And so we'll just let them roll on in, but we'll get started here in just a minute. We're excited to talk with you today about creating unique and memorable experience at alumni and donor events. But just know that we are going to share with you some information and then we will follow that up with opening up conversation. So I hope a few of you are willing to step up and share some thoughts and ideas to some questions that I throw out. And also maybe post some questions to myself and also other attendees. So. Alrighty, so let's get started. I hope everyone is having a wonderful Tuesday. We're excited here in Blacksburg for a big concert that's coming to us tomorrow as part of a unique and memorable experience. But I'm excited today as Angela Mills, who serves as director of alumni relations for Virginia Tech Engineering here in Blacksburg, Virginia, to talk with you about creating a unique and memorable experience at alumni and donor events. I also have the incredible honor and opportunity to serve on the CASE District 3 cabinet as a volunteer experience and work with those at CASE headquarters there in Washington, D.C. to bring different programming. So this is part of the district three to gathers and the hope is to bring together different professionals around specific topics so that we can share some insights, but also gather insights from those of you that are participating here. We are all doing this kind of work every day. And so we're learning every day, no matter what you've done in your past or what you're doing now. Different ways to do things as the world changes and ebbs and flows and as our audiences change and ebb and flow in their expectations. So how I join you today is from this experience as director of alumni relations here in engineering. And I have been working on alumni and donor and some student events for the last eight and a half years. And then prior to that, I worked in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences here at Virginia Tech doing the same sort of thing. And then previous to that, I spent 11 years doing both donor events and alumni engagement at the University of Tennessee system and Knoxville campus. So I've done everything from small unique donor dinners with, you know, 10 people at a table to 1500 tailgate type events with the entire football team and the president and chancellor and head football coach and everything in between. And so I'm excited today for us to talk about different ways, depending on what you're trying to accomplish that we can do to approach events to make them more unique and memorable. So with that, we'll get started. And what I would say is I hope that you all will throw some questions along the way as I share a few slides, I promise I don't have a ton for you today. But as we go through those, please add some questions in there and then I have some different prompt questions for us to talk through or to take questions from you all. So let's get started. So when we talk about events, what I will say is the quote that comes to me all the time when I'm thinking about events and how I'm approaching them. Is people forget what you said, people will forget what you did, no matter how hard we work on it, but people will never forget how you made them feel. And Maya Angelou provided this for us and to me it's the perfect thing for us to create memorable experiences for our alumni and donors to keep at the forefront of our mind. I always think if I am being led in a way that is pulling at my heart, then there's got to be other people in the room that are having that happen. And this is a great example. All of us have mascots or someone special on campus that connects, whether it's a person or a leader or a student that connects to our alumni and donors and we happen to have the Hokie bird. It creates this very unique response every time they're together. So when we think about experience, you know, when I have done events and I started my career at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. And one of the things that they really focused in on and helped me learn at a young age, just starting off in my career is that experience matters. And that experience is every bit of the steps along the way that not we're experiencing as the planners, but those that are coming to us and spending time with us and wanting to interact with us in some way that their experience is what matters. It's what's at the key of everything we do. Whenever someone compliments me on different pieces of an event, I always say, you know, I really have to tell you that it's really important for you to understand that if you all were not in the room, it would just be a pretty room. And your interaction with us is what makes a difference. But as us as planners and managers of different types of events and those of us trying to create engagement through these opportunities, we really have to think about from the moment they get the invitation, how they RSVP, final details email, how they pack and plan to come, when to step out of their vehicle, when they walk to registration and how they're greeted, when they're at the event, when they listen to a program, if there is a program to when they depart. And even when they're reading the follow up, each one of those moments are opportunities for us to communicate and engage with them in a very intentional way. And so I really hope you'll sort of take that to mind that experience is truly what we're talking about more than a checklist or a thought of checking through things. When we think about the different events that we do, we want to really think about why we're doing them. Because it's very important for us to think about one, why are we taking people's time, why are we pulling them away from their lives. But even more than that, why are we as an organization or educational institution, bringing these people together. And so think about what your primary goals are and what your secondary goals are. A lot of times we'll have gatherings or events that the primary goal is for alumni, but then we have a secondary goal because we have a large number of donors at that event and we want to bring them together. A lot of ours that we look at have a very varied array of purposes. So if you look at these photos, we have everything from bringing students together just for students to come together to a toast to a donor, which was a multi-million dollar commitment and us basically toasting them and capturing that moment in time that was pivotal for the university. We have moments where we're accolading and awarding our alumni and donors. And there's also moments where we're just trying to connect those alumni and donors into what we're doing at our university or school to really make them understand what's happening. So in thinking about that, we want to lay out those objectives that we want to accomplish because that'll help drive what we're wanting to do. And then you really want to focus on the emotion and the feelings that you're hoping to create because that'll also drive it. And so when we think through those, we are thinking about how we want to build to our audience. And so our audience really matters. You need to think about what motivates them, what motivates our students. It's very different than maybe what motivates our most generous alumni who are donors or donors that are industry leaders. We have some examples here on the screen. We have our Hokie Pike, which is a huge opportunity for Hokies to gather in their own space, but be part of something bigger than them. And we bring together Hokies around the world that go on a hike within a month at the same time together. We also have opportunities to bring our donors into our labs and spaces where our students and faculty are doing things connected to research or design projects. And so we want to showcase what's happening there. We also have opportunities for students to be interactive with them. And so it really is something that is an interest of our alumni and donors to interact with our students. So we try and incorporate them into things. One of the neatest opportunities we have found that is simple, literally simple, is that lovely alumni flag in the bottom left-hand corner. And that is at our annual career fair that's actually put on by a group of students. But it brings back to campus about 300 alumni, not in their hat as an alum, but first as their hat as a recruiter for their company or industry. And so one of the most coveted things for those participants is that little alumni ribbon. They are so excited to be able to say that they're an alum or that button that they get to wear and take home and use it in different ways. So it's a great way for us to think about how do we tailor it to be different and what you are considering for them to take in, feel, and act upon as part of it. Because it changes depending on what type of an event that you're doing and what you're hoping to get out of it with those goals and objectives. You also want to understand that people come back to campus or come to local events in their area that the university or school hosts multiple times a year sometimes. So you want that event to stand out and not look like all of them. And so there are ways to do that with either the experience or the look and feel or the location or the type of program or no program that you're having as part of the event. But what I would say that is the most important about building to your audience is leaning into what makes you special. And so really taking into account, what do you as the university or school give to them as far as a feeling or offer to them that is special. So many of our alums come back to campus on times that we're not gathering them and things aren't open. So part of that is opening up experiences that they wouldn't have otherwise. So definitely, without a doubt, you want to think about your audience and how you build to them. You also want to create moments for connection. So these connection moments may be alum to alum, it might be with your mascot like with the Hokie bird, it might be connecting with someone who is meaningful to them as part of their awards process. It also might be connecting with the students and faculty. And different events have different thoughts and processes within it that can make those connections happen. But we have to, as planners of these gatherings and opportunities, really think about how do we open that up. And so you can do that through seating an event and make it more conversational. You can do that through specific opportunities where you have showcases and bring students together with them. You might also have it as like table topics at a table where they're gathered together that you do over a mic or you have at the table. But you want to draw them closer to your mission and vision through these moments of connection. And really, that's what they're looking for for us is either connecting back to their institution, connecting to our impact as a donor, or connecting to our students. And so how do we leverage what we're doing as far as opportunities at the event to create these moments and give voice to that. One thing I would caution anyone that does these opportunities is to really think about the timing within the event and how you leave opportunities for connection. So whether that be networking portions or time for them to interact with one another or how they flow through a space, it makes a difference in how they're able to connect as people. Now, communication is a key. And so when we talked about experience earlier, one of the things that I've recognized is that you have to communicate with both your attendees, your fellow colleagues that are helping you do this, any type of speakers or volunteers. And then you have to, if someone's being honored, communicate with them. And every step of the way is you're communicating what's important and what's not. And so it could be as simple as what they're supposed to wear for an event versus not so they don't feel out of place. It could be what they are expecting at an event. So I had a young alum share with me lately that they got an invitation to a nice dinner with a leader and they went to the event and come to find out it had turned into a reception for 100 and there was a panel on a very technical topic. And he had brought his significant other who was not interested in this topic at all. And so he thought of all the things that I could bring her to, this wasn't what I would. And then he shared with me, you know, it really didn't meet up to my expectation of what I thought it was going to be. So we are crafting from that moment that you send an invitation, what they're expecting to experience. It's also an opportunity with final details emails to share information. And so all of the pictures here connect to an event that I do every year as a signature event. It honors our top alumni, it's sort of a Hall of Fame Academy opportunity. And as part of that, I have a briefing that really lays out what they're going to experience as a honoree, what their family will experience as they come with them. And then how even they walk across stage because one of the biggest things that they have anxiety about is how they get their award, when they're supposed to speak, where they're supposed to walk. And so communicating all of that is important because it helps them have a better experience once they're there. We also share a last final details email for all of our events, a few days ahead of time so that people know what to pack or what to wear that day, what to expect as far as food, as what to expect as far as the time to be there, what time the program will be, what the program will entail. And so it really manages their expectations going in. The nice part is we've streamlined these things so I can have a good base to start with every year. And it's really made a difference. The other thing I will say is up here on the left hand corner, we rarely rely on photos during a program because of keeping the flow going. So instead of capturing the photo that is the person with the award in the right hand corner here while they're getting the award, we do a photo shoot before. It's almost like a wedding. And we have them decide who they are bringing so that they can come an hour before the reception begins and they get to have a very relaxed photo shoot with their friends and family that are there with them. And then they have a photo shoot with the award and with our leaders and that way it's all taken care of and they have nothing to worry about other than enjoying the time of the evening once they get to the dinner portion and the program portion. So the other thing and trick I will say is calendar invites have become my like favorite thing to use in this instance so you can tailor and brief them that way both your leaders and your volunteers. The other thing I will say is we need to incorporate more stories and not just speeches. People want to learn about others and what they're going through and how they've gotten to where they are. And so panels or table topics or a great thing we have utilized is having a group of students introduce themselves, maybe talk about an extracurricular activity or a research project that they work on. And then the program's done and we have a group of them that are seven or eight, and then the whole room just gets really excited and goes to them and talks. The other way you can do this is you incorporate engagement zones or showcase zones where at a formal event or a less formal event, homecoming or a donor reception, you invite different student groups or faculty members to come and show off what they're doing, where they're at. And so that it brings sort of the campus to our visitors. The other thing is we want to involve and empower our volunteers and students and I worked with over 800 volunteers in my time at the University of Tennessee and sometimes we have a lot of anxiety as event planners utilizing our students and volunteers and what we're doing. But what I can tell you is you can't do it all, and they can create better experiences for those that are attending, whether that's being open to them when they come in and saying hello and while you're running around doing any type of last minute adjustment. But it also allows them to have a opportunity to engage, which is the whole point of what we're doing, and they really want to be part of what is happening. I will say is I have something in that I have phrased as student magic, and it is real. So we use our students to stand at most of our registration desk to help get name tags and such, or at our prize areas or giveaway areas, or we use them to interact with our attendees. We have them throughout the room and actually tell the students like this is the background people in the room, and these are the people that I really think you should talk with and look out for so that they can make those connections because nothing, just Alumni and donors like more than talking to our students and learning about what's happening on campus and what they're doing. Partnering across campus makes your reach so much broader than what it is. And what I will say is I graduated from a smaller liberal arts school in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and they do a phenomenal job, Mary Washington University, with a University of Mary Washington, sorry, with their programming for alumni weekend and reunion weekend, it is set up in a way that three people on staff that are full time or three and a half, make this amazing thing happen by bringing in the entire development team and bringing in the rest of advancement and communications and bringing in the faculty members from across campus and buildings are opened up. And you all of a sudden have an experience that's much bigger than just the three of them, creating us here at Virginia Tech, I'm located in a college and our central team does a phenomenal job of reaching out to us and saying, could you help us with this? Because we have a big program, but we would love to showcase you in this way, whether it's a presentation, a panel or a student opportunity for engagement. The other thing is, it's simple ways to do it, where it's the student showcase that I've mentioned, it's going to unique places on campus and highlighting them. It could be them experiencing something like in our drone cage here, or we have therapy dogs on campus and they are hit, whether it is alumni or students, they just love interacting with them and having that hands on experience. Engineers like to get their hands involved in projects. And so we found that a lot of our general alumni events that are on campus, we actually have a project that they can put together with one of our labs. And so it's a great example of how to make it happen. The other thing I will say is leverage technology. And I will say that PowerPoint came out the year that I went to college, so I'm dating myself. But what I will say is I've had to learn through the years of how to leverage it. And so that's everything from utilizing AV and sound equipment, or utilizing a PowerPoint that's scrolling during your reception. So if you don't have showcases, you have a reminder that you're connecting to things that are happening on campus. It's utilizing zoom to bring together a unique group of alumni or donors to do a presentation or a panel together or presentation, or many presentations and then a panel to bring that to people who aren't otherwise able to be with you. And so we tend to focus on events and that are at our home campus or homeschool. And then we focus in our big areas, but what opportunities are you providing that you could leverage technology to connect to those that are in other places. And so what I would say is events, managers and alumni and development professionals that getting to use these and getting comfortable with them will just make everything better. Leveraging things like instead of having attachments linked to like Google pages, where you are basically building out a timeline. So even though you aren't doing a web page, because your communications team can't fit that in, how can you do it in a different way, so that it's creating a good experience for those that are part of it. You also want to work smarter, not harder. I will say that I went through this, wrote out my thoughts, and then I used AI to really curve them in think about different prompt questions to ask you all. Also thinking about what I should include and what I should include. And so I don't think we should be scared of AI. I've also used it to say, here's my timeline from this state to this state, what's your suggested timeline. So getting to know what you can and can't do within that, or how you capture from year to year what you're doing, AI can be a huge help. I will say that Big Impact does not require a big budget. We do little touches or find unique places. So Carl's is a great example in Fredericksburg, it's beloved ice cream shop. And one of the things on the annual alumni weekend is just to go by Carl's. So that costs nothing. It has no coordination, but it makes me happy every year as an alum. It also is a simple thing, like if you're in a building and you're celebrating it, or you have something on campus, just printing out little pieces on a nicer paper, and people, both donors and alumni, take it home, and they will send me pictures of how they have framed it, and it's in their office or in their home. And it didn't cost me anything other than printing it in our office on a printer. So there are little touches that you can have a Big Impact. We've also found that if you invest once, things like tablecloths, and then the cost of cleaning them is so much cheaper than renting them every year. Or I call it my homage to material science and engineering. I use foam flowers for one of our biggest events every year. And so it's a way for me to really focus the budget onto impact rather than on the things that I think are new. What I will say is sometimes we as event managers can get too caught up in checklists and let's just get this happen. But really, the details are more important. And what I mean by that is the details are what convey a message and invoke emotion. And so a great example is this one up here, where we can set all of our giveaways out for our students and alumni. But we do a prize wheel that we bought for about $35 on Amazon. And it was set up as a way to have interaction with the alum and student. We've also done it for donors. A Plinko is another way to do it. And they can choose anything on the table, but it makes it an interactive experience. We've also made these little welcome signs that are for our honorees for the award center. And even though these are high level executives, every year, one of them asked me for the $1.50 frame and the sheet of paper that we printed on our in-house printer. And so it's focusing on those little touches that make it important. We use stickers in our big alumni events to connect donors and alumni who are of the same background of majors, because we have a large number in the room. And so it's a quick and easy way for them to connect. And so really thinking about what's important and what's not in the room. And if you're connecting your little details to what you are trying to accomplish and make happen. What I will say is over plan and then roll with the changes. I was a control sort of over the top when I started in this career. And what I've recognized is sometimes things are not important and things have to adjust. And so you really want to think about how you plan because it makes it go smoothly. But events are successful because of how you pivot in that moment. But really they make a difference if you're pivoting in a way that is truly keeping in mind why you're there, what people are there for, and what's important. There are a lot of things that happen behind the scenes and you just go, we're good. We're keeping on rolling. I made this beautiful PowerPoint down here in the left-hand corner and didn't use it at all last week for a panel and had come in late to do it one night. And the reality was it really didn't make a difference in what we were trying to accomplish. And so you just sort of roll with the punches and make it happen. The last thing that I would say is you listen and learn. You've got to think about what donors and alumni are wanting, whether or not you're meeting their expectations, whether or not what you're doing is impactful, and are things needed. Sometimes we can overdo things and make all these little touches that are taking a ton of time to do it that don't make a difference. And we could spend that time doing something else. The other is to sort of hone your approach and streamline it. So really thinking about how can I make this either step and repeat for next year, because it is something that's simple and straightforward, and focus on this other thing that's more involved and more impactful. And so really thinking through that. You also have to let go of things. This little launch at the bottom is our first attempt at a launch party for our graduating seniors. And it was an ice cream party, and it was a miserable failure. And so we just said, okay, we're going to scrap that. And we changed our approach. And sometimes I've been in an event, and all these folks are walking to me and saying, this is awesome. You're creating this amazing environment. And I'm looking around going, I didn't do anything other than get the venue, have some food, have a drink ticket, and there's nothing else. And sometimes nothing else is what they're wanting. So really think through that. So we are halfway through our time. And so I would love to sort of get your thoughts. And I am going through messages right now to see if there's anything that has come up with. No, we haven't posted any questions. So what I will first say is, are there any burning questions that anybody would like to start with? And if not, I'm going to throw out some thought provoking questions. And you're more than welcome to come off with mute and share your question or raise your hand. And we'll go with it that way. And I do have photos of the phone flowers, I can bring that up. All right, then I'm going to pose the question to you all. What is a small change that someone has made to make your event create a more memorable experience for attendees? And what I will share is, and I'll start it off and see if anybody else has any thoughts. With the award center that we do, there was a change that honestly, someone said to me, and the first three times they said it to me, I said, I don't know about this. This is kind of kind of not what I was wanting to do. And I don't really want to create videos. But we changed our introductory section of our award winners into videos, we send out a one pager, and we ask people to do it on their phone, or do it through zoom. And I have it set up through our institution so that I can automatically record it, it comes back to me on my cloud. And I have this amazing opportunity to simply cut it. I am not that good at cutting, but I use a simple tool to cut the front and back, I tell them to sort of breathe and take 15 seconds in between their tapes, I take their best one, think it down, and I just use that one. And what I will say is that editing takes me about 15 minutes to listen through their options that they give me because they usually say, oh, use the last one or use the first one. And then it usually takes me about five minutes to cut it. And so what I will say is it creates this great momentum because there are about 12 speakers at that event, because we have about five honorees. And so it breaks up the different people coming to the stage with a video. And it has totally changed the pace of the event and also the way in which people are interacting. It also has allowed us to have someone close to them anywhere in the world, give a personal anecdote story about the honoree that they can give that is truly unique to them. And it gives this great emotion. And so I have our executives leadership come from across the university. And I always say this is the coolest event that I go to because of the stories. And it's because of that video, and because of the people and our prompt to tell them. And what I will say is that has been completely life changing to that event to make it not one speaker after the other and a two hour long piece. And so it really changed. So Ellen still shared that. So she shared that we asked our students our discovery lab to create some low cost favors for our events. And they presented some ideas. And they do a small favor for every event, such as key chains, earrings, pins, buttons, and ornaments. That is awesome, Ellen. We did that with one of our buildings coming down. And we challenged our first year engineering lab to come up with something. And they came up with earrings for the women that had a wrecking ball and the building. And then they came up with a key chain that was just the building or the building and wrecking ball together. So it's great when you put it out there and say, hey, either I'll provide the supplies or you could use this as a project and you never know what you're going to get. That's awesome. Anyone else want to share a great thing that they've changed? If not, I'll keep going talking down the chat. Sure, I'd be happy to share. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. We made a big change to one of our traditional events this spring, actually just last week. I'm in the College of Nursing and there is a tradition of pinning amongst nurses. So it's sort of like another commencement ceremony, but they're not graduating, but they are being pinned. Our dean tasked us with this year for the first time ever to not only allow them to designate their own pinners. We normally had four alumni council members do it, but to allow up to three per student. And the students were not allowed to leave the site of the audience for flow to try and have them meet up with their pinners. It was quite challenging. And I reached out to 16 different universities, colleges of nursing to see how other people did it and discovered that none of them do it and was told this won't work. However, we did successfully do it and it created a lot of positive feedback from the families. We haven't gotten official surveys back yet because it was literally this past Friday. But in person, we had a ton of great feedback about their memories of their pinners. And they will now have photos of their family doing the pinning as well as a separate one with the dean. She went to the green screen area for after they were pinned so that they have both their families pinning them and then separately a photo of themselves with our dean that they'll be able to purchase whatever they want later. I think you just gave the best example of making something truly memorable and truly important for those that are participating. That is exactly the kind of thing. It took a little bit of extra effort and there's a lot. And what I would say is coming out of that, it's really the question of whether or not it was worth the effort or not, which you'll see as the responses. But I think the other piece to that is really thinking about how you can have those little touches that could be simple, could be straightforward. And we had a gentleman who was getting an award and he couldn't come to the award ceremony, but he was speaking at an event about four weeks later. So they presented the award at the event to him rather than us mailing it. So simple things like that. So I'm going to face Sonali maybe. Yeah, you're right. Maverick says hi. I wanted to bring up something. So I'm at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, and I've only been there for about a year and a half. But we have an event that we've done for a long time called Reed on the Road where it's the president and the vice president and a faculty member. And we travel to hubs where we have a lot of alumni and do a little reception and presentation, which is something we're trying to revamp. But that aside, we always do one in Portland on campus every year, and we've always held it in the chapel. And I moved to the venue this year to our performing arts building, which is a new-ish building on campus that a lot of the alumni who come to this event, they're the older generation and they haven't seen this building, but they're very connected to the chapel. But I moved it because of basically like the space in the chapel where the reception is is terrible. It's really small and cramped and crowded. And people, before they went to the event, people kind of complained about it. Like, why are you moving it? It should be in the chapel. It's always been in the chapel. And once they came to the event, they were like, oh, that space was so much better and so much brighter. And so I want to bring up a point, like, don't be afraid to change things because they've always been a certain way because you come in with fresh eyes or you're, like, I didn't go to Reed, so I'm not as connected to certain traditions or certain spaces. Like, of course, traditions I don't want to change, but like being in the chapel for this event is technically kind of a tradition. And so certain traditions I will take a look at and be like, why are we doing it here? And we can do it here. And everyone thought it was so much better. So don't be afraid to change things or at least try it because sometimes, you know, like campuses change and you get new spaces and you get new opportunities and don't be afraid to try it. Absolutely. I think that's a great point. And whether it's something simple at the event or it's something that is a huge tradition, try it and see. What I will say is make sure your leadership is on board before you try the new and make sure they're cool with it. But what I will say is that a lot of times they don't know how cool it could be in some other space. We've been trying different spaces on campus to have events and people are loving it because they're seeing campus in a different way than they've ever seen before. So that's a great point. One of the questions being asked on here is how do you bring engagement into receptions or gatherings that are very straightforward and you have appetizers, drink tickets and updates given by a team, but how do you make it more engaging? So what I will say with that, a couple of different ways we've found is having a panel. So having different administrators up there but doing it in a panel layout makes it much more engaging, as simple as that. It's also, if you have the opportunity to bring students there, you can do it by Zoom if you have a presentation screen because people are used to people joining different presentations by Zoom. We sort of have been scared of that in the past and so you don't wanna, we think that we have to have them live. One of the neatest moments, our Dean could not be at something last fall because she was with family because of a family situation that was very exciting and wonderful, but it took her away from our highest level donors. She joined us by Zoom for an hour. And so they were so excited to sort of be part of this moment that she shared with them at the end, but they thought it was really amazing that even though she wasn't there, she could still be part of that. And so that shows that you're bringing a different effort than just bringing someone in person. It also is a great opportunity for you to have fellow alumni or donors speak. So people in the room potentially wanna hear from other people in the room. So have a panel of your local alums that are doing some really cool things or your donors that are doing cool things, whether that be through their philanthropy or through their own personal careers. It's an opportunity to spotlight them and do a focus on them. Some of the events that as an alum and donor, I don't enjoy is going to an event and the only people that talk are the administrators because it just feels like a constant wheel of folks talking and bringing the message. Do other people have ideas for different approaches to different events, such as receptions? I would say, so I'm also from Virginia Tech. I'm Namika Sowers. I'm the Associate Director for Alumni and Corporate Engagement. So I would say recently we did an alumni events. Obviously we're located in Blacksburg, Virginia, but we did an alumni event in the Silicon Valley area. And so we really wanted to engage those folks because number one, we don't go out there a ton. We wanna start amping it up, but obviously East Coast, West Coast, but we wanted to get them excited. And Angel, I love what you said when you said nothing else is what they wanted because I think that something that we did that was just really simple, but people loved was we did a crossword puzzle that was a Virginia Tech centered. So it was anything from basketball, athletics, buildings on campus, maybe some fun facts about our president. We tried to just get it, hit kind of every generation of alums and have that out there. And so people were coming and they were able to interact with other people there, not only from our team, but just other alums in different companies there. And that's kind of why we held it. And so that was just a really fun fact. We put answers or like kind of quiz questions around the room. So if people didn't know certain things, they could kind of go around the room and see those. So that was really fun. And I think another thing we did was we had one of our prominent alums. We actually hosted the event at Google. So we worked through our alums at that institution and we were able to do that. So he's who actually spoke. So he was giving a really kind of great feedback of his transition from when he left Virginia Tech, how he started his career, kind of what his career trajectory looked like, and also just really giving insight into the workforce now and what they're looking for. And so, again, Angela, to your point where it wasn't just administrators talking, like we obviously did a welcome and things like that, but we were able to kind of hear from our corporate partner there, as well as he was an alum. So both of those things kind of stand out. Thank you, Meaghan. That's great. Anyone else? I'll say one more thing is that we have an alumni who's super creative. I'm sure we have more, but we have one who just sends us things. So he created a Reed College-themed Monopoly board with the different chance cards and the cards are all themed towards the college. And we have one sitting out in our office and people who come and are waiting for a meeting, they will always look at it and read all the cards and it's hilarious. So I ping him for a lot of things, like, hey, can you draw me a cartoon about this or something about that? And he loves it. And he's winning, actually, the Distinguished Service Award this year at reunions. So I'm creating a booklet for him of all of the stuff that he sent us over the years. But just to utilize people who have talents, who are alumni or students, because we use students to design stickers that we give to alumni who participate in a certain thing, just to utilize the talents that people have and that they're willing to give is really great because those are very unique and very personalized. Like you were saying, the earrings and the key chains and things, that's something similar. Like, we don't necessarily give all this out, but actually our bookstore is now selling this Monopoly game. That's awesome. We, our assistant director, did a great thing with a building and she created a scavenger hunt. So folks got a card when they came in and it sort of led them to different places in the building and it was done as sort of trivia about the building. The other thing was we were about to tear down a building on campus and it was one that really connected to us. So we had three different events for different audiences in the building. And so they did different things. So general alumni had a very simple event. It was, we brought in pizza from the local pizza joint and we had nachos and cheese, like very low key and to feel like a student event. And then we had beer and they thought it was the coolest thing to sit in an academic building that was about to be torn down drinking beer. And then the next group was our high-level donors. And so we put them in a specific area in the building, did a project next door with one of the labs that used to be in the building. And then they all signed the wall in the simple moment of signing the wall. And I wish I'd thought about this at a time, but a phenomenal colleague came up with this moment right there with Sharpies and made it happen. Through that all three events, everyone wanted books from the building and we couldn't figure out what to do because we didn't want to sell bricks. So we got stress bricks. We reordered the bricks three times because of these little dollar stress bricks that connected to that building. And so it's very interesting and amazing what you can do. We, with the donor that was connected to that, he got to take a sledgehammer and hit the building with the very first hit. So it was a moment that he had to really bring to him and his family and his key folks that really meant a lot to him, came to this little gathering at three o'clock on a Friday. And all he did was sling a sledgehammer and he got to keep the sledgehammer that had a quote for him. But we had it set out where it was on top of a bunch of the foam bricks as they walked in the door. So it's the little things that you can do like that that just make a difference and absolutely lean into everyone that you can to have different thoughts and ideas and talents that come to the table. You can't do it all. Oh, this was a great idea. For a local graduation event, they had a local brewery provide a keg of cold brew coffee and it was the hit of the day. So the simple like Polaroid picture thing of them being able to take their picture with it and you can use it for 10 different events in here are huge. So let's see. So I'm going to throw another question out is how do people incorporate thank you gestures and follow up after events? I will say that's something we're trying to work on and figure out how to put photos back in the universe and connect them that way. So we have a couple of ways. We have student workers in our office throughout the year and we just have them continually write kind of generic thank you notes, but like just thanking people for volunteering that we can use throughout the year. But for specific events, we do have our student workers write personalized notes that we mail out with a little token, a little sticker or something like that. We also have a thing we do is that if an alumni volunteers for something else outside of the college and they send us a picture of them volunteering, we have a student who designed a sticker that we send them and say, thanks for putting your efforts out into the world. We also have done a little packet of seeds and said, thank you for planting your something. I don't know, the student came up with something really cute. Like thanks for like planting goodwill into the world and spread these seeds. So, because I also find that people don't want stuff. Like we all have enough stuff. And unless it's something really cool that costs a lot of money that we don't have, people are more, they just don't, like they don't want it. Like we gave people, before I was at Reed for reunions, apparently they left like a little swag bag in everybody's dorm with like those sunglasses and like, I don't know what, but the team that cleaned the dorms afterwards was like, what do you want me to do with all this crap that's left? Because people just didn't take it and didn't want it. And that's so true. Really thinking about what you have as far as either giveaways or follow-up packages makes a huge difference. It drawing on that emotion makes total big difference. There's a great recommendation here. They gave custom matchbooks at a scholarship reception because they ignited the spark within our students. And people love having matches and things that they can use and not take up space in their life. We'll say, I will say during my time at the University of Tennessee, one of the things we did was we gave out pumpkin bread recipes because it was something that the university did and it was always in the fall. And so it was this great little thing that they just walked out. And so we did a different recipe from the bakery every year. Little touches like that, like signature drinks or connections, drinks that are named after people or sections in your space that are named after people are great little pieces. The other thing I will say is if you're having a reception away from campus, if there are things that tie back into campus that are food, different types of types of food that remind them, using it as a taste of that area is always a new thing. They're bringing a tradition connected to it. I will say that people love seeing pictures from events. We've become the Instagram society. And so people are excited about that. If you're able to capture that, it's a great way to do it where you just post a few photos the next day. It doesn't have to be a ton just to sort of capture the excitement and mood from that. What I will say is that someone did ask about online engagement and how you can leverage that. And so since we're coming to the close of our time, I'll share a few things with that. And if anybody else would like to add to that, what I will say is online engagement is definitely still there and people are still interested. We find ways to leverage events that are already happening for our students or other audiences that also we can leverage for alumni. For example, one of our student groups puts on an annual engineers week presentation lecture. They bring in an industry leader. And then we, as the alumni component and advancement component, invite our alumni donors to watch it from their home that is being provided live to our students in the room. The other way we've done it is we do sessions where we invite three students that have either three different areas where they're talking about extracurriculars, like their research connection, their study abroad, and maybe one of our design teams. And they each give a five or 10 minute presentation. And then we do a panel where they then answer questions from the attendees and we moderate it with someone on our team or one of their, like an interdisciplinary project supervisor that works with them or a faculty member that works with the group. And it's a great opportunity, whether in-person or virtually. What I have found is almost every event can be turned into an online event. If you really think about how it is, what I will say is you're producing something. So you are guiding them through something. It's helpful to have a moderator that helps get you through it. That is not you that is running behind the scenes and answering questions, following the chat and that sort of thing, letting people in. So really staffing it like an event that is in-person but is on Zoom or another platform. Someone did ask about best way to share photos from an event with those who attended. What I will say is that sometimes it's as simple as a Dropbox or a Google folder. And sometimes it's Adobe Express and you're making something really pretty. Really, truly, it can be all different ways. I've also just identified the people and sent them an email that said, hey, we were so excited to have you at the event. Here's the photo that was taken of you at the event. So there are different ways. With that, I would say we're in our last five minutes. So I will ask if anybody has any thoughts about how you gather feedback so that we can hone and really streamline and make sure that we're giving events that are impactful, that people want to come back to. And so if anybody has any thoughts and tricks, I'll share that our thought and trick is we use the NPS layout. Research shows that if you have fewer questions that are more open-ended, people will tell you about what's important versus what you're prompting them to talk about. So that's our approach. Does anybody else have an approach they want to share? So what I will say is someone on here says that they couple their event photos with their event surveys so that it's got a double approach. So you're following up with an email. What I will say is that a follow-up email means the world to people who attended. It definitely helps them feel connected back to you. So whether you're asking for feedback or not, that follow-up is huge. Really think about what you put in that. It could be the top three stories that your news team members across campus have put out. And you just want to highlight that. It could be the next three events that they could consider coming to. It could be a student spotlight. So know that it can have more purposes than just what did you think? And so really think about what you want to leave them feeling, what you want to leave them information-wise, and where you want to take them from there. So we're right about at our hour. And so unless I see any burning things coming through, I just want to say thank you for spending your hour with us and for sharing. Those of you that stepped up and shared, either vocally or through the chat, we really appreciate it. And thank you for being here and being part of this. CASE is so much about us coming together and sharing ideas throughout the year at different sessions like this, but also on our own time as we make connections, but then also at annual conferences or different webinars that they offer. So, so grateful to each of you for joining us and sharing your thoughts and ideas. And I hope this spurred some thoughts that'll take you from here to the next year and on. So thank you so much.

alumni events

donor events

emotional engagement

personal touches

interactive elements

customized experiences

alumni talents

creativity

feedback