Networking events are wonderful opportunities for alumni to build and strengthen their career relationships. We invite you to utilize the ideas below (or create your own!) when the generic networking happy hour turns stale. Please note that when creating an event invitation, it is always helpful to encourage invitees to bring plenty of business cards to distribute.

Networking Event Basics

Below are a few different networking event format ideas, but here are the basics on how volunteers can help:

  • Help find a location
  • Help with messaging
  • Encourage their friends to attend
  • Serve as greeters or speakers during the event

Event Venue

  • Location near public transportation is ideal
  • Private room is helpful and, depending on the style of the event, sometimes necessary
    • Table for name tags and sign-in sheet or list of pre-registered attendees for attendance tracking purposes is nice
    • Microphone may help
    • Carleton banner is nice
  • Nice to provide some snacks (Office of Alumni Relations can help cover this cost) and have a cash bar available.
  • Provide name tags at event with class year (pre-printed, plus blanks)
    • Suggest including title/company and/or sector
    • Option: Color code name tags for different career sectors

Basic Event Format

  • Two hour long event, though it’s nice if alumni can stay and continue networking after event officially ends.
  • 30 minutes after the start time, the host (could be local volunteer or Carleton staff person, if attending) begins with a welcome and an update on career preparation for students and how alumni can help.
    • Help set the tone for the event, encourage people to talk to new people and exchange business cards.
    • Talk about the focus on career preparation in the Strategic Plan.
    • Encourage alumni to think about internship or externship opportunities that they could offer to current students.
    • Encourage attendees to talk to new people, exchange business cards, and talk about their career interests. The purpose of the event is to make connections and expand your network.
    • Also an opportunity to promote local regional events.

Invitations

  • Staff will send email invitation to alumni in the local Regional Carls (also a post card to those without email if we have enough notice).
  • Ask volunteers to personally contact their friends as well (staff can help you connect with Career Center volunteers).
  • Staff and volunteers can personally reach out to select recent grads (1-4 years out) and invite them.
  • Event organizer (that’s you) could ask alumni to RSVP (staff can set up an online form) and include title, company, sector, and area for additional comments.
  • Encourage guests to bring plenty of business cards to exchange.
  • Depending on response, staff can send email reminder to entire invite list, or just to those who responded yes or maybe.
  • RSVPs
    • Provide list to volunteer hosts the day before.
    • Send cell phone number to those planning to attend in case they need to call.

Follow Up

  • Event organizer sends thank you notes to speakers.
  • Optional, send email to Regional listserv encouraging use of listserv for networking purposes.

Suggested Alumni Networking Event Formats

Speed Networking

Have you ever attended a speed dating event? The idea for speed networking is similar. This event works well with medium-sized groups (30-50 people), in a private space, and for approximately two hours. As the host and/or moderator, you would spend time during the first half hour welcoming guests and encouraging them to get settled in the space. Then you’d explain the format: every three minutes (or however long makes the most sense, based on the number of attendees) you would call for a switch of partners. To start, you would encourage people to pair up with the person nearest them. Please encourage pairs to exchange business cards if they would like to chat more later. At the end of the hour, you would encourage attendees to talk more at length with each other.  

  • Sign-in sheet to collect names of attendees and return to the Office of Alumni Relations
  • Blank business cards or business card-sized paper for those who are in need of cards
  • A pen or two
  • Basket or jar in which to collect all guests’  business cards
  • A stopwatch to help you keep time
  • Your own business cards, we want you to enjoy this event too!

Following the event, we hope you’ll send us an attendance list and the business cards you collected from everyone when they arrived. We’ll send you a pre-paid return envelope for this purpose.

Business Card Collection ‘Contest’

This is similar to speed networking but is more focused on alumni exchanging contact information with one another. It is most suitable for larger groups (50-75 people). The goal with this event is to make networking a fun game with an element of friendly competition. As the host and/or moderator you would welcome guests to the game and have them place one of their (hopefully many) business cards in a basket for a raffle at the end of the night (and for submission back to Carleton–we’ll send you a pre-paid return envelope for this purpose).

To open the game, announce to the group your guidelines for fair play: in order to get a business card, each guest has to earn that business card. What qualifies as earning the card is up to its owner. There is no time limit on how long guest pairs chat with one another. Depending on your group size and start time, you decide on how long the event lasts, though we would suggest capping the game at 1 ½ hours. 

When the game ends, guests count up their cards. To easily determine a winner, you could ask the group for a show of hands at increments of 10 to narrow down a winner. Additionally you could select a wildcard winner for another piece of Carleton swag (choose the winner from the basket of business cards you collected as guests arrived). To make it fair, the person with the most cards does not qualify for the wildcard selection; nor does the host and/or moderator.  

  • Sign-in sheet to collect names of attendees and return to the Office of Alumni Relations
  • Blank business cards or business card-sized paper for those who are in need of cards
  • A pen or two
  • Basket or jar in which to collect all guests’ business cards
  • Your own business cards, we want you to enjoy this event too!
  • A few pieces of Carleton swag (we’ll send you these)

Following the event, we hope you’ll send us an attendance list and the business cards you collected from everyone as part of the wildcard drawing. We’ll send you a pre-paid return envelope for this purpose.

‘How to Work a Networking Party’ Event

Think back to those first few months after Carleton graduation. How did you figure out exactly how to network? Opportunities to learn exactly how to go about getting someone’s contact information may not have been plentiful. This event serves as a ‘how-to’ on making a social or work events beneficial to your career. Of course, this is open to everyone but the event may be most suitable for recent graduates or those who are less than 8-10 years out of Carleton.   

You as the host would engage with Carleton’s Office of Alumni Relations and the Career Center when planning this event. The first step would be to find an alumni expert or guest speaker to serve as a moderator by leading the group through a couple of interactive exercises that address social ambiguities. Topics the moderator could address include: how to balance a snack, glass, and handshake; how to appropriately exchange a business card; how to communicate your strengths without overselling yourself; etc.

This event will work best in a private space, which will dictate the ideal audience size.  

  • Sign-in sheet to collect names of attendees and return to the Office of Alumni Relations
  • Blank business cards or business card-sized paper for those who are in need of cards
  • A pen or two
  • Basket or jar in which to collect all guests’ cards
  • Your own business cards, we want you to enjoy this event too!

Following the event, we hope you’ll send us an attendance list and the business cards you collected from everyone when they arrived. We’ll send you a pre-paid return envelope for this purpose.

Industry Specific Networking

We know that when you’re at a networking event it can be difficult to locate others in a specific field with just a glance. This event style allows for easier identification by setting up clear signage. Using a space with tables, you would make identification easy by setting up table tents (we can send you these) that call out industry fields. As guests arrive, you would encourage them to visit the tables that interest them to connect with like-minded guests. Carleton’s Career Center has identified the following fields as being most populated:

  1. Arts/Museums
  2. Business/Finance/Sales
  3. Communications/Media
  4. Education (Higher Ed)
  5. Education (PreK-12)
  6. Engineering
  7. Environment/Agriculture
  8. Government/Public Service
  9. Healthcare
  10. Info Systems/Technology/Library
  11. Legal Professions
  12. Peace Corps/AmeriCorps/Teach for America, etc.
  13. Public Policy
  14. Science/Research
  15. Social Service/Advocacy

This is the most relaxed of the four event styles listed here. There’s no time limit, though we have found that this format works well in a 1 ½-2 hour time frame and with 30-45 guests. This format works well in both private and semi-private spaces.

Supplies you’ll need to run this event:

  • Sign-in sheet to collect names of attendees and return to the Office of Alumni Relations
  • Blank business cards or business card-sized paper for those who are in need of cards
  • A pen or two
  • Basket or jar in which to collect all guests’ cards
  • Your own business cards, we want you to enjoy this event too!