I have presented my career advice workshop at over 50 colleges and universities and have had anywhere from single-digit to triple-digit attendance. Why were some career centers able to attract a lot of students and some very few? Based on my experiences, I'd like to offer a few suggestions on how to attract more students to your workshops.
Before I give my 11 suggestions for improving workshop attendance, let me start with a quote from my book, "From Graduation to Corporation": "I have worked with many college career centers, and I think they are a great, yet underutilized resource." I know that it's sometimes difficult to get students to attend career workshops so hopefully some of these suggestions may be beneficial.
1. Advertise/market the workshop. It surprises me when I go on a career center's website the week of my presentation and there is no mention of my workshop. Sending an email is great but putting the information on your website is helpful, too. So is putting a poster on the career center bulletin board and around the student dining room.
2. Get student groups to co-sponsor the event. I spoke at a school one year and only had about six students attend and the next year when I spoke, attendance had quadrupled because a business fraternity had co-sponsored the event. Get them involved.
3. Provide food. Pizza is popular-if they don't show up for pizza, nothing will get them in the door!
4. Work with professors and make workshop attendance mandatory. If students are required to attend and will get credit for their class, you will have a larger audience attend. Even if the workshop isn't mandatory, at least ask professors to let their students know about the event.
5. Be proactive. Send an email to your speaker about a month before their workshop and ask them for a photo, biography, and workshop description so you can post these on your website. Send them a campus map, parking information, and directions and ask them if they need a laptop, projector, etc.
6. Practice your introduction of the speaker and try to memorize it. If the person introducing the speaker is just reading the introduction for the first time when making the introduction, it won't get attendees too excited about the speaker.
7. Schedule the workshop so that students won't have to leave early. There is nothing more disruptive for a speaker than when students start getting up to leave in the middle of the presentation because they have a class to attend. Perhaps schedule the workshop during lunch if there is a "no class" period of time or in the late afternoon.
8. Schedule workshops around career fairs. It's more likely students will want to attend a career-oriented workshop when it's right before a career fair. If possible, schedule a workshop right before a career fair in the same building.
9. Have heavy users of the career center help you promote the event. Speak to five heavy users of your career center and ask them to help you recruit their fellow students for the event.
10. Give students an incentive. Perhaps raffle something off at the workshop. If the speaker happens to be an author, raffle off a few of their books or perhaps some other career-related book that will be helpful to students in their job search.
11. Keep it cool. There have been many occasions where the temperature was high in the room where I was speaking and no one knew how to make the room cooler. When the speaker is uncomfortable, they may not be at their best so find out ahead of time how to control the thermostat.
Even if you follow all of the above steps, you may not increase your career workshop attendance but at least the speaker will know that you've done everything in your power to help them.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment