Rosie Simm, CASE Graduate Trainee, UCL Development and Alumni Relations Office

This UCL professional networking event on 19 February was the second that I have been to and I was unsurprised to find it as well-attended as the previous one.

Among the audience were several family groups, where two generations of UCL alumni had come along to seek advice before launching their first family enterprise.

The panellist’s backgrounds were varied: while Michael Doyle, CEO of the Alacrity Foundation, and Christian Nentwich, founder and CEO of Model Two Zero Ltd, had studied computer science at UCL, Sanchita Saha, CEO and founder of Citysocializer, and Nageela Yusuf, founder and MD of Cerebriam, had studied maths and archaeology respectively.

This was encouraging to see for those of us in the audience with a more limited grasp of the digital world (more…)

Panel chair Pete Digger (UCL English 1994) at
the PR & Marketing Professional Networking event.

Written by UCL alumna Emily Everett (English Language & Literature 2008).

The name of the game at UCL’s award-winning Professional Networking series of events is clearly networking itself. Alums come to listen, ask questions, and then discuss and mix with the panellists and other attendees.

Networking was certainly the buzzword of the night at UCL’s eleventh Alumni Professional Networking event, “Promote Yourself: How to build your PR and Marketing connections”.

Welcomed by panel chair Pete Digger (UCL English 1994), the four panellists represented a range of positions and roles across the field of PR, marketing, and advertising.

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Alexia Svolou (Biochemistry 1992), Health Editor for a Greek national newspaper, reports on an alumni reception held at the British Embassy in Athens.

It is an undeniable fact that Greece, my home country, has lived through better days, but despite our society’s gloomy mood – due to the continuing recession – the UCL alumni reception in Athens, last week, was a great success.

Hundreds of Greek alumni put aside their problems and anxiety about the future, and came in the best of their spirits to the “hottest event in town”, as our Provost, Professor Malcolm Grant, so smartly said.

On 25 April, for one night, the talk of the town was not the recession, but our beloved British university and the memories that we cherish from our student years.

All the Greek UCL alumni that attended the reception at the British Embassy felt proud to be part of the history of UCL. The first University to accept women as students, the first University that put religion aside – UCL is part of our personal history.

The legacy of UCL runs in our veins and reminds us nowadays that although our country is on the verge of default, there is always a solution and that science and technology can always find a way, even in the gloomiest situations.

Our Provost, Professor Malcolm Grant, opened the UCL alumni reception with a friendly and spirited speech that reminded us once again how lucky we are to be a living part of UCL.

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Ian Bartlett, Head of UCL Publications & Marketing Services, reports on the recent alumni professional networking event.

What is the secret for a successful career in the world of digital media? What degree should you take? How do you stay on top in this fast-moving environment?

These questions and many more were addressed by the discussion panel of UCL alumni as they spoke and during the following Q & A sessions, the event being chaired by Professor Claire Warwick (@clhw1) from the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities.

From a personal angle, I wanted to learn more about the paths taken by panel members to reach the positions that they now hold.

From the perspective of my role as UCL’s Head of Publications and Marketing Services (PAMS), I wanted to know:
1) Were the UCL degrees taken by each of the panel members integral to their success?
2) Where did panel members see digital media heading next?
3) How does an organisation cope with the fast-changing developments in digital marketing?

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