Saturday, May 15th, 2010 :Women & Empowerment

DeVry University, Long Beach Campus 3880 Kilroy Airport Way Long Beach, CA 90806

EMPOWER, EDUCATE, INSPIRE!

Objectives: Create an event that raises the stature of the DeVry brand to the same level as other major universities in Southern California.

Support DVU’s “The Career University” positioning. Target women adult learners, an under-represented demographic among DVU students. Create, reinforce, and leverage professional associations with leading corporations. Provide meaningful student-life activities for current DVU students. Generate inquiries and enrollments among the target demographic.

Event Goals Per January Home Office Meeting Elevate the DVU brand. Create a significant, brand-reinforcing student and prospective student brand experience. Generate inquiries and new enrollments.

Ways We Did This Branded Advertising Landing page Flyers On-line advertising (Facebook) Home office Facebook postings On-campus bulletin boards Week-of campus PA announcements Community college print ads E-Blasts 15,000 e-mails to FY ’10 RNC (respond not convert) list Community College e-mail (45,000 impressions) 3,000 current DVU and KGSM on-line and on-site Flyering Days: 3 weekends starting 1-month prior to event. Long Beach Grand Prix: 1x Ocean Blvd. (downtown LB): 2x Student Facebook pages E-Blasts by interns, community partners, corporate partners, and speakers. Absolute Production Services built a dedicate URL for registration. (Weekly updates)

PR Our weekly magazine article Radio Hot 92.3 Interview on Community Affairs show Van hit at DeVry with promos Week-long on-air and online ticket give away KLOS Community Events on-air interview (with Joe Hines)

Leveraging Partnerships and Resources

Branded Experience

Professional, upscale event. Conversion of DVULB commons to a professional assembly hall.

Large scale plasma screens, full stage, professional sound-system. Tented luncheon area. Box lunch provided. Professional VIP Hospitality area. In-kind donations for VIP Hospitality, gift bags, and day-long raffle drawings of high-value items from major corporations. High profile speakers from highly respected national corporations, and impressive local business owners.

Intimate, deep-dive breakout sessions led by DVU faculty members. Meaningful exchange of ideas and information by recognized experts on subjects that were valued by the attendees. Soft-sell approach from admissions. Not an overtly ‘in-your-face’ recruitment event. Rather, the brand benefited by association with the event.

Inquiry Generation

Developed event-specific landing page. Integration of Career Profiler. On-site check-in process included ‘opt-in’ opportunity. Rooms decorated to parallel theme of Career Profiler. Laptop drawing generated inquiries.

THE ENVIRONMENT- SPEAKER SESSIONS

Transformation of campus cafeteria into professional keynote room.

THE ENVIRONMENT

Outdoor Lunch Tent, Registration, and Hospitality

BREAKOUT SESSIONS

“I thought the event was informative and an inspiring. I felt empowered from the networking opportunities and information shared. Women do great things and are great people. I also learned that great women place an importance on their families as well. The only thing I would like to add that was not there is a roundtable with the attendees might help with further networking.” – Autumn, attendee “Great! Fantastic speakers. Enjoyed each part of the day. I was inspired by so many successful women and so many women seeking professional advice.” – Melanie, attendee

FIRST CLASS GUEST SPEAKERS VOLUNTEERED THEIR TIME!

“Excellent event with great speakers. It was a really nice mix of speakers from big name companies (Microsoft, HP, and UPS) and smaller local companies (HR consulting, clothing advice, etc.) The last speaker (the magazine editor) was a fabulous, dynamic speaker. Though her company is not well known, she echoed comments and advice from earlier speakers at the big-name companies, and she offered no-nonsense advice. She was dynamic, funny, and really well-spoken.” - Kristin, attendee

PROGRAM CONSULTATION, URL DEVELOPMENT AND URL MANAGEMENT.

Corporate Networking

Respected speakers from Microsoft, HP, Governor’s Office, LA Lakers, LAPD, and other highly respected corporations and businesses. HP partnership with laptop donation. In-kind donations from high profile corporations.

Community Networking WHW (Women Helping Women)

Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Los Angeles

Community College tabling events.

High School: Senior student contacts through HS presenter teams.

Student-Life Experience

Developed a solid core of actively involved student volunteers that managed every functional area of the event production, event planning, event marketing, and business development process.

Testimonials indicate a ‘life changing’ experience and change in student morale.

Desire for future opportunities to get involved and recruit circle of influence.

“Thank you for sponsoring/hosting last Saturday's Generation WE event. Many of the speakers were very unexpected, interesting and offered a fresh perspective, while others reaffirmed time-tested and true principles regarding job hunting and employment in today's tough world of work. It also offered an excellent opportunity to network!” – Cherlyn, attendee

“The most important things I learned are the importance of perseverance and the importance of building a network. It’s really great for students and women re-entering the workforce to hear from successful women at companies large and small…and to hear their advice on what to do next in the job search process. Career Services people can tell students about how to create resumes, the importance of networking, interviewing dos and don’ts and other similar topics, but nothing has the same credibility as hearing that information from successful women in business.” - Kristine, attendee

What Went Well

Planning. Process included all aspects of the event and started 5 to 7 months prior to the actual event.

Communication. All functional areas were consulted with and given ample opportunity to provide input and feedback prior to the event.

Metro support and Metro participation. Speaker participation. (All volunteered their time and some flew in.) Student experience. Corporate Partnerships. Community Support. Inquiry Generation. 30% of attendees expressed interest to learn more about DeVry University.

What Needs Improvement

National support.

Low turn-out (300+ pre-registered). Less than 1/3 of the RSVPs attended. . Improve participation from: Community Outreach, Academics, Admissions.

PARTNERSHIP DELIVERABLES: Internship Five Month Internship development and management with Joe Hines. First hand event marketing, production, and management experience led by an award winning team.

Interns tasked with projects to enhance their leadership, communication, team-building, and networking skills.

Enhanced student morale as DeVry Students and enforced students to work with each other as well as with members of the corporate and nonprofit communities.

Challenged students to utilize social networking tools and reach out to non-traditional resources.

A proven case study in the development of skills and personal and professional confidence.

Partnership with Passion

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A FIRST HAND, FIRST CLASS, FIRST OF ITS KIND INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCE!

FROM OUR INTERNS:

“Being with this team I felt like I was part of something, I felt significant. For most of my life, I've spent my talents doing projects for myself in hopes that I would captivate an audience.” “I watched how the volunteers and interns worked with each person who registered, and they did their tasks with great purpose and satisfaction. I was initially disappointed with the turnout, I wish it was more, but I realized the people who did attend were changed forever and those who they interact with are also.” “Generation WE was an amazing team building opportunity. Everything I heard was positive. It teaches you how to improve yourself and grow. Anything that teaches you to grow is a form of positive branding.” “This was truly one of the greatest experiences I have had and look forward to working on this type of event again.”

PARTNERSHIP DELIVERABLES: Event Production and Event Management

Event production, management, and execution.

Coordinated details with Long Beach Facility Team.

Intern and volunteer training for event.

Solicited, procured, and negotiated all in-kind donations for hospitality, VIP gift bags, and all raffle items (except for laptop).

Brand building for DeVry by engaging and developing student, staff, community, media, and corporate support (on behalf of Generation WE).

Produced and managed content with DeVry and its interns.

Produced and managed Generation WE URL.

Procured and facilitated the following speakers: Sue Hill, Sophia Kim, Lee Everret, Marcella Winn, and Bonnie-Jill Laflin.

Solicited and confirmed community partners.

Solicited and procured in-kind partnership with Hot 92.3.

In-Kind Value: $30,000 In-Kind Media Value: $7500

(Cume is 2,000,000 for Hot 92.3/week. 300,000+ impressions.)

Total In-Kind: $37,500

Partnership with Passion

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Community Partners

Media Partners

Corporate Partners

IN-KIND SUPPORT: GIFTBAG ITEMS, RAFFLE PRIZES, MEDIA, FOOD AND BEVERAGE.

It’s more than an event, its an organic, and first of its kind Corporate-Community-Staff-Student Partnership With Passion!

Branded Advertising/PR

Branded Experience

Corporate Networking

Community Networking

Student-Life Experience

Next Steps/ Opportunities Opportunity to expand and integrate with the “Her World” brand as a more inclusive event for “women” in general.

Selection of specific markets for expanded program. Selection of Generation WE as the fourth national event for FY ’11. Broadcast content from Generation WE event into DeVry.edu, Youtube, and partner sites. Use content to engage social networking forums online. Focus on careers. Budget review.

Thank you DeVry for the Opportunity to partner and produce