How Miami University manages 200+ student events a year with ClickUp

Miami University's Center for Career Exploration and Success, comprising 25 members, organizes over 200 annual virtual and in-person events like career fairs, seminars, and panels each year.

The abrupt transition to remote work during the pandemic exacerbated existing challenges in sharing knowledge and maintaining consistent processes.

“For a team that was new to working remotely, suddenly having to learn how to run Zoom events for the first time–from ideation to execution–was no easy task,” says Michael Turner, Associate Director, at Miami University’s Center for Career Exploration and Success.

Before adopting ClickUp, the center relied on tools like email, Google Docs, Formstacks, and in-person meetings. Unfortunately, the lack of standardized processes hindered smooth knowledge transfer when employees left, leaving new hires without clear guidance.

"When teammates left, we didn’t know the mechanics of how they got their specific tasks accomplished—we just knew that they did,” Michael says. “This left our new employees without a roadmap or even a playbook training them how to read it.”

Recognizing this gap, Miami University's Center for Career Exploration and Success sought a project management solution to consolidate resources, enhance event coordination, and ensure effective student outcomes.

Create a centralized work hub to improve transparency and student outcom

Miami University began using ClickUp in 2020, when the institution’s Division of Enrollment Management and Student Success purchased the platform. Soon, Michael’s team started leveraging ClickUp to drive collaboration, alignment, and efficiency, and it caught on quickly from there.

“ClickUp became increasingly important because of the pandemic,” he says. “Now, our whole office uses it. Our Administrative and Marketing & Communications teams took to it very fast.”

Today, the center’s Career Advising, Operations and Communications, Administrative, and Employer Relations teams leverage ClickUp to simplify event management.

1. Build and track departmental activities in one place

Knowledge transfer is no longer a challenge for Miami University career center thanks to a repository of information the event leads create using ClickUp Docs.

In addition, ClickUp Tasks serve as a hub for historical details on how each event unfolded. Some event-related tasks contain the names and contact information of presenters and guests, which Miami University can use for future invitations. Other tasks contain attendee feedback, notes from the project leads, a proposed budget, images used for marketing, and more.

2. Boost team efficiency with clear, consistent processes

The Center for Career Exploration and Success processes are now standardized and documented with ClickUp Templates. This helps the institution save time on project prep and ensure successful outcomes, with nothing falling through the cracks.

“ClickUp is how we make sure all of the steps associated with an event actually happen,” Michael says. “To achieve this, we created a template reflecting the components of a successful event in our office.”

3. Create workload transparency and visibility for leadership

ClickUp Views and Docs provide the center’s staff with a better understanding of the work that’s on other team members’ plates, an awareness of how to assist one another, and an effective way to organize meeting agendas and links to tasks. These features also deliver greater project visibility for leadership.

“I have biweekly meetings with my supervisor and we use ClickUp for our agenda,” Michael says. “I feel more on top of my game because all of my event and presentation requests live here, along with an up-to-date status indicator that she can check out.”

4. Gather deeper insights into the departmental impact on students

Since using ClickUp for event management, Miami University’s Center for Career Exploration and Success has been able to increase our campus reach to serve more students.

“We strive for high impact career programming. This can be career fairs with hundreds of employers, career chats with notable successful alumni, or strategic workshops in collaboration with faculty. I know that when we plan successful events we’re having a huge impact on our students and their career Journey. Using ClickUp has allowed our team to have made our events more effective and allowed us to organize more events,” Michael says.

Unleashing knowledge and student potential

ClickUp has become integral to the way Miami University’s Center for Career Exploration and Success has designed its digital workplace to meet the changing working conditions of the institution and the needs of its stakeholders.

“Because of ClickUp, I was able to stay organized and have some incredibly successful years despite a global pandemic and decreased student engagement across U.S. institutions,” Michael says. “Now, I’m working to help train new staff members on how I use the platform and consult with other teams on how they can leverage it most effectively.”

Michael adds that ClickUp has inspired him in many different ways, and he’s now pursuing a Project Management Professional designation.