Planning of Alumni Meetings
- How does it feel when you look at your old class photographs? You feel nostalgic, don’t you? It is like taking a walk down memory lane and reminiscing about all the good times. That you have had in your school or college days. It is friends with whom every problem became a little less worrisome, and it is teachers because of whom we learned so many lessons.
It is always great to meet or be in touch with those people with whom you used to have some of the best days of your life.
- This year’s academic year is coming to an end, and it is time for a super-joyous alumni meet! Some people love coming back to the campus and cherishing all the moments at the very moment!
This is a great way to reconnect with friends and teachers. However, an alumni reunion would not interest some people. However, it is great to have every person on the board, is it not?
So to have everyone on board, here are some things that should be taken care of while planning an alumni meet.
1. Set up a goal and create a theme
- The primary thing to do is to set up a clear goal in mind. That also means, in denoting your key purpose for organising this event,. When we set up a goal for any event, the purpose becomes clearer, and it becomes easy to organise everything from A – Z and manage it all accordingly.
It helps you, tells you in which direction you are moving, and helps you keep on planning and focusing on the program. Once your goal is clear, create a theme for the event. When you create a theme for the event, your goal and purpose become clearer to those who are supposed to attend the alumni reunion.
- For example, you could keep the theme called ‘memories.’ Based on the theme, you could also keep a dress code and tell others to carry some token of memory with them. If you have some photographs from the old gold days, then you can use them to decorate the surroundings as well.
This becomes appealing to everyone and makes people want to come and attend the reunion.
2. The event’s focus should be on the alumni
- After school or college, everyone moves on with his or her life in different directions. Some do some courses, some pursue further education, or some can even be married. Therefore, everyone takes time out of his or her busy schedule and travel all the way to attend this alumni meet.
They deserve some special time and the effort of traveling and adhering to the theme. Therefore, the focus should be on the alumni themselves and also on how the event can be a grand success for them. You could invite some motivational and influential speakers. Alternatively, you could organise some games that would require the involvement of every alumnus.
An entertainment function can also be organised for them, just like some of us saw during the school farewell.
3. Design your event for higher attendance
When you plan this alumni reunion, many people will not come, which could result in low attendance. Moreover, there could be some very common reasons for not attending the event. This could be reasons like ‘no convenient timing,’ ‘no one to take care of”children,”traveling inconvenience,’ and ‘fearing a social situation or being nervous to meet everyone after a long time.’
Jot these and many other similar reasons down and find a way to make it difficult for the alumni to refuse the invitation. Design the event in such a way that it would overcome all the excuses. For example, for the timing inconvenience, give an invitation to every alumnus way ahead of time. This gives them plenty of time to schedule the event accordingly.
Give the location of the event, give vehicle parking options, and decide a location that would be easier for everyone to come and attend. Keep the timings as such, that the alumni can come when someone can take care of his or her children, for example, during school hours. Alternatively, make the event in such a way that it would accommodate all the alumni’s children and spouses as well.
4. Be creative about the program choices
Be creative, and bring in some variety to plan out the alumni event. Line up such programs that would target all age groups and would interest every alumnus. Try finding out different styles of events, and also find out the types of programs and activities that interest and engage the audience the most. You could keep a luncheon for everyone. Organise some games or some musical performances.
5. Make use of social media
In today’s world, social media makes everything easy, is the biggest factor in keeping everyone in touch, and keeps the network strong. Make use of Facebook event planner. This could notify the alumni in masses. Alternatively, create a WhatsApp group, which would make it convenient for everyone to know what is going on.
You could also shoot up everyone with emails and follow up with them from time to time to know whom is attending and who has yet to give confirmation.
These five things must be taken care of when planning an alumni meet-up for a successful event and higher attendance.
To set up a date according to everyone’s convenience, keep following up with emails.
