Considering whether to organise an alumni reunion or perhaps the invitations have already been sent out?
No matter what stage of alumni event planning you’re currently at, we can help you to arrange an outstanding alumni reunion.
Simply carry on reading to discover exactly why alumni network gatherings are important.
What is the meaning of an alumni reunion?
As the name suggests, an alumni reunion (also referred to as an alumni gathering or meet) is simply an event designed to bring together former students from an educational institution with current staff and/or faculties.
These alumni reunions can be casual, or formal, and are often designed to celebrate important occasions or significant events for the institution. Some colleges and universities host department-specific alumni gatherings, while others will invite all alumni to the same event.
Why are alumni reunions important?
Alumni reunions are important for former students and the institution itself. For the college or university, an alumni reunion provides a perfect opportunity to promote new buildings, equipment, and events to help drive donations and encourage alumni engagement.
Former students, on the other hand, can look forward to reconnecting with old friends, reminiscing, and even making new professional connections to help further their education or career. As a result, these meets are often mutually-beneficial with alumni supporting the institution and the institution offering support to the alumni.
How should an alumni reunion be conducted?
Unsure where to start when it comes to organising an exceptional alumni reunion? Why not take a look at the various stages of conducting an alumni reunion below to ensure your next get together is a successful one?
Pre-event preparation
Before the date of the alumni reunion, it’s important to pick an appropriate date and venue. Ensure the date doesn’t coincide with public holidays or occasions, and choose well in advance of the event to ensure accommodation can be booked with ease for those travelling longer distances.
You should also consider the cost of the event and your budget – should it be a formal or casual affair? Ultimately, the event needs to stand out from the crowd if you want to impress your guests and increase attendee numbers, but still needs to stay within your alumni reunion budget.
Send out the invites
Before you dig out your alumni database and start to send out information, it’s crucial that you ask alumni to update their contact details first. Once you have the most accurate contact information, you can follow up with an invite for your alumni reunion sent to the physical address, email address, or phone number that they use the most, increasing their chances of seeing the invite and attending the event.
Prior to sending out the main event invitations, you could even ask alumni to register their interest in attending such an event in order to more accurately estimate guest numbers.
Promote the event
Once the invites have been sent out, simply monitor the responses and promote as required. Utilise all available platforms to increase publicity for the event and don’t be afraid to reach out to prominent alumni members and ask them to share reunion information.
During the event
When the event is underway, you should concentrate on your main aims – are you trying to raise funds? If so, ensure there is plenty of alumni-exclusive merchandise available to purchase. Alternatively, if your aim is to promote the university and increase applications? Try capturing plenty of photos and sharing them after the event to highlight the institution’s culture to future students.
Post-event activities
While the alumni reunion may be over, the work isn’t! This is the perfect opportunity to ask for feedback from attendees, publish an event summary and photographs/videos to your social media channels and other avenues, and plan future events to support ongoing alumni engagement.
How Aluminati can help with your alumni reunions
Getting in touch with your alumni community starts with having the right tools. Here at Aluminati, we’ve created the world’s most customisable alumni engagement software platform for the education sector. Complete with interaction modules, essential administrative functions, and a whole host of content tools, this platform fosters new and meaningful relationships through your institution.
Some of the biggest benefits of this innovative platform include boosting student engagement, increasing alumni donations, and raising the number of alumni placements. To help you achieve these goals, you can take advantage of interactive chat messaging, a flexible repository of content, and collaborative fundraising tools.
To learn more about Aluminati and our products, feel free to contact our helpful team today. You can also request a personalised demonstration if you’d like to explore the platform in more detail and find out how your institution could benefit from these sought-after tools.
Alternatively, you can always discuss your alumni reunion planning requirements with a knowledgeable member of our Aluminati team by giving us a call on 01638 676 232. You can also get in touch by sending your enquiry to info@aluminati.net or by logging into your Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn social media account.
