Educe Blog Tour de U: How to Rule the Road

Pack those bags...It's roadshow season. Everyone from the president, provost, and deans, to star faculty, trustees, and celebrity alumni are hitting the road for distant corners of stakeholder country to build excitement, deepen relationships, and rack up valuable face time for U with donors and prospects. While the goals may be evergreen, the rules of the road have changed of late. Gone are the pre-packaged dog-and-pony shows of yore. Here's a snapshot of what we've learned from thousands of miles and smiles accrued. 1. Build up to your biggest challenge. Don't start in your most important city. There's a good reason why Broadway shows start with an out-of-town preview opening. It takes time and practice for U to achieve perfection, and all the on-campus rehearsal in the world isn't the same as a test-run with real guests. 2. Be fabulous. Will alumni and donors be banging down the doors for a cocktail, a video, and some speeches in a conference center ballroom? In our experience, the people U most want to reach always have better places to be. They need powerful motivation to get off the couch at the end of a long day and squeeze back into those Jimmy [...]