CU Alum Speaker Series - next steps (need your feedback - please read)

[Stephen Wang]

Hi all,

We've all either went to the Thumbtack event or heard about it, I think universally it was considered a great success.

We need to put a little bit of structure around this so that we can start to plan the next one and the one after that. Matt and I talked previously about this, and just emailed me to follow up and I think it's worth thinking through this with the rest of the board about how we do next steps.

1. What is it?

- How often do we want to do this (ideally)

- Where would we host (assuming speaker doesn't volunteer his/her company space)

- Do we charge? (more on this later)

- What's the format? Speaker gives a short presentation/an interview/etc - this can change depending on speaker

2. Who do we invite?

- Matt put together a preliminary list of area alums that we can reach out to

- Question is how do we reach out

        - Option1: someone from the Board takes the responsibility for contacting prospective interviewers (plus side, form new relationships with the people you contact, negative side - takes time)

        - Option2: Matt suggested we hire a virtual assistant. Matt- can you elaborate on how this would work, cost, etc? Depending on cost of hiring someone, do we offset by charging per person? (meetup has a count of RSVPs, do we have a real count of who came to the event/did we have a check-in?)

3. Who manages this/drives it forward

- Who is interested in being a part of a small sub-group to define and organize these events

- Matt has been driving so far, but is starting a new job and could use some help.

I think Matt is right, we want to get this moving while we have momentum, but I want to make sure we know what we want to do and have the Board's participation/support before we dive head first into this.

_Stephen

[Sasha Makovik]

Hi team,

Super excited about making this a recurring event! Matt, really good to hear that you're reaching out to the UClass team; I think they'll have a great perspective to share. I also wanted to follow up on the idea of sending Marco something nice: what if we send him a bottle of wine and a Columbia corkscrew? 

Stephen, to address your questions:

I. I think it would be great if we could turn this into a monthly speaker series. If there's structure and continuity to this, we'll begin to see a community emerge. I don't think we should charge; it could impact attendance and I think would change the spirit of the event. In case we can't have the talk at Headquarters, I was thinking we could either partner with a local alumni club (e.g. we could reach out to the University of SF Alumni Club and potentially partner with them) or see if we could reserve a table/space at a nice pub (e.g. rent a table at 21st Amendment brewery and then simply require a drink minimum for attendees).

II. Not sure we need to add another layer of complexity and hire a virtual assistant. I think it would be enough to create a FB/Meet Up event and publicize in our newsletter. We could also set up a distribution list and sign up interested alumni (our preliminary batch of emails could be drawn from the attendance list from the Thumbtack event).  Stephen, Nadine and I did check in attendees; however, not sure where our final list went. Nadine, any chance you have it? 

III. I'd be happy to help out to the extent possible. Though my work schedule is largely unpredictable, I think this is a really interesting project and don't mind committing the time I do have available to it.

Let me know your thoughts,

Sasha 

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[Matt Mireles]

Hi Folks,

Thanks for all the positive feedback & kudos on the Thumbtack event. I chose Marco because I thought he’d be a great speaker, and he delivered in a huge way. Kudos to Marco and all the volunteers––Nadine, Sasha, Lissette––who made it happen. 

Back in December, when I first proposed the Thumbtack event, I suggested we do it as the first in a series. At the time, there were some questions about the event, how it would play out and whether we could deliver something engaging & awesome or if, instead, it would be just another boring talk filled with self-promotional milquetoast. 

Hopefully those questions have been answered now. 

I personally want lead the charge on doing great events like this––first every quarter, eventually every month. 

Here’s why I’m the guy to lead this:

a) I have huge network, especially in the technology startup & VC community, 

b) I’m a former NY Times journalist who knows how to vet & build rapport with strangers such that they open up & say interesting things in public, and 

c) I’m highly motivated and already proven that I came make this happen. 

 Here’s how I want to do it:

1) We ask the Columbia alumni community for potential speaker recommendations. 

• First, send out an email to the community asking for help from one of our personal columbia email addresses. Make it short, sweet and to the point. No fancy HTML graphics, just plain text (proven to lead to better response rates) asking for a recommendation. You should be able to read this email in <10 seconds. 
• Then, at the top or bottom of every monthly update email we send out to the community, we ask people for referrals to great potential speakers. 
• When we get a referral, we add it to a shared Google Doc Spreadsheet.

2) We outsource the outreach & initial meeting scheduling to a low cost virtual assistant service like Zirtual or Fancy Hands.

• Using Zapier.com (a free service), we can send an automated email with the potential speaker’s details & instructions on what to say & do to Zirtual / Fancy Hands every time someone adds a row to the Google Doc, initiating the outreach process.
• Virtual assistant digs up the person’s contact info if we don’t have it already and updates the Google doc. 
• Virtual assistant emails the person as me or another board member (using a Columbia email address), flattering the person and requesting a meeting to discuss speaking at an upcoming event. 
• Virtual assistant follows up repeatedly with the person and/or his staff to get a response & schedule that first meeting. <— CRITICAL. VERY HARD TO DO THIS WITH BUSY, EMPLOYED VOLUNTEERS. MOST EFFORTS FAIL HERE.
• Could cost anywhere from $50 to $400/month to do this. I suggest we run a 3 month trial to see how it works. 

3) I meet with potential speakers over the phone and qualify them.

• This step is important because it ensures that we don’t book any great-on-paper-but-boring-in-person speakers. 
• Not always possible to do when dealing with famous or super busy people. 
• Afterward, we nail down a date & time.
• Before the event, i email a list of topics to be prepared to discuss in the talk.

4) We ask the Columbia alumni community to donate event space, food and booze for each event in exchange for shoutouts at the event & in our monthly newsletter.

• Literally, we just ask for it. 
• Ideally, we put an ask in the monthly email.
• If pressed, we send a pleading plain-text email from one of us with a specific ask on a specific day. 
• A board volunteer coordinates with & closes potential donors. 
• We include a plain-text link to the donor’s business in the weekly email in a special “Special thanks to…” section.

5) We do the event and make it awesome. 

• Volunteers check people in.
• We drink & mingle for an hour at the beginning.
• I pull the speaker aside for a few minutes to build further rapport & briefly discuss the material to be covered. 
• We offer community members the chance to announce something at the beginning of the talk. 
• I interview the person on stage in a similar “fireside chat” style format like I did with Marco. 
• We solicit Q+A from the audience. 

6) ADVANCED NINJA STAGE: The day after the event, we send an email to attendees asking for their feedback and money via an optional “pay what you want” donation. 

• Volunteers check people in at the event using Meetup, Eventbrite or other event app (worth discussing).
• Using Zapier.com (i love this service!!!!!), checked in attendees get an automated email the next day that asks them to rate their experience.
• At the end of the feedback form, we ask for a highly optional donation & link to a payment processor. 
• Worth debating whether we should ask for money. Easy to do wrong, but I like the idea of asking for money after we’ve delivered value rather before. If we do it, we should experiment with different variants. 
• We use the attendee feedback to plan even better events in the future, and use the funds to cover the cost of the virtual assistant plus any other overhead.
• This will take some work to setup. 

7) Post a write up of the event and include money quotes from the speaker in the newsletter. 

• One of the board attendees writes it up.
• Use quotes from the feedback forms. 
• Whip up enthusiasm & interest for the next event & the club in general.
• Include shout outs to the people who volunteered.
• Ask for more speaker referrals, donations and volunteers. 

Executing this plan will require:

• 1 to 2 volunteers to do the prep work (not including me)
• 2 to 3 volunteers to work the actual event (can even be the same people) 
• Coordination with Stephen.
• Budget to experiment with different virtual assistant services (up to $1k). 

I’d love to quarterback this project as it plays to both my interests & strengths. I've hosted many events and built many communities. I know the tools. I know the tricks. And I know the stumbling blocks.

I acknowledge this: It’s a bold plan. I’m sure that no other Columbia alumni club has hired a virtual assistant to contact potential speakers. We will be the first. 

But I also know that putting together quality events is hard, especially on a repeat basis and without a full-time staff. The model that I’m proposing would break new ground and solves for the biggest stumbling block of organizations like ours: the inconsistent nature of volunteers' energy, availability and enthusiasm. 

Getting a steady stream of good speakers requires consistent ongoing effort, which is hard to get from people. And cold-emailing someone for the 3rd time isn’t exactly sexy, rewarding work that you can do via one meeting per month. 

Personally, I’m excited about this plan and think it can work. At the very least, it’s worth a trying.

Do you agree?

I look forward to your feedback.

Cheers!

-Matt

—
Get inside my head at mattmireles.com

[Nadine Rose]

Hi all - 

Thanks for jumping in on this great initiative. I am totally open to Matt taking the lead on this. I can dedicate time to support event logistics and relationship building. Some thoughts on your questions Stephen and your outline Matt:

1. Setup & Structure

- I think we should start with doing an event every other month to start free of charge

- I love the fireside chat format but would also be open to interviewing more than one person (e.g. co-founders) if that makes sense. I also think that if a high level advisor/investor is willing to do the interview we should explore that opportunity

- I agree with Matt about asking the community for space. I know there are folks who would be willing to host if they knew it was a need. Planning events every other month at the beginning allows us to confirm space 

2. Community Building

- I think that inviting our network and partnering with known partners is a great place to start since the attendance was pretty good last week. I think keeping the events between 50-100 is actually pretty neat since it makes it feel more intimate

- I don't think we need a personal assistant just yet, but Matt if you're taking the lead and want to use it, I'm down to jump on board

- I also think that partnerships will naturally evolve as we continue to interview/work with different companies

- I'm not too worried about attendance - I think people care about this type of event alot

3. Next steps

I can do the following: 

- Create & manage Google doc

- Follow-up with contacts (if we don't use Zapier)

- Set up Eventbrites (better than Meetup because Meetup doesn't currently have check-ins)

- Do write ups/tweet during event

@Sasha the list we had at the Thumbtack event was from them so I didn't keep a copy. Ferren would have the final copy. About 45 people were checked in. 

Right now I think we need to figure out if Varun & Co are free, fun and interested. Have you heard back Matt? 

Then we can work out location, date and start inviting folks. 

From there we can think about our next speaker. 

Looking forward to this!

Best,
Nadine

--------------------

Nadine Rose | 415.475.9509

www.linkedin.com/in/nadinerose

[Babak Soltanian]

Hi All, 

That's a nice framework and covers everything. My two cents:  

Would be superb to have CU alumni speakers, but propose to consider other outstanding speakers if can have them. Few years ago organized a talk by a VC from Sequoia and we had a big turnout (100+). 

Screening interview to weed out boring candidates could be a bit tricky. It might deter some candidates from the beginning. Also it can leave an unpleasant aftertaste if we decide not to invite them. 

BTW, the event with Marco was excellent, great job Matt. Thanks to all the volunteers too. 

Cheers,

-Babak