Project Management | Professional Development | Educational Conference

The Problem

In 2002, Utah Valley State College established the Digital Media Department (DGM), which has since launched thousands of graduates and initiated numerous careers. To celebrate 20+ years of academic and professional success, I worked as the lead student volunteer, partnering with Professor Michael Harper and fellow volunteers in organizing stakeholders, risk management, scheduling, student team collaboration, and more. Over a 6-month period, I transformed Professor Harper’s vision into a day filled with 800+ participants, immersive speakers, VR/AR experiences, engaging case studies, portfolio reviews, and overall sense of excitement.

Project Role and Duration

As the lead student project manager, I worked closely with Professor Harper and various volunteers over a 6-month period to plan, organize, and execute the event — including mentoring and coordinating a team of student volunteers through their individual event responsibilities:

• Stakeholder Management: Effectively communicating with key stakeholders, including faculty, staff, and student volunteers, ensuring and validating involvement and input throughout the project.

• Risk Management: Identifying potential risks (such as lack of sponsors) that could derail the success of the event and developing strategies to minimize their impact.

• Team Collaboration: Fostering a collaborative environment that encouraged a positive environment for all parties.

Planning Process and Hurdles

Weekly Meetings:

To ensure sufficient progress and stakeholder buy-in, I along with faculty, staff, and student volunteers began holding weekly meetings. During the hour-long meetings, I would take detailed notes that would be published to stakeholders after each week, providing real-time updates on the planning process.

Location:

While considering UVU’s main campus and the Heber campus as the primary location, we ultimately secured a third alternative.  With a generous pledge of $10,000 from the Dean of the College of Engineering and Technology, we determined that the Utah Convention Center in Provo, Utah would be the prime location.

Event Funding:

Securing additional funding proved to be a challenge.  We worked with specific departments at UVU geared toward funding. However, as the date for the event drew close, many of our would-be sponsors withdrew because of the Silicon Valley Bank Collapse. This left us with the challenge of finding enough funding for things like catering and marketing.  Despite setbacks, we were able to allocate enough funding along with professional headshots provided by UVU Photography.

Event Advertisement:

Another challenge faced was how to get the word out regarding the event.  To assist with marketing, I gathered student volunteers who reached out to alumni individually via LinkedIn.  Furthermore, we successfully advocated for cancellation of DGM classes for the day of the event, encouraging student attendance.

Blind Spots:

The last significant challenge we faced was aligning faculty members with the event’s overarching vision. Faculty who had been put in charge of finding speakers for the event, found it difficult to find alumni and other speakers.  To address this issue, our weekly meeting with faculty provided a continual opportunity to report their progress.  In the end this helped faculty to catch the vision and be able to determine speakers in time for the event.

Event Success

Despite various obstacles encountered, the event surpassed expectation and we were able to achieve our goal of celebrating the DGM 20th anniversary.  With over 800+ attendees, captivating speakers, live music provided by DGM bands, and multiple tracks for learning, the event was a resounding success.

One of the highlights for students was the Portfolio Review Sessions where alumni provided valuable suggestions and advice on improving case studies and overall portfolio strategies.  Several students even mentioned that they were able to set up follow-up meetings to be able to go over future portfolio designs.

Takeaways:

Upon reflection of the planning, facilitation, and execution of the conference, I learned valuable project management lessons. One key lesson is the importance of determining speakers early on, as well as ensuring timely communication, and increasing event promotion. Additionally implementing effective delegation policies would have facilitated greater team involvement as well as reduced workload on key event stakeholders.  

This experience continues to shape how I approach instructional design projects today, particularly in coordinating faculty content experts and delegating work across a team, rather than treating course design as a solo effort.