on the sidelines, and just observe others around me strike up a conversation. Even through my academic career of giving numerous presentations on various topics, including ones in Spanish, and serving as my sorority's chapter president, I still did not feel that my social skills had prepared me for real world interaction.Talk about lack of confidence!

It wasn't until my final semester of college that I realized the real value added by exposing myself to new environments with people I did not know. The time to take myself from wallflower to 'girl who can work a room' was long overdue. I needed to get out there and socialize!Graduation was nearing, the world was in an economic crisis, and I was unsure of where I would be after walking in my cap/gown to receive my ever so expensive piece of paper that would read that I was awarded a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish. What to do?

An opportunity finally came to take any skills I had ever learned and put them into action. A local group called Boulder 2140 was hosting a networking event at the Rembrandt Yard Art Gallery where locals in the Boulder community could gather for drinks and hors d'oeuvres to chat it up with others in the 21 - 40 year old range. I racked up some confidence and headed to the event by my lonesome.

Once there, I walked into a crowded room of people, none of which I knew, signed in, put on my name tag, and went straight to something that was comforting, food. I mean you can certainly strike up a conversation with anyone about food. How hard is that?

After striking up several conversations I realized that this isn't so bad. People talked to me about being an 'almost recent grad' and what I was going to do with my life after I graduated. Aren't you supposed to score a job at these types of things?I mean I was going to be a recent grad, with a degree in Spanish, lots of great work experience, who wouldn't want to hire me?

That's where I went wrong. Because what I have learned from that event is it's not what you know, but who you know. And that going to a networking event doesn't guarantee you a full blown career with salary and benefits, but it empowers you to want to engage in these conversations more often, and build a sense of confidence, that I lacked before, within.

Working for the Leeds School of Business for three years of my college career, helped change my persona to that of a professional, and a big part of my job has been networking with all types of individuals on a daily basis. To say the least, networking is always on my mind. Networking this, and networking that. It takes practice and refinement to really understand the possibilities associated with this type of activity. It's not something everybody will be good at, but everyone can do it. So get out there and put on your networking boots and socialize your way to whatever it is that you are looking for.

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Posted by Gabrielle Makray