Our approach to convening deisgn

Earlier this spring, we gathered the whole UIA network for a convening and I always love to hear the surprise from attendees who are new to UIA experiences. We aim to produce events that are unique, useful, and fun, and first-time attendees are always the most vocal about how different our events are from other higher education conferences.

As with all of our work, we’re eager to share our way of convening with the broader community in the hopes that others might replicate our human-centered approach. The better higher ed events are, the more likely good ideas will go viral.  In that spirit, here are some of our underlying principles when it comes to designing a convening or group experience.

Ground yourself in humility: Our perspective starts with a recognition that every person who attends our events is making a huge investment. To leave your family, your work, and your home and give us your time and attention is a massive investment and a gift we are always humbled by. This recognition keeps us grounded and inspired to build something incredible for everyone who attends a UIA gathering. We want to rise to the occasion and create an experience that fundamentally improves our attendees’ ability to do great work for students when they return to campus. Events that make people feel like they are an afterthought hurt the cause.

Design as if you are obsessed with your audience's needs: We take empathy very seriously and believe you need to be obsessed with creating value for the people you are bringing together. Cookie cutter experiences don’t work well for anyone. Instead, each UIA convening begins from the ground up with a visioning exercise about what we want the attendees to do, feel, and say when they walk out the door at the end. We generally want them feeling accomplished, energized, and buzzing with new ideas and collaborative partners, not lamenting wasted time or feeling worn out.

Never assume, always ask: The convening’s outcome should be specifically tailored to the needs of the people you are trying to serve, not your fantasy of what their needs are. We form a small committee of attendees that we ask to respond to mockups of the agenda and help us inform the content. It’s a vital, but low-intensity ask. We try to make sure being on a committee for the UIA means your expertise is consulted but you don’t have to do extra work.

Don’t fight biology: Attention spans and physical needs should be paramount concerns. Limit the duration of sessions to 45 minutes or less, plan physically engaging activities for after lunch, make sure the food is energizing (aka less “carb buffet” than most events), and narrow the timing of speeches to the ideal amount to force the speakers to share from the altitude the audience needs (e.g. 7 minute insight talks, 20 minute keynotes). Choose rooms with natural light if you can, add high-top tables around the perimeter of the room so people can use them as standing desks, and make caffeine, hydration, and high protein snacks available throughout the entire event. Great music and fidget toys also help keep people engaged.

Always try something new:  It’s easy to mimic an event that seemed to work well last time, but that runs the risk of growing stale. Better to test new ground rooted in successful principles. For instance, at our most recent gathering we flipped the script and made the event more of a workshop to give our people time to take action on our biggest current initiative (academic recovery from DFW). The results were extremely positive with each campus gaining important ground on their implementation work rather than waiting until they got back to campus to put ideas into action.

Lastly, don’t forget to surprise and delight your audience. Our last convening had inflatable costumes to keep things lighthearted, and this time we had puppies. We always try to add elements of joy and delight to make the experience memorable and thank our guests for investing their valuable time with us.

While we think we have a pretty good formula, we’re always on the hunt for great new ideas. What has been your favorite higher ed event to attend, and why? What lessons for event design would you add to our list?