Event | AAF Student Conference
“2016 Level 1up”

April 21-22, 2016

Design + Art Direction + Strategy + Event Management

Event Details: In an effort to provide a more robust experience for students, the club decided to expand the annual Portfolio Day and rebrand it as a two-day Student Conference. On April 21-22, 2016, we filled both days with speakers on topics such as personal branding and identity design, roundtables on freelancing and resumes, and a panel on working in the magazine industry. The conference also provided two agency tours and ended with portfolio reviews by local industry professionals. We themed the conference “Level 1Up” and gave out goodie bags at check-in and lanyards to wear throughout the two days to help us keep track of attendees.

Target Audience: Students from local universities

Strategy: By increasing the offerings of the Student Conference from just a portfolio review, we hoped to increase the number of student participants and give them incentive to participate more with AAF Montgomery and become future members. We also coincided our April Lunch and Learn with the first day to have a built-in speaker when building the program schedule for the conference.

Execution/Tactics: Event emails were sent to our subscriber list, event pages were created on aafmontgomery.org and Facebook, and personal emails were sent teachers to encourage student participation. The events was also shared on our social media platforms. We also chose to pay for a Facebook ad for each of these events.

Results: The conference was a huge hit with students and teachers. The first day, which had a majority of the activities, had a total of 43 students attend. The second day, which featured portfolio reviews, had 28 students. A majority of attendees were graphic design students but through Facebook ads, we brought in additional business and marketing students. With feedback from students, we are prepared to make the next conference bigger and better.