The National Association for Campus Activities (NACA) Northeast held their annual conference in Hartford, CT from November 5^th – 9^th, 2015.
NACA puts on annual conferences nation-wide for programming boards at universities and colleges. The objective is to come together, swap ideas, meet vendors, and learn more about how to make their campus a safe haven from the stress of classes.
Although the days started early, NACA not only served as a great time- feeling like one big, never-ending party- but also, most importantly, as an educational experience. Attending sessions that touched upon inclusion, diversity, marketing, and much more informed student leaders of the different events to hold on their campus’.
Planning events, especially for a university of our caliber, is a lot of hard work. Members of the Student Arts and Events Council (SAEC) on the University of Massachusetts Boston campus are faced with a grave challenge when it comes to these things. Their job includes finding and booking acts to come to campus, maintaining vendors, finding venues, budgeting for all the events, and marketing because you know, they need to make sure people actually go to these events they hold.
To make this process easier, NACA Northeast has created a concept called “camps,” where booths are set up to speak to vendors and managers alike.
Free “swag” like phone cases, games like indoor bowling and bounces houses, and services like massages and eyebrow threading were all available for NACA-goers. Essentially, the large indoor carnival gave several opportunities to showcase the vast array of events that could be held on (or off) a university campus.
In regards to showcasing, what were essentially giant talent shows were held every day, multiple times a day displaying different musical, comedic, and all around entertaining acts that could be booked to perform at schools across the North East.
Some of the funniest comedians like Josh Johnson, most passionate musicians like American Idol winner Lee DeWyze, and the most compelling poets I’ve ever seen took the stage for about 5 minutes each, with every showcase lasting one or two hours.
Reinvigorating events for our campus was probably not on anyone’s mind when the program first began. After three days of what felt like an intense training camp for programming, I’m sure SAEC members at UMass Boston left NACA Northeast feeling confident in the ideas swapped and the choices made to bring the best of the best to our campus.