Putting your records to work

The short version

Your records aren't just to look at; they're a working resource for newsletters, social posts, outreach, partnerships, and reporting. The weekly Monday Morning Briefing is a good starting point, and Activity's filters let you pull exactly what you need for specific occasions.

How do I get a quick, ready-made overview?

The Monday Morning Briefing is an email summary of the week's upcoming events, recently discovered news highlights, and artist birthdays. This is an overview of your alumni or laureates' activity that doesn't require logging into Alum+.

It's a good starting point for a "what's new" newsletter. Everyone in your organisation receives it by default.

How do I find the exact records I want?

Use the filters in Activity. Narrow down to what you need (a date range, a category, a country, an instrument, a cohort year, whatever fits) until you're looking at just the records you care about.

The filtered view you create is the starting point for most of what follows. When you want to use it outside of Alum+, you can Export it as a spreadsheet (CSV) or Copy it to your clipboard. You can then use that information however you'd like.

How do I build a newsletter?

Filter Activity to the records you'd like to feature (the last month's performances, or the recent highlights) and you've got the makings of a "what's new" newsletter.

Helpful tip: copy a selection of records into an AI assistant like ChatGPT or Claude and ask it to write the items up as short blurbs. The facts come from Alum+, the first draft from the assistant, and you edit from there. For a long list, ask it to pick and prioritise what matters for your audience rather than including everything.

How do I create content for social media?

Notable achievements make easy posts: a "congratulations to…" shoutout when an alum wins a prize or joins an orchestra.

The Monday Morning Briefing is a good starting point, too, since it highlights the latest finds in close to real time. You can take information from it and post right away, or fill your social media posting calendar with events coming up on Alum+.

It's a steady stream of ready-made content to keep your channels active.

How do I keep my website up to date?

If your site has a laureates or alumni page, Alum+ is the easiest way to keep it current. It surfaces each person's latest achievements as they happen (a new orchestra appointment, a competition win, a recent recording), so you can refresh their entry instead of chasing the news yourself.

How do I prepare a PR piece on one alum?

Open their profile and use their full record history as source material: the performances, appointments, prizes and mentions Alum+ has found, all in one place, ready to shape into a bio, an interview brief, or a press note.

How do I see who's performing near me?

Open the Calendar and type a city or country into its search box to see the upcoming performances there. Use it to plan which concerts your team should attend in person, or to spot that one of your alumni is in town this week and reach out (for a meet-up, an interview, or some coverage before they move on).

How do I see where my alumni are active?

In the Directory, filter by Active in country or Active in city to see who has recently been performing where. Use it to spot a cluster of alumni in one place worth a regional get-together or reunion, or to find who's near an event you're planning.

How can records help me scout venues?

Seeing where your alumni are booked doubles as venue research. If an alum is giving a recital at a hall in a city you're targeting, you've learned that the venue exists and that it takes artists at your level. This makes it a candidate for your own organisation's concerts or tours.

How do I get stats for stakeholders and donors?

Open the Analytics tab. It turns your directory into figures for a board update, a funding report, or a donor conversation. All of the premade blocks are designed to bring your Activity feed to life with measurable numbers and statistics.

You can see, at a glance:

The same figures make a case in two directions: a competition can show its board or sponsors where its laureates have landed (which orchestras they now play in, for example); and an academy can show prospective students the career outcomes of its programme.

As with all AI-gathered information, verify anything before you publish it; see Trusting your records.

How do I find potential partners?

Analytics also ranks the organisations your alumni turn up in most (orchestras, festivals, competitions, academies, performance venues and development programmes). That's a ready-made list of institutions that already know your people and would be the natural places to look for partnerships, sponsors, or hosts for your own events.

How do I keep an eye on rising talent?

Because Alum+ follows everyone in your directory, not just your big names, it's a quiet way to watch the ones who haven't broken through yet. A past competitor or lesser-known graduate who suddenly wins a major prize will turn up in your feed just as easily as someone else more active in your Directory.