Planning and Promoting Convocations

VPAA

Please carefully review the instructions below for Planning and Promoting Events at Centenary College. Thank you for providing this opportunity our students, faculty, staff, and the Shreveport-Bossier Community. Please contact any member of the Convocations Committee if you have questions.

This guide will get you started to plan and promote a successful event for students, faculty, and staff:

How do I..

Handle the financial transactions associated with my event?

Unless pre-approved, costs for travel, lodging, and meals should comply with the Guidelines for Conducting Searches and Hosting Speakers.

Speakers who will receive a stipend will need to fill out a W-9 unless they already have a Banner ID. The W-9 should be turned in with the completed check-request form to the Vice President for Academic Affairs/Provost’s Office for final approval.

Requests for reimbursement of approved costs should be submitted with itemized receipts to the Vice President for Academic Affairs/Provost’s Office within 30 days of the event. Guest speakers cannot be reimbursed for costs incurred prior to their visit, e.g. airplane reservations, or receive their stipend until the event has occurred, but required paperwork may be submitted ahead of an event so that checks can be ready when your guest arrives.

Please submit receipts, requests for reimbursement, and/or credit card statements to the Administrative Assistant to the Vice President for Academic Affairs/Provost. Relevant account codes will be added in that office.

Book a room for my event?

Visit centenary.edu/events/submit. There are some helpful videos on this page that will walk you through the process of submitting an event for the College calendar, booking a room, and requesting facilities, A/V, or food service support.
Contact the Facilities & Events Coordinator if you have questions about the room reservation process.
NOTE: You must submit your event here if you want it to display on the Upcoming Events feed on the centenary.edu homepage (this feed is auto-populated from the system used to book rooms). If you are hosting an off-campus event or a virtual event, please contact the Marketing & Communication department to discuss how to place your event in the feed.

Tell people about my event?

Visit centenary.edu/request and fill out a Marketing & Communication job request form.

Marketing & Communication staff will work with you to create a marketing plan for your event that may include the following elements:

Web story on centenary.edu
Press release sent to local, regional, state, and/or national media, as appropriate
Social media engagement on the main Centenary accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)
Printed materials – posters, flyers, postcards
Acknowledgement of the Attaway Professorships in Civic Culture Program, if applicable (if your event is funded through the Convocations Committee with an Attaway Fund, please be sure to include this information in your Marketing & Communication request)
Email blasts
Paid print or social media advertising (if appropriate and if your budget allows)
Photography, videography, or live streaming (also, see below for info on hosting virtual events)

Get my event on Engage or in the What’s Happening? email?

Engage is the home of Centenary student organizations and is a great place to let students know about your event. To create an event listing on Engage, contact Ricki Rebollar, Director of Student Involvement.

"What’s Happening?" is a weekly email highlighting student events on campus. It is compiled and sent by the Student Life office and many items are pulled from Engage and the facilities/room reservation calendar. To ensure that your event or announcement is included, send an email to Ricki Rebollar.

NOTE: Engage, What’s Happening?, and the facilities/room reservation calendar are not linked systems. You need to complete each of these requests separately.

Add Passport Points to my event?

Please contact Mark Miller at mmiller@centenary.edu.

Encourage students to attend my event?

Historically, events scheduled earlier in the week are better attended than those scheduled Thursday through Sunday.
Tie the event to an assignment in a course.
Offer extra credit to students in your course if they bring a friend who is not in the course.

Host a virtual event?

There are lots of options for creating a virtual event based on the type of event you’re hosting and the audience you want to reach:

Facebook Live
Live stream to Centenary YouTube via Brown Chapel
Zoom meetings or webinars

If you want to include a “live” or virtual component with your event, please include this information in your initial Marketing & Communication job request.

During/after your event

As an event host, please do the following:

If your event is receiving funds through the Convocations Committee/Attaway fund, thank the Attaway family for their generous support of your event. Suggested language: "This event is generously underwritten by the Attaway Professorships in Civic Culture Program."
Take photos or video of the event so that we can share them on our website and social media. Contact Marketing and Communication to arrange photography and videography.
Take attendance. Count the number of people in attendance at your event and report this information to the Convocations Committee.
Consider having an email sign-up sheet to allow guests to sign up to receive email announcements about future events on campus.

Check out the Centenary IT website for helpful tech tips as you are planning your event.

Instructions for using A/V equipment in the Whited Room

Thank you for providing this opportunity our students, faculty, staff, and the Shreveport-Bossier Community. Please contact any member of the Convocations Committee if you have questions.

Notice of Nondiscriminatory Policy The institution does not discriminate in its educational and employment policies against any person on the basis of gender, race, color, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, or on any other basis proscribed by federal, state, or local law.