A Colourful Bouquet Of Inspiration

A Coulourful Bouquet of Inspiration

On 11 November 2024, our colleague Melanie Schaller travelled to Berlin for the 3-day Learning and Exchange Platform for International Alumni Relations workshop. Together with over 20 committed colleagues from all over Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Ireland, the intensive workshop time was used in particular to exchange ideas and develop professional strategies for national and international alumni*ae relations work and promising networks. We are very grateful for the many inspiring insights on successes and stumbling blocks in alumni*ae work, not only from the two workshop leaders and alumni*ae experts, Sandra Rincon and Maria L Gallo, EdD, and the speakers Rachel Bray and Ria Flom, but also from all participants. Many thanks also for the great organisation to the TU Berlin alumni*ae team Bettina Klotz, Juliane Wilhelm, Maria Walz, PhD and Nils Berliner!

We are delighted that we have already been able to reconnect with some of our fellow alumni*ae managers! 

We have been able to collect some great guiding principles and images for our alumni*ae work in the near future, including

• Our alumni*ae are our treasure!
• Alumni*ae managers are Swiss army knives (Rachel Bray): Communication, event management, data management, fundraising, career support, and so much more - what an exciting and varied job! 
• Many alumni*ae are already willing to get involved - sometimes we just have to ask (and offer appropriate structures for this)!
• "Keep your sanity!" (Ria Flom) - Despite the desire to get involved in a lively network, many of those involved in the Alumni*ae network are constantly coming up against various limits. The search for supportive contacts, a healthy trust in the network and following a well-considered strategy can help to keep your sanity in the colourful everyday life.
• ...

We were also able to take away a colourful bouquet of ideas for a wide range of formats for and with our alumni*ae. Of course, we are always happy to receive suggestions not only from outside, but above all from our alumni*ae themselves!