How to organize your graduation? It is an important time for graduates and their families. It is also an opportunity to celebrate achievements and successes, as well as to honor the commitment and effort put into graduation.
But organizing such a ceremony can be difficult and stressful, especially if it involves many graduates and guests.
How to organize your graduation ceremony?
Let’s explore together the 5 steps to organize your graduation and the contribution of the AlumnForce platform which offers an all-in-one solution to easily create and organize a graduation ceremony.
- Step 1: Planning the ceremony
- Step 2: Prepare the invitations
- Step 3: Manage Degrees
- Step 4: Communicate with graduates
- Step 5: Engage your new graduates
- AlumnForce help: The Agenda function
Step 1: Planning the ceremony
The first step in organizing a successful graduation is to plan the ceremony by choosing the date, time and location. It is important to consider the number of graduates and guests expected to attend to find a suitable space. To do this, you can make a rough estimate of the number of graduates by using historical data or by requesting pre-registration. Depending on the size of your institution and the number of graduates, you may need to look for a larger or smaller venue.
It is also essential to define the format of the ceremony you wish to hold. Traditional formats are the most common, with graduates wearing gowns and hats and receiving their degrees on stage.
Don’t forget to take into account current health measures and local restrictions for in-person gatherings. For example, you might consider a virtual ceremony where graduates participate remotely.
You could opt for a hybrid ceremony, where some of the graduates attend in person while others participate remotely.
Step 2: Prepare the invitations
Once you have determined the date, time, location and format of your graduation ceremony, the next step is to invite the graduates to attend. It is important to allow enough time for graduates to make arrangements and organize themselves to attend the ceremony.
Well prepare his invitations in 2 steps:
- Write a personalized invitation for the graduates: the invitation should contain all relevant information about the ceremony. You can also include information about the guests of honor, speakers, and planned activities. Don’t forget to add a response deadline so you can estimate the number of graduates attending.
- Determine the most effective way to send the invitation to graduates: you can send invitations via email, snail mail, or text message. If your institution has a database of alumni contacts, you can use that to send email or postal invitations. If you have the phone numbers of graduates, you can also send invitations via text message. Be sure to provide clear instructions on how to respond to the invitation..
Step 3: Manage degrees
Once you have planned the ceremony and invited the graduates, the third important step is diploma management. Diplomas are the reason graduates have worked hard and studied for years, so it is important to manage their distribution effectively.
The first step in degree management is to upload the graduates’ degrees. You can get a list of all graduates from your institution on the AlumnForce platform.
Next, it is important to decide on the method of distributing the diplomas. You can distribute the diplomas at an in-person ceremony or online. If you choose an in-person ceremony, you can hold a graduation session using a graduation stage. This session can be held indoors or outdoors, depending on the number of graduates and guests expected.
Finally, for in-person ceremonies, it is important to ensure that graduates are ready for distribution. You can print out the diplomas and have them signed by school staff members before the ceremony. Providing a dedicated graduation area where graduates can pick up their diplomas once the ceremony is over is also an option.
Step 4: Communicate with graduates
Communication is an essential step in ensuring a successful graduation. Keeping graduates informed of all the details of the event is paramount to ensuring their attendance.
Sending out several reminders prior to the ceremony, via email, text message or push notification, with all the important information such as the date, time and location of the ceremony is paramount to achieving good follow up and communication. This will help answer any questions graduates may have and resolve any logistical issues before the day of the event.
After the ceremony, it is crucial to share photos and videos of the graduation to capture the highlights of the day. Graduates will be able to recall the most memorable moments of the ceremony, but also share these memories with their family and friends. It is recommended to publish the photos and videos on the school’s social networks, website, or on the AlumnForce platform in order to reach as many people as possible and to strengthen the school’s alumni community and maintain their commitment to the institution.
Step 5: Engage your new graduates
Graduation is a ritual of passage. It turns your students into graduates, and is an important moment in their lives. That’s why it’s important to immortalize this milestone and forge lasting bonds with them. It’s also a moment of transition. And if your students aren’t already on your alumni platform, it’s crucial to integrate them quickly.
So it’s important to maintain the momentum once the graduation ceremony is over. To do this, promoting the event on social networks and the alumni platform is crucial. Share highlights of the ceremony through photos and videos, using a dedicated hashtag to encourage graduates to contribute and interact. Publicly thank all participants, organizers and sponsors to create a sense of recognition and belonging.
Promoting new graduates means highlighting their achievements and future plans. Publish alumni portraits and interviews on your website and social networks to inspire the community and showcase the diversity and talent of your alumni. Send press releases to local and specialized media to broaden the audience and increase the visibility of your graduates and your institution.
Finally, ensure a smooth transition for students to their new graduate status by facilitating their onboarding on the alumni platform. Send clear instructions for activating their account and present the various services available, such as mentoring, job offers and networking events, via newsletters and webinars. Encourage alumni association membership by explaining the benefits and simplifying the subscription process. This continuity of involvement ensures that new graduates stay connected and invested, contributing to the dynamics and sustainability of the alumni community.
AlumnForce Help: The Agenda function
Integrated natively in your AlumnForce solution, the Agenda functionality is a complete tool for the management of event projects.
The 5 possible action with the Agenda tool:
1. Publish an event
With AlumnForce, you can create a page dedicated to your event and publish it on your site. This page will be accessible to all members and visitors of your site, allowing you to reach a large audience.
It is possible to create a custom event page for graduation, create a registration page for the ceremony, add the details of the ceremony and invite graduates to attend.
You can also customize the page by adding information about the speakers, graduates and guests of honor, as well as photos and videos of your school and past events.
2. Manage ticketing
The platform offers you the possibility to set up an online ticketing system for your event. You can offer different types of seats and online payment for your participants, which greatly facilitates registration management.
3. To promote
You can promote your event to your participants thanks to an invitation template at your disposal. You can also send push notifications for networks with a dedicated application. This allows you to reach your participants in a fast and efficient way.
AlumnForce offers an invitation feature that makes it easy to send personalized invitations to all graduates. The platform allows you to customize the invitations with event details and add images or videos to make them more appealing. Using AlumnForce, you can also track responses from future graduates and invitees, follow up with non-responders, and update contact information.
Inviting graduates is a crucial step in planning a successful graduation ceremony. By writing a personalized invitation, determining the most effective way to send the invitation, and using AlumnForce’s invitation feature, you can maximize the chances of graduates and their guests attending.
4. Manage participants
You have access to the complete list of registrants and can communicate with them through messages or scheduled notifications. You can send updates, photos and videos of the event to all graduates at once. This feature allows you to stay in touch with graduates after the ceremony and strengthen your relationship with them.
You can also create a facebook to get to know your attendees better and make it easier for them to talk to each other.
Communication is an important step in organizing a successful graduation. Sending reminders before the ceremony and sharing photos and videos after the ceremony is a great way to stay in touch with graduates and provide a memorable experience.
5. Follow the emargement
The platform offers you the possibility to track the attendance of participants present at your event thanks to an integrated QR code scanning tool. This allows you to quickly and easily verify the presence of participants and to facilitate the organization of your event.
From now on, post-event management is made easier with the optional integration of a satisfaction questionnaire to be sent to participants.
To go further :
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