American University School of Communication
"Games+ Summit 2017" ad created as part of an integrated outreach and recruiting initiative
Background: The principal charges of my department at the School of Communication revolve around graduate student recruitment, donor engagement, and raising awareness of the school’s activities and stature among peer academic institutions, industry, government agencies, NGOs, and other thought leaders. While our mandate is broad, our resources are finite and as a result I have placed an emphasis on activities that can touch upon all of our main constituencies at the same time. The Games+ Summit is an example of this type of combined outreach.
The summit took place Jan. 17, 2017. Going into the event we had 178 people respond to our outreach, of which 75 were prospects for our graduate games program and 103 were professionals and peers. The 75 requested additional information about our master’s in game design program and were entered into our Recruit database so that our our graduate admissions office could engage with them. Twenty-five of those prospects attended the event, affording them ample opportunity to have one-on-one time with our game program professors, current students, and alumni. Results on the peer engagement level were equally strong, with representatives from the National Institutes for Health, the Department of Education, the Smithsonian, and other universities in the mid-Atlantic region participating. Representatives from the university development office hosted select supporters and the dean’s office brought special guests from our corporate partners to observe the day’s activities.
My roles in this project: I worked with the game program director and faculty to design the event and its scope; directed all outreach efforts including social media, web, and paid advertising; partnered with the graduate admissions office to track and engage with all registrants who identified as prospective students; scouted event locations and secured the final venue; requested catering proposals; oversaw the contracting process for all vendors; served as the onsite manager for the event; worked with the university development office to invite current and prospective donors and corporate sponsors to participate.
