Virtual Engagement Toolkit
The Brown Alumni Relations staff is here to support our volunteer leaders during this unprecedented time. This Virtual Engagement Toolkit provides tools, resources, and guidance on implementing virtual events and activities that will keep your alumni communities connected and engaged during this period of social distancing and beyond.
If you have event or activity ideas you'd like to share with your fellow volunteers submit your ideas here.
If you have questions please reach out to your staff liaison:
Class Leaders: class@brown.edu
Club Leaders: alumni_clubs@brown.edu
Affinity Group Leaders: Affinity_Group_events@brown.edu
Explore Virtual Event Ideas, Social Media Engagement Activities, and Best Practices for email communication
Tools and Resources
Virtual Meeting Platforms
FreeConferenceCall.com: This service is free and hosts up to 1,000 participants with unlimited time video conferencing
Cisco WebEx: The free basic plan hosts up to 100 participants unlimited time video conferencing
GoToMeeting: 14-day free trial hosts up to 250 participants, plans start at $12/month
Google Meet: Free (with gmail account) plan hosts up to 100 participants, for a maximum of 1 hour. If your work is on a google business platform, you may have access to one of the business levels with meeting length max of 300 hours and 150 or 250 participants.
Zoom: the free basic plan hosts up to 100 participants for 40-minute video conferencing
Check out this Zoom meeting guide for tips and tricks on how to manage a successful meeting or event.
Utilize this Zoom Settings Checklist we've created for your team when setting up an event.
Virtual Event Platforms
Gather: This is building virtual spaces for people to live and interact more effectively online. It combines video-calling with a 2D map, letting you walk around and talk to the other people right next to you.
A big thank you to the Brown Club of Greater San Francisco for sharing their materials to build iconic Brown community spaces on the platform. Take a look at the Brown map and instructional guides they have shared with the volunteer community.
Gather offers multiple pricing tiers including a Free Tier that allows up to 25 participants to join an event. Check-out additional pricing options
Kahoot!: This is a game-based platform that makes it easy to create and share trivia quizzes for unique community engagement. Alumni Relations is pleased to be able to offer our volunteers access to our Kahoot! account so that you can create quizzes specific to your communities.
Best practices for growing your Facebook and Instagram membership
Facebook and Instagram are essential tools for keeping your alumni community virtually connected. Just like real-world communities, healthy and vibrant virtual communities can only be achieved through intentional and consistent efforts. It is important to develop a strategy around engagement and growth for your Facebook and Instagram communities. Check out best practices for growing your social media communities.
Brown University online resources
From faculty lectures to meditation sessions to podcasts, Brown has a treasure trove of digital content you can build programming around and/or highlight in your communications.
Brown University Virtual Backgrounds
Show off your Brown pride at your next meeting or event! Choose from a wide range of photos taken by fellow alumni and shared on Flickr (joining Flickr is free of charge) or check out the conferral degree website.
