By Abe Drabkin

The 2014 NIRSA Annual Conference & Rec Sports Expo was an exciting time full of fresh ideas, energy, and innovation!

Every year, NIRSA members make the conference even better than it was the year before, and this past year a unique pilot program, called Mind Shift, stood out.

Mind Shift touched two education sessions, a social media campaign led by interns, and an early morning interactive workshop to see the host hotel, Gaylord Opryland, in action engaging their staff to provide the best customer service possible. The two education sessions featured panels of Nashville experts and collegiate recreation specialists who shed light on business development, customer engagement, and brand story telling.

NIRSA 2014 attendees engaged their learning and creativity at Mind Shift sessions.

This new track at NIRSA events, including the upcoming NIRSA/ACUI Collegiate Marketing Institute, is about changing your normal thought process and looking for revenue streams that you may have never imagined of before. It’s about getting out of your comfort zone for the betterment of the student experience, and about finding creative solutions to financial pressures in order to better your department. Mind Shift is about engaging the community—especially sponsor partnerships—as a great resource for new activities, enhancement of existing events, and route to raising the level of engagement with your students, staff, and faculty.

The Mind Shift presence was extremely successful at the 2014 NIRSA Annual Conference & Rec Sports Expo. The feedback from those NIRSA members in attendance was very positive, including comments describing the education sessions as informative, inspiring, and changing the revenue-generating thought process of some NIRSA members.

Forward thinking

Mind Shift didn’t stop at conference. There is a Mind Shift Pinterest page dedicated to marketing and business development, educational sessions for the NIRSA/ACUI Collegiate Marketing Institute are in the works, and the 2015 NIRSA Annual Conference & Rec Sports Expo will again feature high-energy Mind Shift-inspired preconference and educational sessions.

Mind Shift continues moving forward daily as NIRSA members put its principles into action on campuses across North America.

As budgets are being cut across higher education, campus recreation departments under increasing pressure to not rely on university subsidies for their programming. So, where does the answer lie to solve budgetary needs? That is where Mind Shift can help.

Open your mind, be creative, and look for new and exciting ways to engage with your fellow members, students and community! Mind Shift. Early bird registration rates for this 2014 event end October 1, so start planning your attendance today!

A host of NIRSA campuses played a significant role in getting this pilot program up and running including University of California, Berkeley, Towson University, University of Southern Mississippi, Oregon State University, Kent State University, The Ohio State University, Rowan University, Sam Houston State University, Louisiana State University, Cal State University Santa Barbara, University of Arkansas, Sacramento State University, and the Team at NIRSA Headquarters. Joe Watz, Director of Marketing and Business Development at the University of California, Berkeley, and his team at Cal Rec Sports also played a key leadership role.