Advancement takes centre stage

Advancement professionals from around the world visited Brisbane Grammar School for the Schools’ Program of the CASE Asia-Pacific Advancement Conference in April this year.

The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) is a global association for school and university professionals in advancement – alumni relations, communications, development and marketing – who connect and share the goal of championing education to transform lives and society.

BGS is a CASE member and the School’s Advancement and Community Relations team hosted the APAC Schools’ Program at BGS. For over 10 years, the conference has been hosted in Singapore and Hong Kong. This was the first CASE conference in Australia, with other venues in Brisbane city hosting the university conference.

Conference Chair Heather Hamilton, Executive Director - Advancement and Community Relations at BGS, led a planning committee of 10 experts, comprising practitioners from across the Asia-Pacific region and members of the BGS team, to curate the conference content. Heather has served as a CASE Commissioner in Washington DC, is a regular speaker at CASE conferences and judge for the CASE Circle of Excellence Awards.

Through a variety of concurrent sessions, interactive workshops and roundtable discussions, CASE APAC provided a forum for advancement practitioners and experts to learn and share ideas focused on the rapidly changing advancement landscape. The Schools’ Program included sessions for practitioners working in admissions, alumni and community engagement, fundraising, and marketing and communications.

A new edition for the Schools’ Program in 2019 was a one-day program for Heads of Schools, Trustees and Business Managers. With 40 Heads of Schools attending, the theme Navigating the World of Philanthropy, examined the changes in education funding and the importance of leaders’ involvement in fundraising, greater governance and ethics, data analytics and technology-supported decision making.

A plenary session, Advancing Advancement, featured a panel of key BGS stakeholders – including the Chairman, Headmaster, CFO and Deputy Headmaster - Teaching and Learning, and Heather. The panel discussion showcased the importance of a team approach to achieve institutional objectives including being unified on key messages to make positive strides in areas of Advancement, particularly philanthropy.

CASE APAC in Brisbane provided a wonderful forum for learning and sharing and was a resounding success. The conference attracted the most ever attendees, a total of 113 delegates from 62 institutions and 14 countries.