Level of difficulty: Intermediate Cost to attend: moderate
Project: Regional Club (the Yale Alumni Association of the Northwest – YAANW) enhances its long running speaker series on environmental sustainability by partnering with the local engineering school (the College of Engineering at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN). The University of St.Thomas (UST) provided the venue and underwriting, and created synergies for driving attendance.
Daniel J. Schmechel speaking to Yale Club and others at St. Thomas University
Lead time: 4-6 months Date of event: January 22, 2019 in St.Paul, MN Ongoing: annual
Permissions required: Partnering university provides venue.
Funds required: Partnering university co-sponsors event, including taking on the financial risk of undercharging for dinner.
Results:
60 attendees
Why a success? The event formed a template for future collaboration between the Yale Club and the University. It brought together alumni from Yale, similar out-of-state schools (e.g., Harvard and UPenn), and UST, along with current faculty and students from UST, and key leaders from prominent local NGOs. In addition, the Engineering School Dean of UST made important connections with the speaker (Daniel J. Schmechel, Yale alumnus and CFO of Ecolab). In a follow-up survey, everyone rated the event as very good or excellent, plus the scores were the highest ever recorded in a survey for a YAANW event!
Details: The steering team was enlarged to include not just YAANW board members, but also the UST Engineering School Dean, his staff, and our speaker. The event was promoted to YAANW members, the broader Twin City Alumni Network (local alumni from highly selective out-of-state institutions), the UST family (faculty, students, and alumni) and past attendees of the speaker series using emails and social media.
There was quite a bit of work on the front end connected conceptualizing the event, attracting the speaker through a series of meetings and conversations, coordination with University of St. Thomas, and liaising with the board along the way. After the event was established work shifted to coordinated outreach to the Yale alumni, including direct communications with past participants, Twin City Alumni Network members and other key stakeholders. The workload was lighter across these months but again lumpy with no time required during some weeks and other weeks quite a bit. Finally, the two weeks before the event were also quite busy to ensure all the details came together for a smooth-running event.
Possible improvements: Give the speaker token gift of appreciation.
