Dancing with Your Campus Stars: Elevating Campus Partnerships for a Better Event Experience

Author

Michelle Wu, CCEP
Assistant Director for Campus Visits, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

​Recently, I held our signature admitted student event at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.  This all-day Saturday program brought over 1,800 admitted students, along with their families, to campus to meet and engage with the university through sessions with their admitted college (of which there are 11), a resource fair with 30+ campus units, and numerous open houses, housing tours, dining opportunities, and campus tours.  To say the least, this event requires collaboration and coordination across campus for several months - hundreds of students, dozens of faculty members, and countless staff contribute to the planning and execution of the day’s events.
 
As a former competitive ballroom dancer, I think of the campus partnerships event planners cultivate as similar to those I formed on the dance floor.  In order to compete successfully, you must understand, communicate with, and trust your dance partner.  This applies to the conference world - there are numerous campus partners with whom you must develop strong relationships for smooth events and happy clients.

​I find dance concepts connect well with the strategies that build these critical relationships, and there are four I highlight for event planners.

Four steps for a successful partnership, on or off the dance floor

1. Initiate - Build Your Dance Card
If you’re a fan of the Regency era, you might be familiar with filling your dance card - the way gentlemen would “sign up” for a dance with a lady.  Dance is about being unafraid to invite new partners to the floor - taking the bold step to introduce yourself and acknowledging rejection is possible.  Think broadly of all the departments impacting your events, from schedulers to parking to security.  Reach out to individuals across campus and extend an invite to talk; sometimes it takes just an invitation to realize you have a great new partner ready to join you!

2. Communication - Learning the Steps
Dance is all about knowing your partner and moving in synchrony.  Yes, you may have a routine memorized, but much of it is knowing the possible steps and anticipating the next move based on subtle, often silent, signals.  Be it you’re leading or following, you understand each other - the leader does not drag the person around the floor, but rather creates space for their partner to move into and uses quiet movement to invite them to it.  When working with campus partners, consider their frame of reference - what is their dance profile?  How much do they know about your work and how do your goals support and match theirs?  You do not want to “drag” them through a collaborative project; you want their investment, which requires you to know as much about them as they do you.

Also be open to how your partners best learn; the way you structure your dance may not work as well for them.  Instead, look for commonalities; I love ballroom because we each know enough similar steps that we can jump on the dance floor and adjust as we learn each other’s style.  Sometimes, we even discuss our dance knowledge level while warming up with basic steps – be willing to ask your campus partners the most effective style of collaboration. 

​The best dancers develop this innate connection and improvise faster when faced with the unexpected - like when another couple cuts in front of you in a competition heat!

3. Strengthen - Find Your Rhythm
The beauty of partner dance is you have two (or more) dancers creating one visual.  In this same way, the work we do in events and conferences contributes to the same mission as our partners.  In reality, you are working toward one goal and present a united front.  To an outsider, we are simply the university - not separate units.  It is one dance they see (and they’ll never know if that was the dance move you truly intended to make…).  View any missteps as an opportunity to strengthen your collaboration through lessons learned and an openness to incorporate feedback in your future partnerships.

4. Solidify - Establish a True Partner
​Let’s say you develop a strong partnership for a conference one year - now you must build on it!  Maintain those relationships - send them a note occasionally, support them by showing up to one of their programs, or invite them to a debrief over coffee.  It takes hours of dancing together to become true partners; trust is solidified through continual practice and as we improve, we begin to move together intuitively.  There is no way I would allow a partner to lift me the first time we dance - but once we develop a consistent partnership, I am willing to be flipped upside down!
 
It can be difficult to build campus partnerships, but if you’re ready, you can truly elevate those relationships and take dancing with your campus stars to the next level. With whomever or however - I hope you’ll join us on the dance floor of event planning!


​#campuspartnerships #shareyourstory