<b>Hello all and welcome to the Session</b> <b>Strategies for engaging with</b> <b>International alumni effectively and</b> <b>Efficiently. We'll be getting started</b> <b>shortly, however, I have a few</b> <b>housekeeping notes for you. On the right</b> <b>hand side of the screen you'll see a</b> <b>window with the chat, Q&A, Feedback</b> <b>and Notes tab. You could use the chat box</b> <b>to chat with other attendees, but please</b> <b>use the key and AQ and a box to send</b> <b>questions and for our presenters. You can</b> <b>also upvote questions in the Q&A panel if</b> <b>you would like to see those questions</b> <b>answered at the end of the session. Time</b> <b>permits we will answer as many questions</b> <b>as we can. The Notes tab is there for you</b> <b>to keep your own notes during the session</b> <b>if you would like to, and we also ask</b> <b>that you can complete a brief evaluation</b> <b>that's found in the Feedback tab at the</b> <b>end of the session. We use those session</b> <b>feedback to continue improving what we</b> <b>offer, and so we truly</b> <b>appreciate you taking the time. Without</b> <b>further ado, please join me in welcoming</b> <b>our presenter, Fiona Mazurenko.</b> <b>Thank you, Lauren. I'm delighted to be</b> <b>here with everybody today. I wish that I</b> <b>could see all of you and that we were</b> <b>together in person, but coming together</b> <b>in this virtual way is something I</b> <b>think we're all used to now and is really</b> <b>talking about being effective and</b> <b>efficient. It's on theme for today.</b> <b>So I'm Finna Mazurenko. I'm the Director</b> <b>of Global Initiatives and Alumni</b> <b>Relations at UT Austin.</b> <b>This is kind of a weird photo to have on</b> <b>an introduction slide, but I include</b> <b>it because it kind of gives you a</b> <b>little insight into why I'm the one</b> <b>talking about this topic today and why</b> <b>I'm so passionate about it. So I am the</b> <b>one on the end there on the left. This is</b> <b>a photo of me from first grade</b> <b>when I was living in Jakarta, Indonesia,</b> <b>where I spent nine years.</b> <b>If you can spot some of the the languages</b> <b>that I have on the slide, pop those in</b> <b>the chat and we'll see if people can</b> <b>guess or understand where those</b> <b>languages are from. But I as I</b> <b>said, I lived in Indonesia, my mom</b> <b>was South African, my dad was English,</b> <b>and I'm a dual citizen. I studied abroad</b> <b>in England and France, and I was a Peace</b> <b>Corps volunteer in Ukraine. So</b> <b>global citizenship,</b> <b>international affairs, connecting people</b> <b>is something that's really in my blood</b> <b>and in my passion. So I am</b> <b>really honored to be leading these</b> <b>efforts at UT Austin and and we'll get into</b> <b>that in a little while and what that</b> <b>looks like at UT. But</b> <b>without further ado, here's kind of what</b> <b>I'm going to talk to you about today.</b> <b>Umm, who, what and</b> <b>why? Why do international</b> <b>alumni matter? How should they be part of</b> <b>your strategy looking at U</b> <b>T as a case study? What is it that we</b> <b>have done? Where are we coming from?</b> <b>Where are we trying to get to?Looking at</b> <b>what our goals are and using those as</b> <b>a pathway of</b> <b>formula to determine what the strategies</b> <b>are that we're implementing to achieve</b> <b>those goals. And hopefully we'll be able</b> <b>to talk through some of your ideas or</b> <b>questions at the end and how you can</b> <b>integrate some of these ideas into what</b> <b>you're doing at your institutions.</b> <b>So who, what and why?</b> <b>My computer is getting a little ahead of</b> <b>me there. This is the Case 2021</b> <b>definition of alumni relations,</b> <b>and I want to start there because I</b> <b>feel that at least at UT Austin,</b> <b>international alumni were not as</b> <b>integrated into this mission of alumni</b> <b>relations as they could have been. And</b> <b>that's something that we're actively</b> <b>working to remedy. But these are</b> <b>the benefits and the missions and goals</b> <b>of alumni relations building</b> <b>mutually. Beneficial relationships.</b> <b>Inspiring alumni to become involved</b> <b>and offer whatever it is that they</b> <b>are able to. You all know the Staffs</b> <b>of engaged alumni in terms</b> <b>of their participation and their.</b> <b>The propensity to give a financial</b> <b>contribution depending on their</b> <b>engagement and then</b> <b>strengthening the institutions</b> <b>reputation. This is especially important</b> <b>for UT. We don't do a lot of</b> <b>marketing especially internationally.</b> <b>And so our alumni around the</b> <b>world are really our ambassadors</b> <b>and so we want to make sure that we're</b> <b>connecting with them in order to amplify</b> <b>and enhance the the university's</b> <b>reputation around the world. And so</b> <b>that's another thing I would just keep in</b> <b>mind as we continue our conversation.</b> <b>But how do international alumni fit into</b> <b>this? They can't come to</b> <b>football tailgates. They're not coming to</b> <b>campus very often.</b> <b>And how can we engage with</b> <b>them in ways that are meaningful to them</b> <b>and that take into consideration these</b> <b>sort of differences that aren't</b> <b>your standard model for alumni relations,</b> <b>at least at US institutions?</b> <b>They have a different approach and</b> <b>understanding to philanthropy. It's</b> <b>not something that's ingrained in many</b> <b>cultures and giving back is.</b> <b>And giving back to an institution that's</b> <b>not in their home country, something that</b> <b>comes up as a challenge, a lot of</b> <b>their identity identifying as an</b> <b>alum or having a particular</b> <b>mascot or something is often foreign</b> <b>depending on again where people are from.</b> <b>And and that's another point that's</b> <b>important to keep in mind is that there</b> <b>is no one-size-fits-all for your</b> <b>international strategy and it's going to</b> <b>depend largely on these</b> <b>nuances in the specific regions</b> <b>or countries. That you're focusing on</b> <b>their experience at your institution too,</b> <b>is different. How undergraduates</b> <b>identify and have that</b> <b>affinity to your school is different than</b> <b>graduate students would. So you T, for</b> <b>example, has</b> <b>the most international students or</b> <b>graduate students, and their experience</b> <b>is very different from that of an</b> <b>undergrad. They're spending a lot of time</b> <b>researching in labs. They're not</b> <b>necessarily going to the big football</b> <b>games or basketball games and.</b> <b>Participating in all of the spirit</b> <b>activities. So</b> <b>those are just some things to think to</b> <b>think about in terms of what makes</b> <b>international alumni engagement different</b> <b>than perhaps what your association</b> <b>or your team is doing in the US.</b> <b>So I've alluded to some things</b> <b>that make international alumni engagement</b> <b>at UT.</b> <b>Challenge or things that we're trying to</b> <b>change. So I'll start from the beginning</b> <b>and just kind of offer us as a</b> <b>case study in looking at some of these</b> <b>particulars of international alumni</b> <b>engagement. Some of you probably</b> <b>recognize this. What starts here changes</b> <b>the world. This is our</b> <b>university motto, it's our tagline,</b> <b>and it's been our guiding principle</b> <b>for years. But. When we have this</b> <b>very aspirational goal in this mission,</b> <b>we weren't really engaging with the world</b> <b>so much. So I'm going back a little bit</b> <b>in history to give you some.</b> <b>I guess airing some institutional</b> <b>laundry, which was?That there wasn't an</b> <b>intentional outreach strategy for</b> <b>international alumni. The</b> <b>international office was really the</b> <b>driving engine in recent years</b> <b>in communications with international</b> <b>alumni.</b> <b>Thinking through what was</b> <b>going on in 2014 when the university</b> <b>really started to think about how we</b> <b>could outreach and engage more with</b> <b>international alumni, It started</b> <b>with the development office</b> <b>and. We had</b> <b>some folks going out into the field,</b> <b>traveling around the world, and they were</b> <b>getting this.</b> <b>Responsive. I haven't heard from you for</b> <b>30 years. I see you've got development</b> <b>in your title. Now all of a sudden you're</b> <b>showing up at my doorstep and you</b> <b>are obviously going to ask me for a gift</b> <b>and and that is not where we wanted to</b> <b>be. So in</b> <b>2014 and the New Years preceding the</b> <b>international office, Texas Development,</b> <b>which was our development office and the</b> <b>Texas Exes, which is our association</b> <b>started to work really closely in how can</b> <b>we focus on friendraising and</b> <b>creating real meaningful engagement</b> <b>opportunities that will then</b> <b>contribute in the long run into financial</b> <b>support for the institution. So</b> <b>we looked at our data.</b> <b>We are more than half a million alumni</b> <b>strong around the world. We've got alumni</b> <b>and 176 countries</b> <b>with top concentrations. I think this</b> <b>will track for all of you in China,</b> <b>India, South Korea, Mexico, United</b> <b>Kingdom. And we'll talk again about</b> <b>data in a minute as a strategy.</b> <b>But I think it's important to frame too</b> <b>that my position is</b> <b>not in the development office, it's not</b> <b>in the alumni association.</b> <b>I am in the portfolio</b> <b>of the Provost office, and</b> <b>so this kind of triad of the development</b> <b>office, the Provost office and the</b> <b>Texas Exes as the</b> <b>association really</b> <b>presents a strong triad at the</b> <b>university that's driven by</b> <b>a commitment to the academic mission.</b> <b>And I know that this is quite unique</b> <b>among institutions. I'm sure a lot of you</b> <b>are not sitting in the Provost office or</b> <b>in the international office. But as a</b> <b>large institution, we have these three</b> <b>engines in different parts of the</b> <b>university, president's office, Provost</b> <b>office. And then in addition, there's</b> <b>eighteen colleges and schools who have</b> <b>their own approach to alumni</b> <b>relations. And So what we have endeavored</b> <b>to do is to create</b> <b>partnerships. And create sort of a</b> <b>centralized coordination or support</b> <b>for international alumni outreach.</b> <b>And so that cross institutional</b> <b>collaboration, central coordination is</b> <b>really important. It keeps everybody on</b> <b>the same page. It</b> <b>allows for</b> <b>consistency and messaging and offering of</b> <b>expertise in regional</b> <b>outreach. And it's also</b> <b>essential to our strategic plan that was</b> <b>outlined last year in this pillar of</b> <b>engaging Longhorns for life</b> <b>and as I mentioned.</b> <b>Having our outreach strategy</b> <b>embedded in our academic mission of the</b> <b>university really allows for some</b> <b>unique events and program</b> <b>and engagement opportunities.</b> <b>So that's kind of a brief</b> <b>history of</b> <b>of where we came from and how we</b> <b>have created this relationship</b> <b>between the alumni association, the</b> <b>international portfolio of the university</b> <b>and an international advancement team in</b> <b>the central development office</b> <b>to. Offered central</b> <b>coordination for intentional outreach</b> <b>to international alumni.</b> <b>What we have done just to give you some</b> <b>idea of.</b> <b>Since 2014, where have we</b> <b>made progress?</b> <b>We have instituted some special</b> <b>communications, some special programs,</b> <b>some special events. We've done virtual</b> <b>programming in person programming</b> <b>and I'm going to talk more specifically</b> <b>about that as we look forward.</b> <b>So as the three entities of ours</b> <b>sort of led by Texas Global where my</b> <b>position sits,</b> <b>we sort of established what are these,</b> <b>where are we trying to get to, what are</b> <b>our looking at the future. Where do we</b> <b>want to be and then how can we get there?</b> <b>So our goals, largely of</b> <b>our international engagement, is to</b> <b>create a really vibrant community of</b> <b>alumni around the world in different</b> <b>places that are involved in a in a</b> <b>multitude of different ways.</b> <b>We wanted to create a</b> <b>a framework of different opportunities</b> <b>in which alumni can become engaged.</b> <b>Obviously people are not. Going to do</b> <b>everything all the time and so we want to</b> <b>have a vast menu of them to</b> <b>participate in depending on what their</b> <b>individual interests are and their time</b> <b>and their availability.</b> <b>Another pillar of our plan</b> <b>is to create a pipeline of engaged</b> <b>international alumni who can really be</b> <b>set up to be strategic and committed</b> <b>partners. So that in 30 years</b> <b>we've been talking to them every year and</b> <b>not just coming at them after no</b> <b>communication, now that they're</b> <b>successful, CEO and some global</b> <b>corporation. And so that we</b> <b>have that established relationship as</b> <b>soon as they're stepping off campus</b> <b>and we don't lose. Touch with them and</b> <b>then this cross institutional commitment</b> <b>to international alumni is something that</b> <b>we have really been working on as well,</b> <b>helping colleges and schools understand</b> <b>why it's important</b> <b>to engage with international alumni</b> <b>and how they can become engaged,</b> <b>how this can work</b> <b>into a college or schools</b> <b>strategy overall for their development</b> <b>goals. And so</b> <b>when we look at these goals, we</b> <b>identified a few strategies that I'll</b> <b>walk you through now and hopefully share</b> <b>some tips and ideas that you all</b> <b>can implement. The most</b> <b>important thing for us is data,</b> <b>data, data, data. I know it's something</b> <b>on the top of everybody's minds and</b> <b>usually a</b> <b>significant source of frustration or</b> <b>challenge and we'll talk about that.</b> <b>We wanted to make sure that we had a</b> <b>really coordinated and robust and</b> <b>effective communications plan, which</b> <b>included storytelling</b> <b>profiles of alumni, sharing of</b> <b>updates. We looked at our</b> <b>data and we wanted to create a</b> <b>targeted outreach plan so that we're not</b> <b>misallocating our resources or doing a</b> <b>lot of things that don't have a large</b> <b>return on investment. So I'll talk about</b> <b>that a little bit more. I</b> <b>talked to about our intra institutional</b> <b>partnerships as part of our</b> <b>strategic activities, the creation</b> <b>of impactful and meaningful events and</b> <b>then of course measuring success and</b> <b>looking where we can make</b> <b>improvements and how we are measuring</b> <b>up against the goals that we've set for</b> <b>ourselves. So</b> <b>data. You know, I</b> <b>showed you our our motto, What starts</b> <b>here changes the world. When I</b> <b>came into this position in 2021 and</b> <b>started looking at our database,</b> <b>that mission was not reflected in our</b> <b>data. Just to give you an example,</b> <b>we have over 40,000 records</b> <b>of international alumni that we</b> <b>have addresses in Austin for about</b> <b>20,000 of them. So we know</b> <b>that they're not still living in Austin.</b> <b>We've still got addresses for when people</b> <b>are on. Campus, but they've been globally</b> <b>mobile for many years. And so</b> <b>that is something that we have really</b> <b>been looking at not only</b> <b>to make sure that we have good</b> <b>communication and contact information for</b> <b>them to reach them, but also to inform</b> <b>our strategy. So</b> <b>the stats that I shared earlier</b> <b>about where our top ten concentrations</b> <b>are and how many countries we have</b> <b>international alumni. Is is kind of an</b> <b>approximation, but tracks with our</b> <b>international student enrollment.</b> <b>And we have looked at that obviously to</b> <b>inform where is it that we've</b> <b>got a concentration of alumni where it</b> <b>would make sense to focus our</b> <b>events, focus our topics, think about</b> <b>what's important in those places</b> <b>and inform the strategy</b> <b>using those statistics and where the</b> <b>relationships already exist. And</b> <b>then making sure that we're updating</b> <b>records as much as possible.</b> <b>And maintaining them and</b> <b>finding our alumni. So a few.</b> <b>Tools that we have started</b> <b>using or look and looking into our</b> <b>Rocket Reach and LinkedIn Sales</b> <b>Navigator. When I gave this</b> <b>presentation at the Case District 4</b> <b>conference in April, I was surprised to</b> <b>hear that nobody was using Rocket Reach.</b> <b>This is a system, a platform that you</b> <b>can use for free at a certain level of</b> <b>finding e-mail addresses for people. So</b> <b>if you're trying to reach somebody and</b> <b>you have outdated e-mail addresses for</b> <b>them, you can search for them in Rocket</b> <b>Reach. To get a current e-mail address.</b> <b>And then LinkedIn Sales Navigator is</b> <b>something that our international</b> <b>advancement team has really.</b> <b>Had great success using. It</b> <b>helps with sort of that cold calling</b> <b>message on LinkedIn when you're trying to</b> <b>do outreach and working around the</b> <b>various barriers there that are set up.</b> <b>But it also is a tool to show you the</b> <b>mobility of your</b> <b>international alumni in terms</b> <b>of their professional and career growth</b> <b>so that your social team can congratulate</b> <b>somebody on a promotion or</b> <b>something like that. So data, of course,</b> <b>is really key in creating a</b> <b>strategy for effective and efficient</b> <b>outreach to international alumni.</b> <b>We did a survey in 2021</b> <b>of our alumni based on the addresses</b> <b>that we had and this tracks with the data</b> <b>that I showed you before, but these were</b> <b>the geographic concentrations and</b> <b>this. Really. Kind</b> <b>of. Set the</b> <b>pathway for where we were going to</b> <b>concentrate our efforts and so we have a</b> <b>lot of activities and</b> <b>and programs.</b> <b>Focused on Asia and different countries</b> <b>within Asia broken down on</b> <b>a on a better level and Europe and</b> <b>Latin America. So that is where we sort</b> <b>of have started our concentrated and</b> <b>coordinated outreach efforts.</b> <b>And this is just an example to of</b> <b>another one of the questions that we</b> <b>asked there, who were they? What was</b> <b>their experience so that we can further</b> <b>drill down our data. And then</b> <b>we also wanted to get a feel for</b> <b>how did they want to be engaged, how</b> <b>interested were they in in attending in</b> <b>person events, virtual events, speaking,</b> <b>coordinating events or</b> <b>hosting events. And so we have</b> <b>used this survey and I would encourage</b> <b>you to do that. If you're starting</b> <b>outreach to international alumni.</b> <b>To do a survey to ask what topics they're</b> <b>interested in, how they want to be</b> <b>engaged, and use that data by country to</b> <b>inform how you continue in</b> <b>your engagement offerings.</b> <b>Umm. We have a really fantastic</b> <b>website and a lot of great</b> <b>stories, and we wanted to make</b> <b>sure that our communications and</b> <b>storytelling were aligned with what we</b> <b>were hearing from alumni in terms of what</b> <b>they were interested in, what they wanted</b> <b>to hear from the university, what</b> <b>was going on in their communities that we</b> <b>could have faculty speak to and</b> <b>and. We wanted to make sure that those</b> <b>were the stories that our communications</b> <b>team was telling</b> <b>our our website is</b> <b>not the main UT website, but is linked</b> <b>closely to it. And so we also make sure</b> <b>that we're feeding our stories to the</b> <b>Central communication team so that they</b> <b>can highlight our international donors</b> <b>and our international alumni on their</b> <b>various channels.</b> <b>One important thing to keep in mind is</b> <b>at least what we have found is. We really</b> <b>found it important to meet alumni where</b> <b>they are to be on the platforms where</b> <b>they're already engaging.</b> <b>If you you can look at your analytics and</b> <b>see sort of what your international</b> <b>following is on Facebook</b> <b>or what are the dominant</b> <b>places that and platforms that you're</b> <b>important alumni concentrations are</b> <b>using. So I've got WhatsApp,</b> <b>that's the majority of where a lot of our</b> <b>alumni are connecting. Women's groups for</b> <b>Panama and for South Korea</b> <b>and for Singapore, it can be a</b> <b>little bit overwhelming, so just be</b> <b>careful on how you manage your channels.</b> <b>But you know, we have this</b> <b>sort of exclusive</b> <b>community for alumni to</b> <b>come to and we're having a hard time</b> <b>executing that as a as a.</b> <b>Effective strategy because it's just</b> <b>another place where people have to come</b> <b>to in addition to all of the other</b> <b>platforms like LinkedIn where they</b> <b>already are. And we have really the most</b> <b>success on the social media platforms</b> <b>that are dominant in the places that</b> <b>we're trying to engage more.</b> <b>So how we are leveraging those groups</b> <b>too is to sort of Dr.</b> <b>inbound marketing. So you've got these</b> <b>wonderful stories that are going to</b> <b>inspire people to become engaged or</b> <b>events to attend to and</b> <b>we post those in those groups and lead</b> <b>them to our website so that we get more</b> <b>information sharing there and and</b> <b>drive traffic to the website that then</b> <b>can inspire them to engage in other ways</b> <b>as well and again looking at your. Data</b> <b>to inform where you're</b> <b>spending resources on telling stories</b> <b>on your communications. Related</b> <b>to that, you know we look at our at</b> <b>our data or our concentrations are</b> <b>looking at important university dates and</b> <b>then sort of drilling down to</b> <b>holidays of cultural importance or</b> <b>national significance to audiences that</b> <b>are important to us. So these are a few</b> <b>examples of. Social media campaigns</b> <b>or emails that we have created to</b> <b>go out to certain alumni</b> <b>populations to recognize</b> <b>that we know there are cultural</b> <b>holidays or things of significance that</b> <b>are going on in their lives and</b> <b>celebrating those with them.</b> <b>I would, you know, lean on student</b> <b>designers or graphic designers</b> <b>or things free tools like Canva to</b> <b>create graphics. If you don't have</b> <b>an amazing graphics team like I have</b> <b>access to, thankfully</b> <b>translation can be really tricky, so</b> <b>I'll just put that as a note in your</b> <b>mind. If you're going to translate</b> <b>certain messages to have a</b> <b>strategy for vetting those translations</b> <b>really carefully to make sure that you're</b> <b>not saying anything.</b> <b>That's different from the message that</b> <b>you're wanting to deliver and then also</b> <b>leveraging, you know, the students that</b> <b>you have staff on your.</b> <b>Organization or faculty to sort of vet</b> <b>those messages, the colors that are used,</b> <b>imagery that are used in in those</b> <b>targeted outreach and then your alumni</b> <b>leaders too and getting their</b> <b>their input on whether something would be</b> <b>appreciated or.</b> <b>It's culturally appropriate. So just some</b> <b>examples of of communications that we</b> <b>have sent out and have had a really great</b> <b>response to open rates and engagement</b> <b>rates with Lunar New Year, with Mexican</b> <b>Independence Day, with Bastille Day</b> <b>that's coming up and and then</b> <b>our Canadian Thanksgiving, this is</b> <b>one that we started last year and had a</b> <b>really great response with people saying,</b> <b>wow, I didn't even know UT knew there was</b> <b>a different Thanksgiving date in Canada.</b> <b>Thanks so much for reaching out. Um.</b> <b>I mentioned how important it is</b> <b>for cross campus collaboration.</b> <b>These are the different offices that UT</b> <b>that are really important in having a</b> <b>partnership with and I would imagine that</b> <b>this is similar at your institution as</b> <b>well. If you're a</b> <b>small office, a one person team,</b> <b>whatever it is, you can lean on other</b> <b>resources that your university for</b> <b>information. If you're not in the</b> <b>international office, you know you can</b> <b>reach out to them to understand what your</b> <b>international enrollment looks like. What</b> <b>are the international students facing?</b> <b>What opportunities are there for donors</b> <b>that want to engage and support</b> <b>international students or activities at</b> <b>the university with the development</b> <b>office?I I'm not a</b> <b>frontline gift officer. I love being</b> <b>the assist.</b> <b>I'm not big on sports analogies, but I</b> <b>think about it as like lining up in the</b> <b>World Cup of soccer,</b> <b>making sure that the person who's going</b> <b>to score the goal has all of the</b> <b>information at their fingertips. And</b> <b>that's where the partnerships become</b> <b>really important. We</b> <b>have also worked with our centers and</b> <b>Career Services office across campus</b> <b>on the centers, with the regional focuses</b> <b>for events and with career</b> <b>services for programming.</b> <b>Targeted at graduating students, and I'll</b> <b>talk a little bit about that more now.</b> <b>One thing that we do is an alumni</b> <b>orientation for graduating</b> <b>international students. But they have</b> <b>unique concerns, unique things</b> <b>going on in their lives that are</b> <b>different than US students who don't have</b> <b>to worry about immigration documents</b> <b>or keeping their status or moving back</b> <b>home or moving to another international</b> <b>country. So we</b> <b>have. An orientation that</b> <b>kind of explains to international</b> <b>students what resources are available to</b> <b>them after they leave campus, how we can</b> <b>continue to support them. We're</b> <b>working on a mentorship program where</b> <b>we're connecting international students</b> <b>as they're graduating with international</b> <b>alumni to share advice and tips as</b> <b>they're entering the workforce. And then</b> <b>we work with our international chapters</b> <b>of the Texas Exes to do send offs and</b> <b>welcomes for.</b> <b>Send offs for new international students</b> <b>coming to UT and welcomes for recent</b> <b>graduates coming back to their</b> <b>communities. For</b> <b>our alumni, we have</b> <b>done a number of in person and virtual</b> <b>events. We've done</b> <b>in person events now in Korea,</b> <b>Singapore, Taiwan which is where this</b> <b>photo is from from March of this year</b> <b>across Mexico in</b> <b>addition to several virtual events and</b> <b>these are really sort of topic led</b> <b>we feature faculty or leadership</b> <b>speaking to our. Strategic plan or</b> <b>topics of interest like journalism in</b> <b>Latin America or climate change and</b> <b>conservation, where we bring in a faculty</b> <b>expert and an alumni speaker if we</b> <b>can, to have a dialogue.</b> <b>And we've had really great feedback about</b> <b>those we</b> <b>partner with where we</b> <b>combine, I would say our in person events</b> <b>and outreach with outbound delegations.</b> <b>So if you have faculty that are</b> <b>traveling or your international offices</b> <b>traveling, working with them</b> <b>to host events while</b> <b>they're in country, talking to academic</b> <b>partners, engaging with the alumni</b> <b>community where they're going.</b> <b>We leverage faculty that are</b> <b>traveling. We connect with</b> <b>our global risk and safety team to find</b> <b>out who is registered their international</b> <b>travel. So we know which faculty are</b> <b>going abroad and can ask them to meet</b> <b>with somebody. So for example, we have.</b> <b>Faculty that was going to Singapore, we</b> <b>had a.</b> <b>An alum there who was really wanting to</b> <b>to engage. And so we set up the faculty</b> <b>that was traveling to Singapore that we</b> <b>knew about with with that</b> <b>alum. And then</b> <b>measuring success to make sure that</b> <b>you're staying on track. We're looking at</b> <b>our database. How many more records do we</b> <b>have? How many of those 20,000</b> <b>alumni that we have often addresses for?</b> <b>Are we updating? Looking at your</b> <b>analytics on your social media, are you</b> <b>reaching audiences outside of the</b> <b>US in line with where you're trying to</b> <b>get to? What is your website traffic look</b> <b>like? And then of course, attendance at</b> <b>events, the Net Promoter score And then</b> <b>what sort of. Financial contributions,</b> <b>Are you getting out of here?</b> <b>Out of your international alumni</b> <b>engagement. OK.</b> <b>And just couple tool tips for how</b> <b>to achieve that is</b> <b>surveys and trackable URL.</b> <b>Which your web team hopefully can create</b> <b>for you, and if not, you can create them</b> <b>on your own. And just as I wrap</b> <b>up, these are two</b> <b>must reads that I encourage you to look</b> <b>at if you haven't yet. The</b> <b>1st is Engaging International Alumni</b> <b>Strategic Partners. This was a</b> <b>a publication by NASA which is the</b> <b>International Education Association by</b> <b>some names that are probably familiar to</b> <b>you and then the Alumni Way by</b> <b>Maria Gayle. So this is</b> <b>my contact information. I'm always</b> <b>happy to speak with</b> <b>you and then I</b> <b>would encourage you also, if you're</b> <b>interested to see what we're doing on</b> <b>social, to follow us on those handles.</b> <b>And Larson and excited to hear if there's</b> <b>any questions. There is. Thank you</b> <b>so much for your presentation. We have</b> <b>a Luthra of questions to get</b> <b>through. So I'm going to jump right in</b> <b>with our first question And it is, are</b> <b>there any specific programming that you</b> <b>all do that is virtual in order to engage</b> <b>with international alumni? And can you</b> <b>give examples? Yeah. So we have a series</b> <b>called the Texas Global Dialogues. Those</b> <b>were the virtual events. That I was</b> <b>talking about where we sort of look at</b> <b>where do we have really engaging</b> <b>faculty that we come across who can</b> <b>deliver an</b> <b>meaningful and engaging online</b> <b>conversation. So our Senior Vice Provost</b> <b>for global engagement moderates that we</b> <b>invite the faculty, we invite an</b> <b>expert. I'll give you one</b> <b>example. We did a a Texas Global</b> <b>Dialogue on Global Health.</b> <b>During COVID, of course, that was on top</b> <b>of everybody's mind. So we had</b> <b>a professor at our medical school talking</b> <b>to an alum who was the</b> <b>European Regional director for the</b> <b>World Health Organization. And so we came</b> <b>up with a script of questions and</b> <b>and then collected questions kind of like</b> <b>we have now in the Q&A. And so</b> <b>we do that and we found that an hour is</b> <b>too short. An hour and a half seems to be</b> <b>optimal for our conversation. And</b> <b>questions. And we vary the</b> <b>time too, depending on</b> <b>who we're trying to engage at that time.</b> <b>Thinking through time zones, we found</b> <b>that like seven o'clock, 8:00 o'clock in</b> <b>the morning works well for</b> <b>almost hitting all of our time zones.</b> <b>Sometimes we do them in the evening too.</b> <b>Hit Um Asia better</b> <b>Um. I think I'm leaving out some</b> <b>important tidbits on what what those</b> <b>approach made those virtual events good,</b> <b>but. We always have about, I</b> <b>think 60 to 90 people show up to those</b> <b>and try to keep them short and</b> <b>sweet. I remembered what my other tip</b> <b>was. If you're doing a virtual event, try</b> <b>not to have more than three or four</b> <b>speakers on it, as it gets kind of</b> <b>unruly when you're trying to do a virtual</b> <b>event. Thank you. Our</b> <b>second question is in your work, our</b> <b>international alumni defined by those</b> <b>that live outside the US or those who</b> <b>came in as international students,</b> <b>whether they stayed in the States or</b> <b>moved back abroad.</b> <b>Yes, we we look at both of</b> <b>those. So for our populations that we're</b> <b>working with in terms of alumni,</b> <b>it's anybody living outside of the US we</b> <b>want to make sure that they're engaged</b> <b>and that we're tracking where they're</b> <b>moving. So in our survey, we kind of ask</b> <b>is this your permanent location or are</b> <b>you going to be moving in a few</b> <b>years for students</b> <b>and for programming for specific for</b> <b>international students then we're looking</b> <b>at. Um, our soon to be</b> <b>alumni who were international students</b> <b>specifically at UT. And so our our</b> <b>definition is broad and includes</b> <b>globally minded alumni too. So alumni in</b> <b>the United States who may be interested</b> <b>in what the university is doing globally</b> <b>and want to know how</b> <b>we're preparing students to be global</b> <b>leaders and what to support study abroad</b> <b>for example. So it kind of</b> <b>depends on our program and outreach of</b> <b>how we define that. But, but pretty</b> <b>broadly. Awesome.</b> <b>How do you handle general data protection</b> <b>regulations? Do you use an opt in method</b> <b>or is it implied consent?Great</b> <b>question. Especially with the GDP sort</b> <b>of curveball that we were all thrown a</b> <b>few years ago, It's opt in for the most</b> <b>part. Fun</b> <b>story. Our alumni</b> <b>association and our university</b> <b>database are separate and don't talk to</b> <b>each other. And when G DRP wanted to</b> <b>place, the alumni association had to wipe</b> <b>their entire database and really just</b> <b>have everybody opt back in,</b> <b>which presented another obstacle and</b> <b>challenge.</b> <b>It is something that you have to be</b> <b>quite, quite careful with, as you know</b> <b>and and we do have folks who can weigh in</b> <b>on.</b> <b>The legality of it on the country level</b> <b>and often your alumni are the best</b> <b>resource for that and to advise you how</b> <b>to best handle the data question.</b> <b>Does your team have UM?Do you</b> <b>have a team collecting and Oregon syncing</b> <b>updates of Lost alumni</b> <b>through Rocket Reach or LinkedIn? Or</b> <b>how do you manage that?</b> <b>It's a little bit ad hoc, so I can only</b> <b>speak to me in my team. The development</b> <b>team is a little bit different and much</b> <b>more robust than larger, and they have a</b> <b>whole research team that is looking at</b> <b>high level prospects and doing a lot of</b> <b>research and updating their information.</b> <b>Whenever my team, my small</b> <b>Sprite team, finds new information, we do</b> <b>go into the university database and make</b> <b>sure that it's updated there so that</b> <b>that's not living on a spreadsheet on our</b> <b>computers and will be lost once one of us</b> <b>moves on to a new position. Umm.</b> <b>So we kind of do it on</b> <b>the ad hoc individual</b> <b>basis. I think the development office has</b> <b>a much better strategy for that, I'm</b> <b>sure. I'm sure they do for LinkedIn</b> <b>Sales Navigator, we have</b> <b>had individual development officers or</b> <b>staff members using that and now we're</b> <b>looking at it more of an enterprise</b> <b>account because we have so many people</b> <b>that are using it.</b> <b>I wish I was more of an expert in IT, but</b> <b>we haven't instituted our Enterprise</b> <b>membership yet.</b> <b>But it allows you to create sort of</b> <b>streams and themes and countries and</b> <b>boards that you can look at. And it's</b> <b>attached to your personal LinkedIn. So</b> <b>that's just one thing to keep in mind is</b> <b>if you have users on your license,</b> <b>it will still be attached to them if they</b> <b>leave your team. So you have to have</b> <b>something in place to make sure that that</b> <b>license is freed up to go to the next</b> <b>staff member. Awesome. Thank you,</b> <b>you. So we're going to be beginning to</b> <b>wrap up, but I just wanted to mention</b> <b>some of the people that are watching and</b> <b>where they're from. So shout outs to</b> <b>London ON. We have many</b> <b>people from British Columbia, Victoria</b> <b>and plenty of other places within the US</b> <b>We have California, Cincinnati,</b> <b>represented, Kentucky represented. So a</b> <b>lot of different faces and places that</b> <b>we're listening and found this</b> <b>information valuable. So thank you,</b> <b>Fiona. And all of our</b> <b>attendees, before</b> <b>transitioning onto the next session, I</b> <b>want to remind you to complete that</b> <b>feedback survey that's on the right of</b> <b>your screen, just so that we could obtain</b> <b>more information and further better</b> <b>our services to you. And</b> <b>so thank you again and please return to</b> <b>the agenda screen to be your next</b> <b>session, which will be the closing</b> <b>plenary. Thank you and have a great rest</b> <b>of your day.</b>

international alumni

engagement strategies

data-driven approaches

partnerships

virtual events

targeted communications

alumni orientation programs