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 Roehampton in London, for a stimulating experience of knowledge sharing. You may even meet your own professional mentor!
I found the event to be absolutely brilliant. The amount of learning achieved during the day; the excellent organisation; getting to look at future developments; speaking to people also working in small teams or on the same CRM as us.
(may be subject to change)
Pick up your conference pack and name badge
13:00 - 13:30Daniel Watts, Conference Chair
Managing Director, Aluminati Network Group
13:30 - 13:40Eleanor Merrick
Director of Alumni, Development and Careers, University of Roehampton
13:40 - 13:50When the University of Roehampton moved the mentoring system online from a paper form, the Alumni Team merged with the Careers Team creating the Department of Alumni, Development and Careers at the same time. This presentation focuses on the successful merging of these teams, the launching and promotion of Roehampton Connect, and the benefits of a mentoring scheme working within a department that connects Alumni Relations and Student Services.
Sarah Gero
Alumni Relations Manager, University of Roehampton
Alice Kolandjian
Mentoring and Volunteering Coordinator, University of Roehampton
13:50 - 14:40Top tips on how to reduce time spent coordinating you mentoring programme, while increasing the impact of the programme externally and internally. Among other important issues, we will discuss how to plan your year, making the most our of your data and quick and easy interventions to increase engagement.
Maria Gutierrez
Mentoring Consultant
15:00 - 15:45In November 2015, Plymouth University launched Plymouth Connect to enable alumni around the world to connect with current students and support their employability. 350 alumni joined the platform in the first month and membership has grown steadily to almost 3,000 graduates. This presentation focuses on the successful marketing plan which was developed by the team to launch the platform and highlights some of the challenges which we encountered and lessons which we learned along the way.
Jean Almond
Alumni Engagement Manager, Plymouth University
15:45 - 16:35Weather permitting, evening drinks in the lovely outdoor space of the university and a chance to get to know your fellow delegates.
18:00 - 18:45Reflect on the first day with a three course dinner with wine and elegant live background music.
18:45 - 21:00International alumni are a powerful group of brand ambassadors, too often left out of the loop of alumni engagement. After two years of planning, piloting and perfecting, Bath’s International Alumni Ambassador Scheme is on the verge of launching and this session will cover some of the lessons learned during that process. Participants will be encouraged to consider their own international graduate communities, and explore what opportunities might be available to engage them.
Molly Southwood
Head of Alumni Relations, University of Bath
09:00 - 09:50They say first impressions are the most important. So how about the first 'hour' of mentoring? The first communications and contact, the first experience, the first pairing. How do you make sure your mentors and mentees know what to do? And what type of matching is best to use: manual matching or self-matching?
Maria Gutierrez
Mentoring Consultant
09:50 - 10:30Many institutions find it a challenge to engage enough students to match the number of mentors who have volunteered. Lina heads up the Partnership Development and Career Centre at Kaunas University, Lithuania. When she launched their alumni-student mentoring scheme they had the opposite problem - an OVER-subscription of students! How did this happen? What type of messaging did they use to inspire so many students to join and which channels were the most effective at what times of the year? Find out how developing an understanding of their mentoring ecosystem allowed their programme to be such a success.
Lina Slavickaite
Head of Career and Education Centre, Kaunas University of Technology
10:50 - 11:40Trinity has recently undergone a transition from an intimate school-specific mentoring programme to a broader university-based one. In this session, John will reflect on the journey of change they took and why they did it, including all the valuable insights gained along the way.
John Dillon
Alumni Director, Trinity College Dublin
11:40 - 12:30This session will showcase the latest developments at Aluminati including an update on the forthcoming Aluminate v7. The floor will then be open to questions and the sharing of ideas between Aluminati clients. Whilst an elective session, all are welcome.
Daniel Watts
Managing Director, Aluminati Network Group
13:15 - 14.00How is it possible for a mentoring relationship to go wrong? This interactive session explores how limitations in understanding can disrupt the effectiveness of the mentoring dyad, how our own human uniqueness can lead to distortion of meaning or intent and how even the very structure of mentoring arrangements can impede the process.
Reviewing specific aspects of these toxic events, various solutions will be presented to either prevent or minimise the consequences. Utilising knowledge gained from experience on mentoring programmes together with research data, a best-practise mentoring model is introduced that offers maximum protection for schemes and their participants.
Rhianon Washington
Academic Manager, University of Wales Trinity St David
14:00 - 14:50In this action packed keynote, you will experience the Leadership 7, a framework Brad uses when mentoring CEOs from the world's leading companies. With it you will build your effectiveness to achieve your hopes and aspirations.
Effective individuals win two victories in life: a Private Victory when they learn self-mastery and self-discipline, and a Public Victory when they build deep and enduring relationships with others. As they practice the Leadership 7, they move from being dependent on others to independence and finally to interdependence, where they reap the rewards of superb cooperation and collaboration.
This hands-on session will share timeless principles allowing you to design a deliberate pathway to where you want to end up, attract the resources you need, and set yourself up for a successful and fulfilling journey.
Brad Waldron
Author, Experienced Mentor and Leadership Coach
15:20 - 16:50Managing Director
Aluminati Network Group
Daniel has over 15 years experience in the alumni relations sector. Since 2002, Daniel has worked with universities all over the world through this company Aluminati - founded to create effective online engagement tools to connect alumni with one another. He is also an active mentor himself.
Author, Experienced Mentor and
Leadership Guru
Intelligent Inspiration
Brad is known for his room filling energy, infectious humour and proven insights. Brad is the author of ”Present Naked – How to present with sizzle and substance’ and is the three times winner of the OutPerformer of the Year award for speaking services from Vistage International – the Global forum for Chief Executive Officers. Having led the Covey Leadership Center in the USA, Brad is an experienced mentor who has coached Chief Executives and delivered transformations for companies such as Sony, Warner Brothers and L’Oreal. Brad provides a unique perspective derived from dual exposure to winning – winning in business and winning as an international athlete. He currently mentors 6 young new business owners who are marking their mark on the world.
Alumni Engagement Manager
Plymouth University
Jean is a University of Plymouth graduate, who after working in a variety of sectors including database marketing, returned to work at the University in 2011. Jean heads up a small team which makes successful collaboration a key part of her role. In 2015, feedback from alumni and work with the Careers and Employability Service combined to make a strong case for an online platform which did more than simply recreate Facebook or LinkedIn. Jean led a project to implement Plymouth Connect, the online platform for alumni, students and staff. The platform, which enables students and alumni to search for advice and support from fellow graduates, now has over 3,000 members.
Alumni Director
Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin
John Dillon has over 20 years of experience in technology and marketing sectors. Since joining Trinity Development & Alumni in 2008, as Alumni Director, he has overseen the growth of Trinity College’s engagement with its 100,000+ alumni at home and abroad. This has included all forms of communications, events and services for alumni and students as well as providing various opportunities for them to support Trinity and each other through networking, volunteering and donating. His remit includes managing the Trinity Gradlink mentoring programme.
Alumni Relations Manager
University of Roehampton
Sarah started working at Roehampton in 2012, focusing on event management and the organisation of the graduation ceremonies. With the establishment of the Department of Alumni Development in 2013, she was able to focus her efforts on a more robust Alumni Relations Programme for Roehampton. This work has continued to grow in the last two years with the expansion of the department to include the Careers Team. In her role as Alumni Relations Manager, Sarah oversees many projects including the online mentoring platform, Roehampton Connect.
Mentoring Consultant
Maria has over 5 years of experience in volunteer management. Working alongside Boston and Harvard Universities, she has managed a program supporting refugees and immigrants in their transition to the country, and a mentoring programme for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. She single-handedly launched and grew the bespoke King's Connect mentoring platform - an engagement project now respected throughout KCL, bringing together over 1000 mentors globally. She developed the Alumni Volunteer Programme, managing nearly 5000 volunteers worldwide. She is also a certified mentoring trainer and a CBT trained coach.
Mentoring and Volunteering Coordinator
University of Roehampton
Alice has 10 years of experience working in universities within the U.S. and U.K. She has worked at Roehampton since June 2013 and transferred over to the Mentoring and Volunteering Team when Roehampton Connect was first introduced to the University. Alice was responsible for the launch of Roehampton Connect and currently promotes, runs, and maintains the platform. Two years ago, Careers and Alumni joined teams to create the Alumni, Development and Careers Department. Alice takes advantage of working with both the Alumni and Careers teams, staying well connected with students and graduates while promoting Roehampton Connect.
Director of Alumni, Development and Careers
University of Roehampton
Eleanor has gained most of her higher education experience at Roehampton; for many years in marketing and latterly in alumni and development – setting up the department in 2013 and which she summarises as “a switch from recruitment marketing to loyalty marketing”. In the last two years she has brought the Careers function into the department and established a new placements team, citing the work of her colleagues in alumni and development as vital to the success of both these areas. Prior to Roehampton she worked in corporate communications in the computer games industry and in PR agencies in the North West.
Head of Partnership Development and
Career Centre
Kaunas University of Technology
Lina Slavickaite is the Head of the Partnership Development and Career Centre of Kaunas University of Technology. She received her Master’s degree in Knowledge and Innovation Management at Kaunas University of Technology. Lina completed Continuing Education Program “Adult Learning Principles” at George Brown College in Toronto, Canada. She gained international experience by running and participating in projects in Canada, USA, United Kingdom, Turkey, etc. Currently Lina is working on partnership development to move business and higher education from transactional relationships to strategic partnerships: encourage the transfer and sharing of knowledge; create long-term partnerships and opportunities; drive innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity. Also, her current work at the Career and Education Centre is focused on students’ employability; career management and counselling; career monitoring; talent management; mentorship; collaboration with business and alumni network. Lina is a freelance consultant in the field of personal development, youth inclusion.
Head of Alumni Relations
University of Bath
Molly Southwood has over ten years’ experience in the development and alumni relations sector. Since 2009 she has headed the engagement team at the University of Bath, with a remit which currently includes communications, events, volunteering, regular giving and development services. Her team delivers over 90 international events each year in the UK and across the world. In 2015 she oversaw the successful re-launch of the ‘Bath Connection’ e-networking platform and also leads on the University’s Gold Scholarship Alumni Mentor programme.
Academic Manager
University of Wales Trinity St David
A product and advocate of lifelong learning Dr Rhianon Washington has, over the past 10 years, engaged in the promotion, use and training of mentoring in the workplace. Currently affiliated with the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, she has previously been the scheme trainer for the North West Mentoring Scheme and has consulted on a variety of mentoring programmes in higher education. The phenomenon of toxic mentoring formed her doctoral research at Oxford Brookes University in 2013. How to deal with toxicity is explored in her book, The Mentor’s Companion, A Guide to Good Mentoring Practice, due to be published in April 2018.
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