{"id":11932,"date":"2021-01-15T15:53:54","date_gmt":"2021-01-15T15:53:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aluminati.net\/?p=11932"},"modified":"2022-09-26T11:04:39","modified_gmt":"2022-09-26T10:04:39","slug":"the-year-where-nothing-was-normal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aluminati.net\/the-year-where-nothing-was-normal\/","title":{"rendered":"The Year where Nothing was Normal"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><\/h3>\n<h3>2020 saw huge changes to our lives and work.\u00a0 We faced difficult times and hardship.\u00a0 But in spite of all of this, we managed to stay creative in the face of challenge and so have institutions.\u00a0 Institutions that have adapted to serve their alumni in new and innovative ways.<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Aluminati was proud to sponsor the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.case.org\/conferences-training\/introduction-advancement-leadership\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Introduction to Advancement Leadership<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> conference hosted by <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.case.org\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CASE<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Held in November and December 2020, it featured talks covering various topics, with panels of industry leaders and experts leading the conversations.\u00a0 Be sure to check out our previous article in this series, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aluminati.net\/alumni-relations-shareholders-not-customers\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Alumni Relations &#8211; Shareholders, not Customers<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-1 fusion-flex-container hundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-overflow:visible;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row fusion-flex-align-items-flex-start\" style=\"width:calc( 100% + 0px ) !important;max-width:calc( 100% + 0px ) !important;margin-left: calc(-0px \/ 2 );margin-right: calc(-0px \/ 2 );\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-0 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-flex-column fusion-flex-align-self-flex-start fusion-column-no-min-height\" style=\"--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-width-large:100%;--awb-margin-top-large:0px;--awb-spacing-right-large:0px;--awb-margin-bottom-large:0px;--awb-spacing-left-large:0px;--awb-width-medium:100%;--awb-spacing-right-medium:0px;--awb-spacing-left-medium:0px;--awb-width-small:100%;--awb-spacing-right-small:0px;--awb-spacing-left-small:0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\"><div style=\"text-align:left;\"><a class=\"fusion-button button-flat fusion-button-default-size button-default fusion-button-default button-1 fusion-button-default-span fusion-button-default-type\" target=\"_self\" title=\"Sign up to our blog and get updates when we publich new and interesting content.\" href=\"https:\/\/em1.aluminati.net\/subscription?f=Y9763IqTdXLSunXJOKOQGB938N892k763y1WtpPG2tfsVpbdMORE2WFqgYW763gLLEU2RsY3\"><span class=\"fusion-button-text\">Subscribe to our Blog<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We met with a panel of speakers who all gave insights into the peaks and pitfalls that came about from the need to do things differently.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Live in Lockdown<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Louise Strong, Campaign Events Manager at the University of Durham, UK said that the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of many alumni events, and they had to find a new way to support their global alumni community.\u00a0 Louise said that it was more important than ever for their institution to maintain a sense of togetherness and with that, bring together their most important resources.\u00a0 The outcome of this was <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dunelm.org.uk\/events\/online\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Durham Inspired: Live in Lockdown<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which brought together students and alumni from across the world from the safety of their own homes.\u00a0 Since December 2020, Durham University has hosted over 50 online events, with 5500 registrations and 1500 newly engaged alumni across 84 countries.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">.<iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zbTiQhx2mVk\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The content was curated around the university\u2019s four key pillars, Learn, Develop, Network and Industry and focussed on career advice, guidance, support and social networking with conversations around industry insights and outcomes.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>30 Under 30<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jonathan Goode, Head of Alumni Relations at the University of Bournemouth took inspiration from Forbes Magazine and put the call out to their alumni\u00a0 The aim was to find the thirty most notable alumni under 30 years of age.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11933 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.aluminati.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/10836-ALUMNI-30-Under-30-Collage-Twitter-POSTS-V3.0.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.aluminati.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/10836-ALUMNI-30-Under-30-Collage-Twitter-POSTS-V3.0-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.aluminati.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/10836-ALUMNI-30-Under-30-Collage-Twitter-POSTS-V3.0-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.aluminati.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/10836-ALUMNI-30-Under-30-Collage-Twitter-POSTS-V3.0.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The university chose the \u2018under 30\u2019 age bracket as these alumni were only a maximum of ten years on from their graduation and could offer more relatable experiences to the institution\u2019s current students.\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The university launched their appeal, asking for self-nominations online and the shortlisted individuals even saw their employers becoming engaged in the competition to show support.\u00a0 B<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ournemouth University saw a 296% increase in web traffic during the competition with an astounding 8702% increase in social media engagement across their platforms.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>The Alumni Podcast<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Glynis Gardner, Alumni Relations at Cork Institute of Technology in Ireland wanted to be able to connect with students and alumni and offer content at a time and place that suited them.\u00a0 After much collaboration with the university\u2019s student engagement office, the team developed a six-episode podcast series and a social media strategy to support it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u00a0<iframe src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed-podcast\/show\/0LNrPNVkVKQzTXBDOqCEbl\" width=\"100%\" height=\"232\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The whole project cost in the region of \u20ac4500 along with a small investment in recording equipment.\u00a0 They were also given a generous donation of \u20ac1000 from the university\u2019s engagement office.\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The project generated a huge buzz on social media.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Homecoming from Home<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gerard Kennedy, Development and Alumni Relations Manager at the University of Swansea was in the middle of the University\u2019s centenary celebrations and wanted to try to keep the momentum going.\u00a0 Many of their events had already been planned and had people booked in to attend from around the world so Gerard decided on a different approach, the \u2018Homecoming from Home\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u00a0<iframe style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/video.php?height=450&amp;href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fswansalumni%2Fvideos%2F531966350825476%2F&amp;show_text=false&amp;width=560\" width=\"560\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The university called on Alumni to dig out old photographs while they had time on their hands at home.\u00a0 Gerard argued that the most important factor in reunions is a sense of nostalgia and for one week, the university shared the images on their alumni platform.\u00a0 The event generated a huge level of engagement with over 300 uploaded photographs and over 400 new registrations to their alumni platform.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>A New Way of Connecting<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are so many positive ways to engage with students and alumni, and digital platforms provide a huge advantage to institutions.\u00a0 Community platforms can furnish institutions with great opportunities to connect that might not have been possible before.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aluminati.net\/aluminate-for-education\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Find out how the Aluminate Community Builder can provide new opportunities for your institution and alumni community.<\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2020 saw huge changes to our lives and work.\u00a0 We [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":11933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,28],"tags":[31,34,86,38,41,35,32,87],"class_list":["post-11932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-relations","category-blog-news","tag-alumni","tag-alumni-relations","tag-case","tag-community","tag-education","tag-engagement","tag-higher-education","tag-university"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Year where Nothing was Normal - Aluminati Network Group<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aluminati.net\/the-year-where-nothing-was-normal\/\" 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