Award: Silver

Institution: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Title of Entry: MIT's Virtual Tech Reunions

About this Entry: In March 2020, MIT made the unprecedented decision to close the campus and suspend in-person events to protect the community. The decision to hold Tech Reunions virtually was made on March 20th, and with Tech Reunions set to take place May 28th-31st it gave us just under 10 weeks to find an online event vendor and transition a multi-day, in-person celebration and pivot to a virtual platform. Ultimately, we hosted 79 events over three days including campus updates, faculty speakers, class talks, and class meet-ups. All fourteen reunion classes (5th-70th) promoted both class and general events. Virtual Tech Reunions welcomed 4,601 alumni attendees, a 97.8% increase from 2019.

In addition to hosting virtual events, we also worked with nine class committees on promoting virtual class reunion books using BrightCrowd. This extra enhancement allowed alumni to share updates on their lives with classmates. By offering the virtual class events and reunion books, it allowed classmates to have personal connection with their classmates.

Virtual Tech Reunions also featured the MIT Community Mosaic. We pivoted the planned in-person mosaic to a virtual form and expand those we invited to participate from just alumni to graduating seniors, parents, friends, and alumni. The submitted photos created an image of the Great Dome, the most recognizable image of MIT’s campus. This helped to build community at Virtual Tech Reunions and with the wider community. The completed image was then turned into the thank you postcard that was mailed to those who attended virtual reunion.