Campaigns are marathons, not sprints and even the most ambitious university fundraising efforts can lose energy once the initial excitement fades. Midway through a campaign, teams often face familiar challenges: donor fatigue, competing institutional priorities, leadership transitions, and volunteers whose early enthusiasm has waned. Yet, it’s precisely at this point that momentum matters most. This roundtable invites participants to share practical approaches to sustaining engagement and motivation throughout multi-year campaigns. How can we re-ignite excitement among staff and volunteers? What strategies help leadership stay visible and invested once the campaign is underway? And how can milestones, storytelling, and refreshed case messaging be used to inject new life into the effort? Participants are encouraged to bring successes and challenges to the table, with the aim of leaving the session with peer-tested ideas to re-energise their own campaigns.

Join former assistants turned fundraisers, Rowan Wishart and her manager Jessica Constable for a discussion on excelling as a Development and Alumni Assistant and preparing for a successful move into front-facing fundraising roles.

This fun and energising workout is sure to get the neurons firing on Wednesday morning! Zumba is a fitness class that involves cardio and Latin-inspired dance. Turn up in your exercise gear and water bottle in hand to start the day right. Thanks to volunteer, Rachel Bray, for leading the session!

In this session, Lisa Yiasemides and Gerard Jones from the UCL Alumni and Supporter Relations team will discuss how to create a personal and professional development event series that engages alumni throughout the alumni lifecycle.

Advancement professionals are in high demand. Flying to meet donors, speaking in schools, organising open days, hosting alumni reunions on campus, managing the admin to support these activities... And sometimes everything comes at once. It’s a lot. It’s no wonder we are vulnerable to illness, fatigue, and burnout. Yet we must keep bringing our best selves to engage, inspire, and inform our past, present, and future students. So, how can we protect our wellbeing? How can we remain upbeat, uplifted, and upstanding throughout our busy seasons? Take a breath. This interactive roundtable is here to help. You will gain valuable and actionable wellbeing advice based on the four pillars of health: sleep, food, movement, and mind. You will leave with new strategies to help you stay healthy and happy whenever you have an overwhelming advancement schedule.

With increasing pressure across the HE landscape—shifting demographics, tighter budgets, and intensifying competition—portfolio strategy has become a critical driver of institutional success. The most effective strategies balance two priorities: delivering impact for external audiences and ensuring engagement from internal stakeholders. Get one side wrong, and even the smartest plan can fail to land. In this session, Ed Layt will share lessons learned from institutions navigating these challenges—why some strategies falter, and what makes others stick. You’ll learn how to interrogate your current portfolio, spot the gaps that matter, and use market and macroenvironmental insight to unlock opportunities in places you may never have looked.

In an era of digital transformation and evolving learning preferences, government agencies face unprecedented challenges in effectively reaching and engaging their target audiences with educational initiatives. This interactive roundtable session explores how public sector organisations are adapting their outreach strategies to connect with modern learners across diverse demographics, platforms, and learning modalities. The session will examine the shift from traditional, one-size-fits-all communication approaches to more personalised, multi-channel strategies that meet learners in their preferred environments whether through social media, mobile applications, virtual reality experiences, or community-based partnerships. Participants will share practical case studies of successful government educational campaigns, discuss common obstacles encountered in implementation, and explore emerging technologies and methodologies that show promise for future outreach efforts. Through collaborative discussion, attendees will analyse the unique constraints government agencies face including budget limitations, regulatory requirements, accessibility mandates, and diverse stakeholder needs while identifying innovative solutions that maintain compliance and maximise impact. The roundtable will also address measuring effectiveness in government educational outreach, exploring both quantitative metrics and qualitative indicators of successful learner engagement. This session is designed for marketing professionals, communications specialists, program managers, and digital strategists working within government agencies or organizations that partner with public sector entities on educational initiatives.

In this session you will learn about: Managing the transition from a print magazine to a digital one Making a digital product feel special The digital magazine production process Maximising the impact of agency relationships Using audience segmentation to achieve your magazine's objectives Considering the role of a magazine within a wider supporter/alumni journey

Principal gifts have the power to transform your institution—but unlocking these most impactful gifts requires more than ambition. It demands bold collaboration, strategic alignment, and inspired leadership to deliver on your donor’s highest aspirations. Your donor will be at the centre and you’ll pull together a cross-Advancement team to make sure you have all you need, from of-the-moment data and insight to impactful collateral and inspirational meetings and events. But most important of all is engagement of institutional and academic leaders.  They will be the ones who generate the levels of trust and inspiration needed to allow your donor to believe that your institution is where their giving will make the most difference. Join us to discuss practical strategies for engaging leadership, fostering collaboration, and co-creating visionary principal gift opportunities that truly move the needle.