By: Deanna Nanni, Dom Recckio, and Megan Siegle

Alumni Weekend

Event Vision:

The first phase of Ithaca 125 will be presented during Alumni Weekend. The theme

of this weekend-long event will be “Looking Back.” Ithaca College is always

researching to improve academically, and with the help of Alumni Weekend, looking

back can help Ithaca College move forward. Alumni will be able to share stories from

their Ithaca College experiences, connect with old friends, learn about Ithaca

College’s present initiatives, and help the design the future of the college. This event

hopes to attract 15% of alumni.

SWOT Analysis:

Strengths:·      Large A&E Center Space·      125 is a large event·      Blue Sky Goals

Weaknesses:·      Parking Space·      Low Alumni engagement (9%)·      Theme may not appeal

Opportunities:·      Cortaca Weekend will draw more·      Fundraising·      Engage new alumni

Threats:·      Bad weather·      Travel prices·      Other conflicting events

Schedule:Friday:

All Day -o A day in the life of a student alumni shadowingo Break out sessions with students, faculty, staff, admin to look back and

design future (pre-signups online) across campus. i.e. SGA members will meet with alums who were in org and

talk about where to go from here. 9:00am-9:30am Breakfast & Mingling 9:30am-9:45am Alumni Board of Directors Introduction 9:45am-12:00pm Depart for campus tours & minor events in A&E Center.

o Departments, organizations, and services have booths, providing a look at today (encouraging annual fund donations)

12:00pm-12:45pm Lunch 12:45pm-2:00pm 5 Stages, 5 Schools panels

o Consist of 2 students, a faculty member moderator, and 3 alumni.o Fun facts, things we can learno Video recorded & streamed as well.

2:00pm-2:30pm Remarks from Professor Emeriti at each of the 5 stages.

Saturday: All Day -

o Hill Center open for all guests and families 9:00am-10:30am Breakfast & Mingling 10:30am-12:00pm Tailgaiting (inside if raining) in the parking lots 12:00pm Football Game kickoff (possibly Cortaca) 3:00pm-4:00pm Post Game celebration/event in the hill center.

Dates: Date not on academic calendar 2 day celebration - Friday Saturday

Locations: Friday -

o A&E Center

Date & Location:

The first phase of Ithaca College 125, Looking Back, will take place during

Alumni Weekend 2017. However, the academic calendar has not posted the official

date of Alumni Weekend. It will be a two-day celebration located in the Athletics and

Event Center on Friday and in the Hill Center on Saturday.

Budget:

A weekend long event requires a great deal of resources, including capital. A

large budget allows for the proper execution of each planned item on the schedule.

The total budget for the Alumni Weekend is around $200,000. This includes the cost

of food, decoration, rental equipment, security, and shuttle service. This also

includes an extra $5,000 for emergencies incase last minute purchases must be

made. A break down of the budget follows:

Food: 37,500

Decoration: 30,000

Rental Equipment: 100,000

Security: 25,000

Shuttle Service: 2,500

Extra: 5,000

Menus:

Transportation/Parking:

The “Looking Back” event will have transportation provided to shuttle guests

from downtown to campus. The shuttle service is coordinated through Campus

Center and Events Services. This shuttle costs $90 per hour to provide our guests a

reliable, safe, and sustainable way to travel to and from the event. For guests who

would prefer to transport themselves, parking will be available for their vehicles.

The Athletics and Event Center will be reserved for guest parking only.  

Security:

Alumni Weekend and Cortaca are both events that attract many alumni,

students, and guests to the Ithaca College campus. Security and Police are found

abundantly throughout the campus during the weekend to ensure safety to

students, guests, and the campus. Throughout the “Looking Back” phase of Ithaca

125, there will be added Security added to the Hill Center and Athletics and Events

Center to provide even more security to assure guests and students that their safety

is our first priority.

A/V:

Audio and Visual effects are an important aspect to any event, especially

when focusing on the past of Ithaca College and alumni experiences. To give guests

the best overall experience possible, there will be five stages with dividers in the

Athletics and Events Center on Campus. The audio will be designed in a way that

will ensure that sounds don’t mix with other stages, and each stage will not be

interfered by feedback or any audio from other entertainment.

Publicity:

Prior to the event, an email will be sent to the campus community inviting

them to the “Looking Back” event. Alumni will be notified for Alumni Weekend as

usual via Alumni affairs typical advertising, which includes emails, paper mail, and

phone-a-thons. Students will be personally invited via email be faculty members,

alumni, or the dean of their school. Each email will be different and personalized to

cater to the individuality of each student. There will be posters around campus

along with the use of Ithaca College social media accounts to advertise the event.

Issues & Solutions:

There is always the possibility for issues to surface throughout the event. By

making these possible issues apparent prior to the event, the event team can be

ready to handle these issues before they become crises. There is always a possibility

for A/V issues. The proposal outlines that there will be dividers between stages to

ensure the quality sound and video that will not be interrupted, and to ensure that

this won’t happen; the event team will be prepared to add more dividers between

sections.

Another issue that can cause disappointed and discouragement is empty

seats in the Athletics and Events Center during the “Looking Back” event. Prior to

the event, the team will have an estimated number of Alumni that will be attending.

However, the team needs to also focus on encouraging students to come as well.

The last issue that this proposal will outline is not meeting the fundraising goal. If

the goal is not met, the team will align a major gift campaign with Blue Sky or Master

Planning and announce the campaign during the event. The event team could also

advertise for IC Giving Day to attract more donors as well.

Evaluation:

Measuring the success of the “Looking Back” event can be evaluated in three

different ways. First, the team can count the number of alumni who attend, share

their experiences, interact online, or donate. The goal is 15%, and if the event meets

this goal, it was a successful event. If not, other strategies will be executed to meet

these goals in later events. Secondly, to obtain summative feedback, the event team

along with alumni relations can do follow-up phone calls with guests to get their

personal opinions and constructive feedback. Not only will this give the team

specific details of what worked and what didn’t, but also their thoughts on how

future events can be even better. Lastly, we can evaluate the success of the Alumni-

Student shadowing portion of the event. The proposal hopes for 100 shadows, and

the team can evaluate based on those numbers.

Time Capsule Dedication

Event vision

        We see this event as a way to get students to collaborate together and think

of the future of IC. This will start the Monday after alumni weekend. We want to

have a week of events from different academic programs and student organizations,

all with a goal of painting a picture of IC at 125. We will make a time capsule that

will be opened on 2067. The way we want to do this is by having 7 clubs, 7 events.

We will have seven clubs sign up on an application process and the school will fund

them for the event they hold. As for the majors, we want all the majors to participate

in this event. We want the directors of each department for each major to meet with

the students and come up with an artifact to put in the time capsule. We encourage

every major to come up with an idea and present it at the dedication ceremony on

Friday.

Goal

        Our goal is for each school to envision their future in 50 years. The best way

to do this is to have the students and the professors of each school to participate. It

will be cool to see how people see not only their school, but their major in years to

come. Ithaca is developing every year, so to think about it 50 years from now will be

really interesting. Another goal is to have at least 1,5000 students and faculty to

watch the time capsule go underground and be at the ceremony.  It would be a great

opportunity to get the community involved too. We will invite them to put

something in the time capsule; such as what they hope to see in the Ithaca

community in 50 years. This will engage not only Ithaca College, but also the Ithaca

community.

Themes

Next are the themes of our event. We want to have three different themes.

We want the artifacts of the ICC to tie into our event, what we’ll leave behind, and

envisioning 2067.

The artifacts of the ICC are Identities, Inquiry Imagine and Innovation, The

Quest for a Sustainable Future, A World of Systems, Mind Body Spirit, and Power

and Justice. We want people to not only write about how they see Ithaca College in

50 years, but also think about how these themes have an impact on Ithaca in 50

years to come. Every Ithaca student can compare themselves to these themes.

During the weeks leading up to the time capsule, for the 7 events 7 themes we will

have a booth about the themes. That way people can write about how their theme

and how it will connect with them 50 years from now. We will have people write

their thoughts on the themes and how taking classes in their theme have shaped

them for 50 years from now.

The next theme we want to accomplish is “what we’ll leave behind”. As each

school year starts how is each graduating class leaving something behind? We want

people to share how the class of 2017 and so on share a moment they want to leave

behind. For instance, the class of 2017 was the first class to start the themes, we

should be able to share what that has taught us being a student at Ithaca College. We

want each class to be able to contribute to something. There will be class tables in

Emerson Suites as well next to the theme tables.

Lastly we want to envision the future of 2067. What do we hope to see at

Ithaca College in 50 years? This is the main theme of the event. Having each school

and major participating sharing their thoughts about the future is crucial for this

event. Every student will be able to think of the future of IC. Also the students who

are here in 2067 will see the similarities and differences of what the college really

looks like.

SWOT

Strengths:

Large A&E Center SpaceTime Capsules are fun & participatoryUnique eventStudent engagement

Weakness:

Students don’t attend many eventsMay not be able to think of somethingThey might think it is stupid

Opportunities: Threats:

Potential high student engagementPress coverageGet community involved Other events on the night of. (Friday)

People may be unavailable

Schedule:All Week:

Weeks leading up to the time capsule ,the 7 clubs chosen will hold an event focusing on IC 125 and creating artifacts for the time capsule.

o Clubs chosen and funded via application process. Academic Programs meet

o Each program holds an event to think about what their field will look like in 2067, this will then be put in the time capsule.

Friday Dedication: 9:00am - 12:00pm  A&E Center Setup 12:00pm-1:30pm Run through and AV Checks 1:30pm-6:00pm Downtime & Fixing issues 6:00pm-7:30pm VIP Reception in VIP room. 7:00pm-7:45pm - Students and community members arrive for light snacks

and drinks. 8:00pm-9:00pm - Filling the time capsule & closing remarks

o Each person/organization putting a 2017 artifact in the time capsule gets to describe it and why it is going in.

o Closing remarks from SGA President. 9:00-10:00pm - A Capella Concert

Dates: Week after Alumni weekend Dedication day on that Saturday

Locations: 7 Events – Taken place at Emerson Suites Friday - A&E Center

TransportationThe transportation and the parking for this event will be manageable since

many people from off campus will not be coming. The students will have the normal

parking spots and the guests can park over at the A&E center lot. If there is anyone

from the Ithaca area they can take the T-cat bus. It runs on a very timely schedule.

Security

  For security purposes we will have campus safety present. It is important to

make sure the students are safe. If any important speakers come like David Muir or

Bob Iger came then we would have necessary security to keep them safe. Later at

night we are hoping to have an accapella concert. We will up the security at night

time to make sure everybody is safe.

Audiovisual

        For the audiovisual we will need to have a large screen behind the stage

when doing the time capsule. Here we can have a slideshow of some sort. Next, we

will need to have speakers ready so everyone can hear the presenters when they

talk. The speakers will need to be adjusted in real time for the accapella concert.

Publicity and examples:

        The publicity of this event is very important. We want to make sure that the

clubs within the school they are apart of are really excited about this event! The

seven clubs chosen by application process are very important to this event. We will

help them publicize this by supplying them with the posters and papers they need to

advertise this. We will highly encourage this event to the people of the clubs who

help us table the events on the certain day. We would like them to participate in the

time capsule dedication and have them tell us what they think 2067 will look like

from the clubs perspective.

        There will be emails about this event to the students and faculty. It is

important for this event to be recognized, but it should be advertised about a month

before the event. Similar to IC giving day, we want to have lead up emails every

week for the first month leading up to the event. Then we will have emails emailed

to students three days in a row prior to the event. We want to encourage students to

participate in their major dedication to the time capsule. Everyone will be reminded

of the date of the event as well.  Posters will be posted all around campus saying the

date of the time capsule dedication and when the seven clubs will be hosting their

event. These posters will be put up a week before the event. What makes everyone

come to an event? Simple, food. We will have Sodexo catering offered at the event.

Menu

Budget

~$230,000

Food: 22,500 + 15,000= 37,500

Decoration: 10,000

Rental Equipment: 100,000

Security: 25,000

Shuttle Service: 2,500

Time Capsule Materials: 50,000

Extra: 5,000

Issues and solutions

The issue we could have at these events is poor student involvement. But, the

event is unique enough that people may be more inclined to come rather than

another event. Burying a time capsule will be a memorable event, so we feel like

students will think it is unique and come. But one way we can really make this

appeal to students is by getting a guest alumni speaker. We want to have an alumni

that would appeal to the school and community. One person that would make

people really interested would be Bob Iger or David Muir. Bob Iger is an older

alumnus while David Muir is older but still newer alumni. These two men have a lot

to offer to this campus and the student body.

Measuring success/Evaluation

        We also need to measure the success of this event. One way we can do this is

by keeping track of attendee numbers. We could have people sign in when they get

her but that would be very time consuming. We could write a number on each

person's hand, or have books to give out and know how many we ordered and know

how many we have left and subtract that number to find out how many people

came.

        Social media is also a good way to keep track of audience attendance and

attentiveness. We could have a hashtag for people who have twitter to hashtag the

event. Like when the alumni speaker is speaking they could hashtag things that he

said. Or when each major is presenting their artifact they could tweet about the

artifact. When the capsule speech is happening a hashtag could be used. This is a

good way to see who our audience is and how excited they are.

        The time capsule will be filled. It would be a good way for the involvement of

the year 2067 to open it and read what we wrote. Having the 7 clubs and the majors

from each school present something into the time capsule will be very exciting.

Note: 7 clubs 7 events will be held in Emerson Suites, this is how it will look:

Founders Day Festival

Event Vision:The last phase of Ithaca 125 will be the Founder’s Day Festival, which will be

held simultaneously with IC Kicks Back in the spring semester. Ithaca College

Founder’s Day Festival will be a giant music festival, which salutes the Ithaca College

music history. Stages will be spread across campus with several different musical

acts throughout the entire day. Students, faculty, staff, alumni, and music artists will

be welcome to attend the event. The major goals of the event are to get most on-

campus students to participate, capture the campus’ attention and to design

tomorrow. Attendees will be able to draw around the campus with sidewalk chalk to

help bring out the beauty of our campus and to help envision the future of Ithaca

College. The major theme of this event is to design the “tomorrow” of Ithaca College

through music and art. The use of drones will also be utilized throughout the event.

Drones can easily gather video footage of the event to help advertise for the event in

the future, to help evaluate the event, and to help provoke excitement with the

attendees of the event.

SWOT:

Strengths:Campus Size is perfect for music festivalStudents need more large events on campus

Weaknesses:BudgetPotential musical acts

Opportunities:Potential high student engagementPress coverage

Threats:Bad weatherDrugs and alcohol

Schedule: All Day:

o Stage setup & band sound checks 12:00pm-3:00pm Food available in the academic quad near campus center. 12:00pm - Musical kickoff at each stage, stage breakdown is below

o Stage 1: Music School performanceso Stage 2: Student DJayso Stage 3: A Capella Groupso Stage 4: Openers all day for main acto Stage 5: Student & Local Bands

Stage Locations: All across campus, 5 stages

o Emerson back yardo Fitness Center Quado Academic Quado Football Fieldo Yavits Field

Budget:

With such a large event that will be attractive to thousands of students who

attend Ithaca College, the budget needed to represent a budget of a music festival.

The total budget was estimated to be $150,000-$200,000, with the bulk of the

expenses being in security, food, stage set-up, and entertainment. A breakdown of

the budget is as follows:

5k pieces of Chalk =$800

5 Stages set up across campus= $50k+

Mid -to- large musical acts=$50k+

3 Drones =$3k

Food: $37,500

Security: $25,000

Menus:

This event will be taking over IC kicks back. There are burgers and hotdogs at that

event so the students will be able to eat the food they hold there.

Transportation:

Ithaca College will not provide transportation to this event.

Security:

The safety of event attendees and entertainers is the first priority. There will

be a significant amount of security due to the thousands of students who will be

attending. Depending on the musical acts, however, the security may need to be

significantly larger.

A/V:

Audio and visual effects are a significant component of the Founder’s Day

Festival. There will be five different stages across campus is a wide variety of

locations with 5 different sound on sound music set-ups. This will keep each stage

organized with their own sound equipment.

Publicity:

Since this is a first time event, the Founder’s Day Festival will require a large

launch campaign. This campaign will build throughout the months prior ending with

a surprise unveil of the large musical entertainment act. Also, during the months

leading up to the event, the campaign will provoke students to start thinking of the

future of Ithaca College. This brainstorming will help students think of ideas to use

during the sidewalk chalk portion of the event. This event will also require

advertising that mirrors other music festivals, such as Grass Roots, Coachella, and

Hangout Fest.

Issues & Solutions:

The major issue that could really affect the Founder’s Day Festival would be

the weather. Rain can really damage the equipment of the school and the

entertainer’s.  Rain also does not allow for the sidewalk chalk portion of the event to

take place. In case there were to be rain on the day of the Founder’s Day Festival,

there would be several different locations that entertainers could relocate to, such

as the Athletics and Events Center, Emerson Suites, and IC Square.

Evaluation:

There are several different ways that the team can measure the success of

the Founder’s Day Festival. Counting the number of students at each stage can help

determine the number of students that attended the event. It can also determine

how successful each stage was. This will be extremely helpful when choosing

entertainment for future events. Another way to evaluate the success of the event is

to look around the campus at the sidewalk chalk masterpieces. The team can

determine the success by measuring the percentage of campus that is covered in

chalk. It could also be very useful to analyze the footage of the drones that were

used throughout the event.

5 Target Audiences

Alumni

Pre South Hill, VIPs, Reunions, Young Alums

Faculty and Staff

Current, retired, emeritus

Students

5 Schools, 100 majors, 25 sports, 100+ clubs

Incoming

Class of 2021

Community

Friends of IC, business’s, local citizens