The event:

Meeting Minds

Annual Alumni Weekend

Client Brief

The University of Oxford’s annual alumni weekend brings together the entire collegiate University to deliver a weekend full of lectures, workshops, demonstrations, tours and behind-the-scenes visits to some of Oxford’s more magical places.

2022 was the 15th anniversary of the weekend and the university was keen to draw alumni back to the city post-pandemic, whilst also leveraging the new relationships developed during lockdown with alumni who lived further away by introducing a digital component to the weekend.

Assemble Events was approached to provide additional resource and specialist expertise to deliver the hybrid event.

Our Approach

Working in partnership with the central alumni team, Assemble Events provided strategic guidance and support on how to deliver a hybrid event and maximise engagement opportunities for all event stakeholders.

We worked closely with individual colleges and speakers to ensure staff were up-skilled to confidently deliver sessions virtually and facilitate connections between those in the room and online.

Our services included:

• Setup and management of the event platform
• Event communications and attendee management
• Speaker briefings and training
• Training sessions for college teams
• Event management

Event Impact

• We enabled the University of Oxford to deliver its first hybrid event, with over 50 sessions taking place over the weekend, of which 35 were hybrid
• We surpassed the registration target with over 1,800 registrations (in-person and virtual tickets)
• All attendees were brought together in one single platform and could connect and network regardless of if they were attending in-person or virtually

Client feedback

“As our staff was stretched to the limit, we hired Emma to manage the elements of the weekend that required some real technical expertise. She was brilliant! We threw her into the deep end with our digital platform powered by Cvent and she worked closely with them to ensure that the digital experience was a seamless one for our participants. She also worked tirelessly with our colleagues in the colleges and departments to ensure that they were up to speed with the technology and could confidently deliver a hybrid experience for their alumni. She worked on site with us in the lead-up to the event and during the weekend itself, solving problems, smoothing the way and ensuring that all elements were delivered to the highest possible standard. We couldn’t have done it without her!”

Christine Fairchild, Director of Alumni Relations, University of Oxford