Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/90487
anchored on a long-honored stu- dent tradition called Campout. By way of background, Duke University has a well-known men's basketball team whose home court, Cameron Indoor Stadium, has such limited seating that tickets are extremely difficult to get. Cameron Crazies, as fans are known, show their passion each fall by camping out for 36 hours in a campus park- ing lot, trying to win the right to purchase tickets via a lottery system. Throughout that weekend, campers respond to a series of "check-ins," signaling participants to run to a central tent to have their attendance recorded. If campers miss more than one check-in, they are out of conten- tion for the ticket lottery. Out of a typical Campout team of eight students, odds are that about three team members will win the lottery for tickets, which are often shared among the group. Every year, some of the Crazies are students from Fuqua's Master of Management Studies (MMS) and MBA classes. We decided to use the playful- ness of the Campout experience to increase alumni and student par- ticipation in the life of the Fuqua School. From an institutional perspective, we wanted to encour- age actions such as fund raising, volunteerism, mentorship, business development, and leadership. We also hoped to educate our alumni, especially the older ones, about the school's current strategies and pro- grams. Finally, we wanted to pro- vide an opportunity for alumni and students from different backgrounds and generations to interact around a shared passion: Duke basketball. Our virtual Campout was deliv- ered on a Web-based "parking lot" that offered campers ways to earn participation points for a limited number of days. The more partici- pation points campers earned, the more entries they received in the prize lottery. The grand prize winner and a friend would receive an all- expenses-paid trip to China with the men's basketball team. We had no trouble securing two seats on the Duke plane carrying the team, staff, alumni, and VIPs, because a key reason the team made the trip was so Duke could highlight Fuqua's global expansion. Two other lottery prizes included tickets to four home basketball games and tuition to an executive education course. Campers could win additional prizes in two more ways. Indi- viduals who were among the Elite Eight, or the highest point-earners by the end of the game, received a signed basketball from coach Mike Krzyzewski. In addition, we orga- nized players by their class cohort as long as they had at least five members playing, and we deter- mined class scores by averaging the point totals among the players. The Final Four classes with the most points received prizes—such as fac- ulty books, jump drives, and Fuqua decals—for all their players. The Rules of the Game We intended that the experience be sticky—that is, we wanted visitors to the Web site to linger a while and return often. However, we were afraid of penalizing individuals who didn't have hours to spend accumu- lating points online. We therefore required campers to complete four critical tasks to qualify for our lot- tery prizes, but we offered them chances to earn additional entries through other tasks. In the four required check-ins, players had to update their per- sonal information, share research BizEd November/December 2012 27