In today's ever-evolving workplace, it is crucial to develop effective strategies for managing up to your supervisors and navigating your organization's structure. We will explore the art of managing from your seat, providing you with insights and practical techniques to cultivate strong relationships with supervisors and peers while influencing the decision-making process. We will explore how to effectively communicate your ideas, progress reports, and results to supervisors, ensuring your contributions are acknowledged and appreciated. Additionally, we will delve into strategies for building skills, reputation, mentorship circles, and positioning you for success in today’s rapidly changing work environment.

No matter the size of your institution or the size of your advancement team, engagement events are likely an important part of your strategy to connect with alumni and donors. Therefore, it is vitally important for you to be thoughtful about the purpose of your events, the intended outcomes and how you will measure success, the data that will be collected, and the affinity that will be created as you advance relationships with your attendees. In this session, we will examine the elements of these strategic conversations, while also looking at the return on investment and the permanent integration of virtual events within our engagement strategies.

Professional development is essential to finding fulfillment in one’s career. With intentional actions and steps, you can chart a path to sharpen and expand your skills, talents, and network. In this session, you will learn how to benchmark your current position and explore next steps for your career, discover how to identify what alumni leaders expect from mid-level and senior-level professionals, and glean insights on how to make connections with professional mentors and potential sponsors for your career growth.

From social media to virtual events, digital engagement is an essential component of any alumni relations program. Aligning online efforts with an overall engagement strategy can be challenging with limited time and resources. Join our discussion to learn about the various types of digital alumni engagement, emerging trends, and how to assess digital impact. Bring your great ideas to share and view some award-winning content ideas.

Ensuring alumni develop a lifelong affinity to your institution requires cultivating relationships throughout their time as students as they transition to young alumni. Historically, alumni programming has not always included segmented student and young alumni programming and messaging, certainly not as a priority. Now is the time to reconsider your institution’s approach to meet students and young alumni where they are, in spaces conducive to their evolving life stages. Come to this session to gain practical insights for strengthening your team’s student and young alumni engagement efforts.

Participate in this moderated conversation with leaders in Alumni Relations as they share their thoughts on the future of alumni relations, advice for new professionals, and thoughts on what it means to be a leader during turbulent times. Opportunities for Q&A will be provided so please bring your questions. The faculty leadership will then wrap-up the Institute with some closing observations and remarks and provide a “last call” for any remaining topics or questions you want to address before the Institute concludes.