Expert speakers will share the secrets to their success and everyone will have the opportunity to ask questions and contribute within an open guided discussion session where delegates set the agenda.
Whether you are just starting out or looking to supercharge your online or offline mentoring programme, join us at the University of Manchester and a night at the Manchester Museum, for a stimulating experience of knowledge sharing. You may even meet your own professional mentor!
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13:00 - 13:30Daniel Watts
Managing Director, Aluminati Network Group
13:30 - 13:40Claire Kilner
Deputy Director and Head of Alumni and Donor Communications & Engagement, The University of Manchester
13:40 - 13:50This session will provide an overview of the Manchester Gold programme, which was established over 15 years ago and facilitates 600 mentoring matches per annum. The programme is currently undergoing significant change, as it is transformed from a manual to an online, self-selection matching system. Hear from Nia about the tips and challenges around this, and the hopes for Manchester Gold in the future. The session will also look at how the Aluminate portal can expand the opportunities to engage overseas alumni, recent graduates, and support academic colleagues across your institution. Alumnus John Pike will also provide a personal insight into the mentor journey.
Nia Watkin-Jones
Employability Consultant, The University of Manchester
Richard Screaton
Senior Alumni Officer, The University of Manchester
13:50 - 14:50The University of Warwick's e-mentoring platform - warwickgrad.net - has proved hugely popular since launching in 2014 and now boats thousands of members. Hear from Warwick's alumni team about how the site developed, how they've promoted it, and what has and hasn't worked well. You'll also leave armed with some top tips for fostering your own successful community.
Claudie Combelas
Head of Alumni Engagement, The University of Warwick
Dave Musson
Senior Online Communications Officer,
The University of Warwick
Fossils Gallery, The Manchester Museum
17:45 - 21:00This session will provide an overview and practical insight into the eMentoring programme at the University of Sheffield. Led by the Careers Service, in collaboration with the Development Alumni Relations and Events department, this programme has facilitated 881 mentoring partnerships between students and alumni since autumn 2014, and managed a 72% growth last year. Lizzie and Emma will share their experiences, challenges, and tips for success with a focus on collaboration and student engagement.
Lizzie Ruse
Student Skills and Development Coordinator,
University of Sheffield
Emma Nagouse
eMentoring Coordinator,
University of Sheffield
Chaired by Daniel Watts
Managing Director,
Aluminati Network Group
Lily Flaherty
Alumni Events and Volunteer Coordinator,
King’s College London
Hannah Fox
Alumni Relations Manager,
London Business School
Lizzie Ruse
Student Skills and Development Coordinator,
University of Sheffield
Molly Southwood
Head of Alumni Relations,
University of Bath
In this session we will be drawing on our experiences of developing, managing and researching mentoring schemes across the HE environment and beyond. While there is an abundance of advice and resources on how to develop a mentoring scheme there is limited evidence on how to sustain an initiative over the longer term. We will be sharing insights from our research and experiences identifying the key transition points and challenges faced by mentoring scheme coordinators and how these can be anticipated and managed effectively. The role of evaluation and demonstrating impact are also highlighted for those tasked with delivering sustainable mentoring schemes.
Dr. Judie Gannon
Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management
(Coaching and Mentoring), Oxford Brookes University
Georgina Dalton
Principal Lecturer for Quality and Validations,
Oxford Brookes University
Dr Paul Redmond
Director of Student Life, The University of Manchester
15:00 - 16:30Managing Director
Aluminati Network Group
Daniel has over a decade's worth of experience in the alumni relations sector. Since 2002, Daniel has worked with universities all over the country through this company Aluminati - founded to create effective online engagement tools to connect alumni with one another. He is also an active mentor himself.
Deputy Director and Head of Alumni and
Donor Communications & Engagement
University of Manchester
Claire Kilner has worked in higher education Advancement since 1996 at the Universities of Sheffield, Nottingham and Manchester. She currently has responsibility for the strategic development of alumni relations programming for over 280,000 alumni based in over 200 countries and territories. She has particular responsibility for and interest in communications, international alumni relations, senior alumni engagement, volunteering, alumni involvement in enhancing student employability & experience and the role of the University in the continuing career development of alumni.
Employability Consultant, Careers Service
University of Manchester
Nia manages Manchester Gold - one of the largest mentoring programmes in UK Higher Education. She is responsible for the strategic development of Manchester Gold from its current model to an online, self-selection matching system. Nia has over 10 years’ experience in the area of Higher Education recruitment, marketing and student engagement.
Senior Alumni Officer
University of Manchester
Richard leads The University of Manchester’s alumni volunteering programmes and has over 15 years’ experience of both communications and alumni relations in the HE sector, having previously worked at Manchester Business School and The University of Salford.
Head of Alumni Engagement
The University of Warwick
Claudie is a graduate of the University of Warwick having obtained both her undergraduate degree and Masters at the University. She has been working at the University of Warwick for the past sixteen years and has worked in Alumni Relations since 2004. She has now been the Head of Alumni Engagement for the past 7 years.
Senior Online Communications Officer (Social Media)
The University of Warwick
Dave is the lead officer for social media with the University of Warwick's central marketing team, and has created and implemented a social media framework, as well as establishing a network of digital champions from across Warwick's campus and devising an induction-themed social media campaign that was nominated for a national award. He also delivers social media training and leads on social media strategy, monitoring and evaluation and is the co-chair of CASE Europe’s social media conference.
Student Skills and Development Co-ordinator
University of Sheffield
Lizzie Ruse was the eMentoring Coordinator at the University of Sheffield for the last 3 years, and now oversees the programme in her new role. Based in the Careers Service, she worked in close partnership with the Development, Alumni Relations and Events department to deliver a successful, careers-focused eMentoring programme making a real difference to Sheffield students and providing a worthwhile, rewarding experience for alumni volunteers. Lizzie is a PRINCE2 qualified project manager with a broad range of project and volunteer management experience in both HE and the community sector.
eMentoring Coordinator
University of Sheffield
Emma Nagouse is the newly appointed eMentoring Officer at the University of Sheffield and is taking forward co-ordination and expanding the reach and scope of the eMentoring programme. Emma is an experienced student engagement and volunteer management professional. Previously as the Academic Life Coordinator at Sheffield Students' Union, she managed a thousand-strong academic representation programme, undertook policy work and collaborative student engagement research with the University. Previously worked as a Research Assistant for the University's Widening Participation Research and Evaluation Unit.
Director of Student Life
The University of Manchester
Dr. Paul Redmond is a leading expert on generations and the graduate labour market. An excellent keynote speaker and specialist on employment, Paul is also a presenter, author, researcher, media contributor. His work centres on the changing world of work and the challenges facing both students and graduate recruiters.
Alumni Events and Volunteer Coordinator
King’s College London
Lily works within the Alumni Relations Team organising and delivering on a number of large engagement events including a lunch time series of discussions and talks, evening lectures and Alumni Weekend. Other key aspects of Lily’s role include delivering a series of mentoring support events throughout the year to maintain and nurture new and existing mentoring relationships via face to face interaction as well as through the King’s Connect platform.
Head of Alumni Relations
University of Bath
Molly has spent over 10 years working in the Development and Alumni Relations sector. At the University of Bath she manages alumni volunteering programmes as well as the annual giving, communications and events teams. She has also overseen the alumni relations team's growth from three staff to nine, and the launch of several major projects, including Bath Connection, which allows students and alumni to search for advice and support from fellow graduates. Previously worked at Wells Cathedral School and the University of Exeter.
Alumni Relations Manager,
Students and New Alumni
London Business School
Hannah has ten years’ experience of volunteer management and working in education. As well as managing the Alumni-Student Mentoring programme at London Business School, matching over 400 students every year with alumni mentors, Hannah works with 150 alumni volunteers to engage the newly graduated classes with alumni events, and connects students with alumni throughout their course.
Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management (Coaching and Mentoring)
Oxford Brookes University
Mentoring was a key feature in Judie’s doctorate study and she subsequently initiated and led a mentoring scheme for students in the Oxford School of Hospitality Management and developed several mentoring schemes across different sectors. Judie’s research interests include international human resource management, and management development, as well as coaching and mentoring. She is a member of the EMCC and CIPD, and serves on the editorial board of the International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching & Mentoring.
Principal Lecturer for Quality and Validations
Oxford Brookes University
Georgina has responsibility for supporting new programme development and overseeing changes to existing programmes, including enhancement projects such as new mentoring schemes and professional accreditation. Her subject discipline is surveying and she has set up and manages a successful alumni mentoring scheme for students on real estate and planning programmes. She has recently led a university-wide enhancement project 'Sustaining Mentoring Schemes', which aims to support mentoring through the creation of training resources, software and administrative support systems, evaluation mechanisms and a portal showcasing the variety of mentoring opportunities to students at Brookes.
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