Established in 1964, AMDA is a leading performing arts institution that has launched some of the most successful careers in theatre, film, television and dance.
Connecting and Celebrating All Alumni
As a performing arts institution with campuses in LA and NYC, students come to AMDA with the goal of being a performer in TV, film or on stage. But many alumni take different career paths. Some find success in related professions as directors, producers and choreographers, while others branch out into teaching, PR, communications and marketing.
AMDA wants to celebrate, connect and shine a spotlight on all their alumni, not only those that “make it” on Broadway or star in the latest blockbuster film. To accomplish this, AMDA’s objectives are to systematically capture alumni profile information in a way that is accessible, searchable and secure, and provide a dynamic network that fosters communications among their alumni and other constituents.
“Celebrating all our alumni, not only those with their “names in lights” is a key goal for our community. The support, tools and customization that 360Alumni provides is making that goal a reality.”
- Ryan Dejak ‘09, Director of Alumni Relations
Setting the Stage with Customization
With a clear plan and a long wish list, AMDA knew they would need to find a solution provider willing to collaborate and iterate their product to meet AMDA’s needs. 360Alumni delivered the feature-rich platform, product vision, and technical expertise to create a true partnership that helps them realize their alumni community vision every day.
As a performing arts school, AMDA’s alumni profiles require more than a typical alumni directory. They need to store and search on physical attributes, vocal range, dance proficiency, dialects, union affiliation and more. And they need to store and manage high resolution professional headshots.
Ryan Dejak, Class of ’09 alum and Director of Alumni Relations, worked with360Alumni’s Product Team to develop specs for a more extensive set of profile fields. During this process, other needs were uncovered that included the ability to link to performance reels, a way to assign tasks and add special notes to user profiles, as well as the ability to reorder profile sections.
100% Profile Activation
One-to-one pre-graduation onboarding sessions with each student and the Alumni team make it possible.
Fast Platform Customization
Within two months a brand new profile layout was delivered including customizable layout, labels, and links on custom fields.
Within four months, 360Alumni delivered a deactivated users list, job posting approval workflow, and a CRM-like administrator task management feature.
AMDA was the immediate beneficiary of the platform changes, but the enhancements were released for all 360Alumni clients. Now any organization can make use of our unlimited profile custom fields, drag and drop profile section reordering and the CRM Activity feature.
Applying client feedback quickly and partnering with clients to maximize usability, value and engagement are fundamental to 360Alumni’s business model. That’s just one way we incorporate continuous innovation and stay focused on our clients’ needs.
100% Account Activation Rate
It’s possible! Just as AMDA graduates are unique, so is the effective approach Ryan and his team are using to introduce the alumni community and onboard the newest alumni. AMDA currently adds 200 graduates to the alumni database before each semester graduation. The AMDA alumni team meets with all students as they approach graduation for an in-depth review of the community features and the value it provides.
Most importantly, they work with each student to activate their account, update their profile and add their resume and headshot during this session. The result is a 100% activation rate for each new graduating class.
AMDA also presents the alumni community when talking with prospective students. Every applicant understands that AMDA truly delivers on their promise of a helpful, engaged alumni network.
What’s Next
Ryan is now focusing on engagement and activations for the more recent classes and fine-tuning that process. He will be the first to tell you that there is still more thought and work that needs to go into engaging alumni from earlier graduating classes, who reconnect somewhat organically. Ryan is also considering launching a mentoring program in 360Alumni. The untapped talent and experience among AMDA’s thousands of alumni is a tremendous resource, regardless of where a person is in their career journey.
What are the alumni saying? We love it! And they are blown away when they look at the interactive map and see AMDA grads from around the world.
-Ryan Dejak '09
