Case Study: Milwaukee New Year's Conference
The Campus Outreach conference for college students from Minneapolis and Indianapolis was held at the Hyatt Regency Milwaukee Dec. 29-Jan. 2. For five days, 525 students and 50 staff participated in rallies and seminars, played games, and explored Milwaukee.
Planner: Nick Stromwall, resource team director, Campus Outreach Minneapolis
Special Challenges: On the free day we planned on sending 150 students to a ski/snowboarding hill. The weather was 50 degrees and thunderstorms. We improvised by adding other free day options and creating a Movie at the Mall day, as well as converting a ballroom into a craft room for the day, where students could make journals, play music on a stage or play Nintendo Wii.
Volunteers: We created student media internships where students are trained on how to use technology to create promotional movies to help recruit students to attend the conference year after year. [On the videos] they share their experience and why they thought spending five days in Milwaukee pursuing Jesus Christ has value for a future student to consider and invest their time.
Social Media: Our attendees are all college students, so the use of Facebook, blogs and texting is critical to inform and educate students about taking part in the opportunity. This was the first year we were able to send out text alerts for last-minute changes in programming and free day options.
Advice: Plan events that you are passionate about and that have made an impact on your personal life. It’s then that you will invest yourself fully to give attendees a similar experience to what you had.
Inspiration: I love creating opportunities for students to be surrounded by the fellowship of like-minded friends who are pursuing Jesus Christ. Learning about the grace of God at a conference in college inspired me to give others this same life-changing opportunity.
See pictures of MNYC and other recent faith-based events from around the country in Face2Face in the February issue of Rejuvenate.
