» Advancement Seminars

Save the Date!

Successful Educational Travel leaders will present a series of discussions specifically designed to assist Chief Executives and Senior Managers on how best to oversee and manage an educational travel program in the current environment.

Topics:

• Status of the current economy and your travel program.
• Marketing and Communications: Print-to-Internet revolution or evolution? Where does Social Networking fit?
• Serving the “younger market”: Just what is “young?” How do you reach this market? What kind of programming works best?
• Do your travelers know what to expect? The value of showcasing your institution and its lecturers with consistency.
• What media influences your travelers’ decisions: online, brochure, phone call to association, phone call to tour operator?
• The misguided strategy of adding more trips vs. ramping up marketing to fill the trips you are already sponsoring.
• Is there more to your program than the bottom line? Are you on top of its risks and liabilities? Do you understand the partnership responsibilities to its tour operators?
• Travel Program mission: development vs. affinity?  Ensuring that your travel program responds to the strategic objectives of your institution.
• Staffing: Preparing for turnover; eradicating the chasm that exists between some chief executives and their travel directors.

NOTE: The agenda for this session is a “Work in Progress” and we encourage Executive Directors interested in this session to contact the organizers and make suggestions for topics they wish to cover (e-mail Carolyn Sheaff at 3cb5@comcast.net).

Each attendee will receive a 246-page Executive Travel e-Manual prepared especially for participants attending the Executive Forum. The Manual includes key documents and policies vital for year-round reference to help maintain a strong Educational Travel Program. 

Cost: $45 if registered for the full ETC Conference; $195 if attending this Feb. 16th session only.

"Thank you…for providing the opportunity for me to attend such a helpful and informative session for executive directors at ETC. I've been in alumni relations work for seven years, but have never felt very knowledgeable about our travel program, and must admit it has not been given much of a priority among all our programs. That has now changed—I returned to Auburn feeling like I had a wealth of information and quite inspired (the travel staff were overjoyed!). We have a lot of work to do, but we'll have fun growing our program to where it needs to be."
—Debbie L. Shaw, Vice President for Alumni Affairs and Executive Director, Auburn Alumni Association, Auburn Alumni Center

"This is perhaps the most important program being offered in regards to the future of our alumni travel programs…If the strategic assessment and planning for our travel program are not revisited and revamped, travel programs will not evolve—but dissolve. If ever there was a year for the Executive Forum to provide information for executives, it is this year!" —Jeff Johnson, President and CEO, Iowa State University Alumni Association

“The Executive Forum affords emerging as well as seasoned administrators, who have oversight of an institutional travel program, the opportunity to better grasp the challenges, understand the frustrations, accept the opportunities, and appreciate the savvy and skills that should be written into a Travel Planner's job description. It is an enormous task to run and, perhaps, more than a little overwhelming to absorb the magnitude of the assignment and what its success can bring to the table.”
—Barry Adams, President & CEO, The University of Houston Alumni Association