Special events play a pivotal role in higher education, fostering alumni engagement, donor stewardship, and institutional pride. However, the success of these events depends on thoughtful planning, seamless execution, and strategic post-event evaluation. In this session, attendees will explore the full lifecycle of special event management, from innovative registration processes to meaningful post-event evaluations. Learn how to streamline registration for a better attendee experience, set measurable goals, and tie event strategies to broader institutional objectives. Discover best practices for collecting and analyzing feedback, demonstrating ROI, and leveraging insights to inform future events and engagement strategies. Through actionable tools, and interactive discussions, this session will provide participants with a comprehensive framework to elevate their event planning and evaluation practices. Whether you're managing intimate gatherings or large-scale celebrations, you’ll leave equipped with strategies to create impactful events that resonate with your audience and support your institution's mission.

Over the past 17 years, the USC Women’s Conference has grown from a small gathering into a premier event engaging a wide network of alumni and supporters. Whether you’re working with a modest budget or leading a large-scale production, this session will provide a roadmap for designing, growing, and sustaining a successful event that aligns with your institution’s resources and goals. We’ll explore key decisions, challenges, and innovations that have fueled success. From adapting to the needs of shifting audiences to leveraging partnerships and flexible event formats, walk away with actionable strategies to build or refresh programs that foster engagement, maximize resources, and create lasting impact - no matter the size of your organization.

Have you wondered about ways to elevate the impact of your campaign events? Explore how Yale’s For Humanity Illuminated campaign tour creates and provides immersive programming and experiential engagement opportunities to engage our most important audiences. These events can increase your ability to tell the story of your campaign and, in turn, your institution, improving engagement with friends, alumni, and donors while supporting campaign priorities. We’ll share how our hands-on approach to integrating strategic storytelling into programming, designing immersive engagement experiences, and partnering with key internal constituents across campus and alumni network communities can result in thoughtfully developed and well-produced campaign events. Learn how to implement these strategies and tactics across all levels of institutional investment and campaign size as you plan your long-range and multi-year campaign events. Join a lively and candid interactive discussion about what’s working, what was planned (and unplanned), and where we go from here as the campaign tour continues in 2025!

Boston University welcomed a new president in 2024 and with her, a new set of presidential priorities. This session will explore how the Boston University Alumni Programs & Events team leveraged a key piece of our president’s inaugural vision for the university: the importance of the arts. To showcase this priority to our alumni and build a case for future support, we executed a diverse series of alumni engagement events throughout the year highlighting the impact of the creative economy and alumni expertise across the arts sector. In this session, we will dive into four dynamic BU alumni events in Los Angeles, New York City, and Boston, discussing how the programs engaged a wide representation of alumni while creating conversation about the importance of the arts at BU and beyond.

Discover the strategies and creative approaches that made these events successful and discuss how to harness your leadership’s vision to elevate your own alumni engagement initiatives.

The Black Student & Alumni Career Networking Night at the University of Toronto is an evening that offers students and alumni the opportunity to explore how identity intersects with career and share authentic experiences navigating the workplace. It provides students the opportunity to connect with Black alumni, see themselves represented in a variety of industries, and see how alumni have positively leveraged their identity at work. While rooted in the specific landscape of Canadian Higher Education, specifically the University of Toronto, the insights shared will be relevant for institutions of all types, whether or not they currently host identity-based career networking events. Attendees will explore how the event not only drives engagement but also serves as a broader alumni development strategy applicable across institutional contexts.

Learn more about a successful planned giving event series that continues to engage planned giving donors through hidden gems on campus. Attendees will also learn about ways to consider an aging population at events to ensure higher attendance and positive experiences. The presentation will include time to brainstorm and share amongst participants.

In a landscape littered with conventional campaigns and campaign events, Utah State University Foundation (USU) boldly dared to reimagine the traditional campaign model, and the strategic role events play throughout the life of a campaign. This session will showcase the powerful partnership between USU and the Advancement Resources Creative (ARC) team and the compelling, work-in-progress story of the Create Your Aggie Impact campaign. Participants will hear how dynamic, one-of-kind events and tailor-made experiences not only continue to engage alums, donors, and friends of the university—but also move them to take meaningful action. Additionally, attendees will have the opportunity to share their own discoveries and successes, and leave with practical, actionable strategies for reimagining their own approach to campaign events—keeping them fresh, flexible, and aligned with long-term donor engagement goals.

In this session, we will share how the Vanderbilt team developed and pitched resource requests for additional investment across our team, including for campaign events. Through that process we cultivated buy-in, articulated a clear vision, and drove collaboration across our teams to level up our work across the board, especially for events and the donor experience. We did this by leaning into our data with ROI statistics, informed projections, and the use of compelling dashboards and visuals. In this session, we'll share what our resource requests included and give an overview of our event investments and the ways we used data to show impact before, during, and after.

How do we define the success of an event? Beyond logistics and execution, events should be evaluated in the context of their long-term impact on engagement, fundraising, and institutional priorities. This session will explore the role of data in advocating for event resources, aligning programming with key metrics, and making informed decisions about which events to sustain or sunset. Through thoughtful assessment and collaboration, institutions can ensure their events are not just moments in time but strategic investments in their future.

This interactive workshop helps participants turn conference insights into actionable plans for their institutions. Through small group discussions and individual work, attendees will explore key considerations for implementing and scaling ideas, identify common obstacles, and develop strategies to overcome them. Faculty members will share their processes for creating effective action plans, and participants will leave with practical tools—like Smartsheet and other programs—to help track progress and ensure successful implementation. This session offers a valuable opportunity to collaborate, plan, and take concrete steps toward making ideas a reality.