Show Notes: 

Read The Experience of a Lifetime to learn more about the power of in-person events. 

Read From Scholars to Storytellers to learn more about how to get students involved in your school marketing and PR. 

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Visit us at schoolceo.com and connect with SchoolCEO on LinkedIn or X/Twitter @school_ceo. If you have a story you’d like to share with the SchoolCEO team, email us at eileen@schoolceo.com or schedule a call.

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Episode Transcript:

Welcome to the SchoolCEO Podcast. I’m your host, Eileen Beard. In our Summer 2024 issue, The Experience of a Lifetime, SchoolCEO put a spotlight on experiential marketing. Why? The fact is, in-person experiences strengthen the connection with your audience and build your brand better than any advertisements ever can. They can be a lot of work, though. Which begs the question: Can students take over some of the responsibility of putting on a huge event? If you ask Durango School District 9-R in Colorado, the answer is yes.

Last year, the district wanted to hold a grand opening for their new Impact Career Innovation Center and show the community how they put bond money to good use. But this was no ordinary open house. In every aspect of the event—from planning to marketing to catering and more—students ran the show. Students designed invitations and hand-delivered them to local businesses. At the event, high schoolers greeted visitors and led tours of the new building and culinary students served hors d’oeuvres made from recipes they’d created themselves.

In involving the students, Durango 9R’s event became about much more than showing off a new building. It became about the potential of the students who would learn there. Not only that, it took a lot of the brainstorming and small tasks off the public information officer’s plate. And it set a precedent for students to plan future events. 

Of course, letting students take the lead comes with a certain degree of risk. In order to be successful, you have to take some of the following measures: 

1. Determine success criteria. Durango 9-R’s PIO created “I” statements that she wanted to be true for attendees when they left the grand opening. Among them were: “I feel inspired by this new building and what students are trying to do,” and “I understand what the 14 different CTE pathways are.” This gave students a clear goal while they were brainstorming event ideas.
2. Break down the work into specialties. Telling a room full of students to plan this whole event might have resulted in chaos. The work of the grand opening was split into seven subcommittees, each of which met often with an adult advisor leading up to the event. The marketing subcommitte, for instance, was advised by their PIO officer. Food and drinks were left up to another subcommittee. That way, students and their advisors were less likely to be overwhelmed. 
3. Don’t expect or demand perfection. It will zap the joy out of it for students and it is a party, after all. Besides, people would rather see young people being genuinely excited about learning and proud of the event they put on rather than student robots putting on a soulless show. 

As we’ve demonstrated in the last few episodes, having a small team and limited resources can be an opportunity for getting people outside of your department to help—whether it be teachers, staff or students. You can also ask parents and the community to be advocates for your brand, which we’ll talk more about in the next episode. 

Thanks for joining me.