Award: Bronze

Institution: Miami University

Title of Entry: Miami University Alumni Association Virtual Alumni Weekend 2020

About this Entry: In March, Miami University, like almost all other institutions of higher education, decided to move from in-person learning to virtual learning and decided to shut the university down to limit the spread of COVID-19. This decision forced the Miami University Alumni Association to pivot from a large, 1,600 in-person Alumni Weekend, to a virtual Alumni Weekend in a 2 month span of time. While we were fairly new to virtual event planning, this provided us a great opportunity to test attendance and response to such a large change in our traditional programming. In solidarity with those protesting the death of George Floyd and those supporting Black Lives Matter, we canceled communications for Virtual Alumni Weekend, not knowing how it would impact our attendance. To our surprise and excitement we had 1,100 registrants for the events taking place Friday through Sunday with 1,283 live attendees and 2,006 webinar views in that time frame. We also had over 25,000 views of our events that took place on our social media platforms. Alumni Weekend 2020 was a success because of our ability to adapt quickly to a new way of executing a major program and impact a larger audience than a typical year. This year's success will help us plan for future Alumni Weekends with a focus that includes both in-person and virtual options thus making Alumni Weekend a more enriched experience for our alumni.