2011 Alumni Groups Global Leadership Conference (formerly Insider Day)
The fourth annual Alumni Groups Global Leadership Conference took place at Murray Edwards College on Saturday 9 July 2011. The content for the Leadership Conferences has changed over the years and now provides a platform for Alumni Group leaders to share best practice, update CARO on their Group activities and to discuss effective methods of alumni engagement. Over 50 Alumni Group leaders attended, representing 17 countries including Fiji, Canada, Lebanon, Australia, Germany, Japan and the UK.
The Conference also marked the launch of the latest edition of Alumni Volunteer Handbook which provides information and resources on running an Alumni Group. Additionally, for the first time, the Conference included an 'Ideas Showcase' where Alumni Groups were able to display photos, reports, event ideas and video clips from their events over the past year.
The morning plenary session included an update from Heinz Fuchs, Chair of the Networks and Volunteers Working Group, Laurence Smy delivered a report from the Alumni Advisory Board and Nathalie Walker gave a presentation on the importance of effective alumni engagement.
Online Engagement surgeries took place during registration and in the afternoon breaks allowing Group leaders to refresh their knowledge of Facebook and to try out the new enhanced online services, due to rolled out in the coming months.
The afternoon consisted of two separate breakout sessions, with four different topics to choose from. Delegates were given the option of choosing from a discussion about the services CARO currently provides and how best to use them; the different ways of attracting recent graduates and the merits of hosting Freshers' Parties; different ways of using web and social media for their Group; and finally a discussion about what the point of an Alumni Group is and what Group leaders see as their role.
All the breakout sessions were well attended and gave rise to lively debate! We hope that the delegates came out with some new and exciting ideas to take back to their Alumni Groups.
The Vice-Chancellor, attending his first Leadership Conference, expressed his thanks for the work that Alumni Groups carry out and reported on the current state of the university and the proposals on University Fees. This was followed by an entertaining speech by John Pritchard, a former Cambridge Blue and Olympian who is now a Director of the British Olympic Association.
The final part of the day was a garden party in the Fellow's garden at Murray Edwards College. The sun eventually came out for this relaxing end to an enjoyable day.
Thank you to all those who came to this year's Leadership Conference, we hope you had a good day and enjoyed meeting other Group leaders. If you are involved with the running of a Group, and have never been before, then we do recommend you come along next year! Next year's Conference will take place on Saturday 7 July at Madingley Hall. We hope that you will be able to join us there.
Information on previous year's conferences:
