Check out this summary of California State University, Long Beach’s Themed Young Alumni Mixer that should provide plenty of ideas for everyone . . .
We recently had our first Young Alumni Mixer in a long time. We targeted only the last 5 years (03-08) because our alumni base (especially living in the area) is large. We were a little nervous because the event had been planned then canceled the last two years for lack of enough pre-registrations and interest.
We tried a few new things this year which seemed to really work:
1. Moved the venue off campus (previously we had tried to bring them back to the campus pub & grille, which is a popular student hangout). Even though we were taking care of parking, some may have thought it would be too difficult to find a spot. We moved it to a nice off-campus sports bar & restaurant in a popular area of town. We had a private area in the restaurant.
2. Moved the start time later and extended the event–we did 6-9 p.m. and many people ended up staying until 10, which surprised us a lot.
3. We lowered the number of hard copy postcards we sent out (from 5,000 to 3,000) but made sure they were very targeted (i.e. former student athletes, those involved in campus activities, previous event attendees, donors and then those that were just plain close by).
4. Lowered the price from $15 to $8. We strongly encouraged pre-registration and payment though didn’t require it. We allowed paid guests as well. In exchange for pre-registering and paying we offered a gift card to the University Bookstore that was worth $8 (basically making it “free”) although we wanted to help send some business toward the Bookstore as well…with the thought that they would definitely spend more than $8 there.
5. When we really saw a spike in registration was when we did targeted customized eblasts (we’d be eblasting to all Young Alumni about the event for 6 weeks or so periodically as part of our other communications and others just to them). But what really worked was picking out some of the large majors (for us it was business, communication studies, etc.) and customizing the e- blast to those groups (Hey Business Grads! Come on out to the Young Alumni Mixer!…etc.). I think it made them feel that they would see people that they knew. We saw a real spike in registrations after those went out.
7. As far as a theme, we just called it a “social and business mixer.” We encouraged them to bring business cards to exchange. They also had to use their business card to enter the raffle (or fill out one of our information slips).
All the socializing and such they took care of themselves…we didn’t have any program except the drawing of the raffle prizes and information out on the tables. We provided a basic array of appetizers and negotiated a reduced price “happy hour” menu with the restaurant and the alums were more than happy to buy additional food. We gave them a ticket good for two soft drinks (we don’t provide alcohol, though they were free to purchase on their own). We may not even provide the drink tickets next year and just let them do it all on their own.
We ended up with about 160 attendees which we were thrilled with (especially considering the event hadn’t worked at all the past two years!). Now we just have to determine the best way to follow up and keep them engaged. But apparently just tweaking a few variables can have a really big impact on attendance…we’re living and learning!
Aaron J. Moore ’02, ’08
Associate Director
Office of Alumni Relations
California State University, Long Beach
1250 Bellflower Boulevard
Long Beach, CA 90840-0601
(562) 985-5253/direct
(562) 985-5488/fax
amoore@csulb.edu
www.csulb.edu/alumni