In a previous post I mentioned my exploration of the notion of design patterns and speculated on the possiblity of using a patterns approach to creating better live experiences and events.

I sketch one out as a first stab.

--

Name – Rapid, Auto-Forward Presentation

Problem – Presentations are poor ways to communicate information when more efficient methods that allow the receiver to consume information on their own time, in a formate that is most convenient (such as email, wiki, video, etc). Some people are poor presenters and go on for too long. Powerpoint presentations, specifically, are often badly designed and executed, which bores and/or overwhelms the consumer with too much information. There are not enough resources (money, time, space, contenct) to execute a full length presentation.

Context – There is the opportunity to present a limited amount of information in a novel way.

There is the technological capacity to present a Powerpoint presentation.

Presenters should be willing to prepare and rehearse the format or their struggles may become more engaging than the information they are trying to convey.

There are limited resources (time, money, space, experience, content, etc)

Forces (influencing the design) – Need to present information to live audience.

Expectation that an event feature a speaker.

Not every presenter has appropriate content knowledge or is an engaging performer.

Audience is bored with typical presentation formats, is looking for novelty, and/or wants to have fun while they learn.

Limit on amount of time to present because of costs.

Desire to use Powerpoint technology.

Solution – Limit the presenter to set number of slides, which will auto-forward after a set amount of time. The auto-forward feature is standard to Powerpoint-type presentation software.

Set up video projector and screen. Connect projector to laptop with presentation software and the specific presentation loaded onto the hard-drive. Setting up the laptop off stage, away from the presenter will discourage the presenter from fooling with the presentation during the presentation (ie. backing up).

Set up lights and mic/speakers for the presenter if they need it to be seen/heard.

Have someone at the laptop start the presentation, and load the next when it is done.

Often a series of these presentations are presented together.

Introductions between presenters is discouraged because it drags out the event and is contrary to notion of rapid advancement.

Too many presentations grouped together can exhaust the audience just as quickly as a single long presentation.

Examples – Two popular methods at the 20 slides for twenty seconds each (20x20 or Petcha Kucha) and the Ignite format.

Resulting Context – A satisfying amount of information can be quickly transmitted to a live audience. Presenters are relieved to have gotten through the experience. Audience may be interested to learn more and to talk with presenter further. Presents enough information to form the basis of further conversation and debate. Entertainment. Provides concise experience for audience to relate to friends as stories.

I am an alumnus of 2 schools. My post-graduation relationship with both institutions has often been underwhelming...call me an underwhelmed alumnus.

Not that I gave much thought to my post-college alumni community when I was in school. I made some friends, people who shared my interests and are still close even as we have scattered around the globe, and I also made a lot more acquaintances, people who I enjoyed talking with while we shared a class but with who I never developed a deeper connection and lost track of after graduation.

Certainly I could have been more strategic about cultivating connections and maintaining more superficial relationships but that is something I have always had to work at and really has even made sense as I have gotten older. I suppose what may have seemed like empty, instrumental relationship building in the past now seems more like that kind of social economy that many communities like NYC thrive on. I suppose that is why I am not a politician. I also think I am rather typical in this regard.

But then there was the alumni office. I have a foggy memory that they made a point to introduce themselves at the graduation ceremony, to inform me that I was not leaving school but becoming an alumni. They must tell everyone that...I would. But what does it mean to be an alumni...and what would I want it to mean?

In the 6 years since my last degree here is what it has turned out the mean: I have fielded periodic outreach programs, often just asking for money, but also including the occasional one-off gatherings, and perhaps a periodic glossy mag. I have often have a vague sense there may be some online tools out there, and I occasionally check, but frankly they seem like just another mistaken attempt to recreate Facebook.

I have developed a stance of avoiding requests for money, and making a good-faith effort to show up at mixers when they are offered. I know that someday I might give some money if I can, but I know today, for sure, that mixers are often awkward affairs. I am certainly not being given the context to built significant new relationships.

Now why the hell would I give money to a school when I am still paying off school loans? It is nonsensical demographic profiling for sure but it is not what leaves me an underwhelmed alumnus...my underwhelmth (I can make up words as a college graduate) is deeper than that.

• What has the school done for me since graduating?
• Beyond my immediate cohort of friends, am I engaged with my fellow alumni?
• When I am moving to a new city, traveling, looking for a job, looking for advice...can I reach out to alumni to find help?
• In an age of online communities, social media, fast-to-market start-ups, and open working methods doesn't seem odd that schools are having such a hard time creating alumni community?

Perhaps this is not a fair description of your school. I know many ivy league schools for instance have alumni programs that are well funded marvels. But for context, my own experience is with two different scales of institutions with somewhat different profiles. One is a small, public, liberal arts college with a radically interdisciplinary curriculum located in a small town in Washington State, and the other is one is a large, prestigious, private, art school in a major city. Up to about a year ago I had about the same relationship with both of their alumni programs...we are riding on fumes.

In the last year things have changed. I have had the opportunity to look a bit more closely at the problems with alumni outreach. About 8 months ago, I joined one of my college's alumni board of directors and have been seeing how this system works.

I don't have a case yet where we have shown solutions for creating better outreach, but I believe I am starting to see what some of the problems are and starting to shift from being an underwhelmed alumnus to a impatient alumnus board member. The solutions are already out their in most cases, but as always, implementation is the challenge.

Here is the short list:

• The alumni office is often seen as a loss-leader...and so is often the first spot to see budget cuts.

• Short-sighted strategy. Alumni are too often seen as donation-cows to be milked without taking the time to build relationships.

• Too much focus on cultivating relationships with just VIP alumni rather than utilizing contemporary tools/strategies to connect all alumni.

• Alumni contributions are often too narrowly focused on financial donations rather than other contributions of things like time, skills, connections, passions, etc.

• The alumni network is too often seen as a network centered around the school institution rather than relationships among people...including alumni, current students, and the staff of the school.

• Different agendas of the school and alumni often conflict and power struggles ensue rather than efforts to dovetail agendas to create positive incentives for group action.

There are also a number of common small group organizational issues that are common in any small organization that utilizes volunteers. Here is a bit of what I have seen:

• Incentives and expectations are out of line.

• There is a misunderstanding of the impact of number of members on workgroup productivity...the alumni board I am on is simply too big to effectively work as a single unit, which brings on the need for additional management efforts by an already stretched staff.

• Volunteers are too busy or just don't keep their commitments.

• Lack of technology literacy to sufficient to use communication tools.

• Tardiness is rampant.

• Volunteers are asked to take on work in areas where they lack experience...and get in over their heads.

• Endless debates without action plans.

• Time is stolen from strategic planning to manage immediate issues.

• Meetings are run ineffectively.

• Too much focus on process and not enough on action.

There are plenty of solutions out there to the organizational issues (though, again, they have to be implemented), but the strategy stuff, especially the vision of the kind of relationship that need to be cultivated among alumni, really has to have buy-in all the way up (to the school president in this case). It is difficult for the alumni director or volunteer alumni to work with a bad institutional strategy

Being the director of an alumni office must be one of the most difficult administrative jobs out there. You are stuck between the college's constant need to raise funds, a dispersed and perhaps disenchanted alumni population, the need to corral alumni volunteers away from busy personal lives, and the reality of having to work with notoriously small budgets. Ugh. And the money pressures are even more intense and short-sighted in this difficult economy.

At the moment though the biggest issue in my mind is that alumni are too often seen as a cow to be milked.

Alumni need to be seen as community to be cultivated and nurtured...not just milked for donations. The relationships need to be built first before folks are going to see a reason to contribute (this should be obvious to all you social networking gurus). Means of contribution is often seen narrowly as simply money and need to be expanded. The alumni network is often only seen as an asset to the school rather than a mutually beneficial relationship.

Being an alumni could mean being a part of a community of folks ready to lend each other a hand. I am curious to see if we get anywhere close to that while I have the time and interest to contribute.