"Connected to me feels like always knowing there’s someone I can call for help or inspiration, whether that’s someone on my team at the Royal Academy of Music or someone thousands of miles away. It means that I never feel like I’m working alone – even when I’m physically alone – because I have an extended team of peers around the world I can call on for advice or a sympathetic chat."

"This past pandemic year has taught me few valuable lessons (I'm sure you can relate). Many things I had thought I couldn't live without in my pre-pandemic life turned out to be nonessential. Like my ritual morning coffee at a downtown Budapest cafe. Or weekend trips to other European capitals. One thing though that we all quickly discovered we couldn't live without is connection in our private and professional lives. Confined to our homes, often feeling isolated and overwhelmed, we've been craving human connection like never before. The CASE online get-togethers in the early days of the pandemic and numerous online events that followed reassured us that, even if we are apart, we are still a community, still connected, perhaps even stronger than before. This has helped us not only survive a very difficult year but also inspired us to boldly reimagine together alumni engagement for the next normal. To me, that's the magic and power of connection. I invite you to join us for the CASE Annual Conference 2021 and be part of it."

"I feel like ‘connected’ has been redefined for me over the last year. Being connected is three dimensional and whilst physical connection and shared space is one of those dimensions, we now have so many more options available to us to explore and to build connections that are not constrained by proximity. So for me, this is such an exciting time to discover what the possibilities are for being connected in the 21st century."

“Being ‘connected’ has always been highly important to me in my career. Not only does the power of connections translate to enhanced knowledge and depth of understanding, but also provides access to countless mentorship and growth opportunities gained from diverse interactions with experienced (and ALWAYS friendly) Advancement professionals who have walked the path before you. You always hear the narrative that the world is a more connected place and of course we are, but the key to generating the value from those connections is really all about the time you put into authentically developing those ‘relationships’ and ‘contacts’. In Advancement being connected is vital for your long term success (and sanity) and so I am delighted this is the theme of this year’s exciting CEAC programme.”

"We are professional connectors! Advancement is fundamentally about getting to know people and understanding what motivates them, so we can find ways that our institutions could help in pursuing their passions. My mission is to meaningfully connect donors, alumni, and other stakeholders to a person, a project, or a team at Edinburgh, so together they can achieve something impactful and lasting."